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South Valley Riverton Journal

Herriman High School Has a CURE for Bullying

Dec 07, 2015 11:16AM ● By Aimee L Cook

By Aimee L. Cook

South Valley - Herriman High School, under the direction of teacher and coach, Lisa Jensen, took on the issue of bullying last year in a fun but productive way. This year, they took it even a step further.  

The theme last year was “Everybody has a story.”  This year, they wanted to create an action to go along with the fact that everyone has a story. The approach is not to focus on just not being a bully, but instead is to focus on how to be the CURE and to be good people. 

CURE stands for C=Courage, U=Unity, R=Revolution and E=Empowerment.

“We are trying to show people that it is ok to stand up for who you are. You are the only version of you,” Jensen said. “We are still human, we are still flawed but that everyone in this school is part of this movement, to provide a culture at our school of good people.”

There are 30 ambassadors on the CURE program but Jensen hopes that all students will see themselves as an ambassador. The ambassadors are expected to lead by example and help put an end to bullying. 

Lunch time activities were provided throughout the week leading up to the CURE assembly and were themed after what CURE stands for.  For Courage, they played minute to win it games, for Unity they took selfies with fun props, for Revolution they sang karaoke and for Empowerment they created a large ball pit for students to sit in with a stranger and chat. 

During the assembly, the ambassadors got the party started, so to speak, with a flash mob to the music “Thriller.”  Jensen rode out on an air board and spoke to the students about being who they are, and the idea that all the students have a ‘dis-ease’ at the school and they can be the CURE.

“High school is a state of dis-ease for everyone. It’s awkward, you are trying to figure out who you are, etc.,” Jensen said. 

Garrett Cook, a recent graduate of Herriman and a student body officer of the school, was a special guest speaker. Garrett is a young man with Down’s Syndrome and he gave a heartfelt presentation about empowerment. He spoke about how important it is to include everyone and make them feel loved.

Junior April Kerr, one of the CURE ambassadors, closed the assembly with a song she wrote about a personal experience. She felt that the students really got a lot out of the assembly and it helped to bring the student body closer after a fellow student passed away two days later in a car accident.  

“I actually wrote the song as an assignment for one of my classes,” Kerr said. “I wanted to write about bullying, because it is something I experienced in middle school. It was very personal to me, it was my story, which went along perfectly with our theme.”             λ