Massapequa High School students combined their creative talents to show elementary students positive ways to deal with adolescent social issues. The high school’s Chief’s Challenge Club, whose mission is to improve school culture, performed a series of skits that were written and directed by students in Denise Curiale’s Theatre Arts class to sixth graders from East Lake and Unqua elementary schools. The skits centered on bullying and up-standing (standing up to bullying), family dysfunction, gender issues and other topics endemic to adolescents. After the sixth graders watched the performances, the Chief’s Challenge Club members facilitated a “breakout session” to help youngsters process what they saw and how the skits impacted them.
“It was a great opportunity for high school students to reach out to younger students and make a difference in the life of a someone who may be acting as a bystander or a victim of bullying and to gain awareness of many other issues the young students are struggling with,” said Joanne Waters, Massapequa High School social worker who co-advises the Chief’s Challenge Club with Eileen Lind, a high school guidance counselor. “The feedback was very positive. The students asked a lot of questions and the high school students did a great job relating to the younger students. The project also reinforced the Chief’s Challenge Club mission to ‘spread kindness, respect and civility to the school and community’.”
