This week at Palisade High School is Kindness is Contagious Week, or KIC Week, which is all about spreading kindness and positivity throughout our school and community. We always begin this week with a school assembly, to get all of our Bulldogs together and discuss the events and message. However, this year Palisade had the honor to have an assembly hosted by the Say Something School Assembly team, to discuss important issues going on in schools all across the nation.
Say Something is a program that travels to schools all across the country to complete its mission of making sure every student knows how to recognize and respond to issues that threaten their futures. They have reached around 1,000 schools and almost 1 million students across the nation.
Say Something uses an interactive form of presentation, that is mixed with music, engaging speakers, survivors, and powerful stories, and ends with a call to action. Our assembly consisted of three guest speakers who each shared their story and provided a powerful message that reached the heart of every person in the room that day.
To begin, some of our Palisade teachers played in a “Teacher TikTok” challenge, in which faculty such as Elizabeth Chaney and Erin Niebla learned a quick dance that the students would then vote on who was the better team.
Following this, we began to hear from our guest speakers. Andrew Dawson was one of the primary speakers and led most of the conversation. “Personally I was a youth counselor and worked with students in Montana, and then through seeing the issues that students were facing in school, we put together a program called Say Something to go in and confront these issues,” Dawson states.
The speakers went on to share their experiences and discuss important issues within schools such as addiction, suicide, and sexual abuse.
“I think our stories are really important and so if we keep that inside it builds up and becomes problems in the future, and so finding a caring adult, a trusting adult, a teacher, a counselor, or someone that we can share our innermost everything with is one of the most important things. Don’t stay silent. Always speak up and say something.” Dawson states.
Another one of the speakers was Bo Trebotich, more affectionately known as DJ Cadillac. Trebotich has been a part of the Say Something program for seven years, and “fell in love with it since day one.”
“My biggest thing is don’t let your circumstances define you. What you’re going through today doesn’t tell me who you’ll be tomorrow.” Trebotich explains.
To conclude the assembly, the team called out to all the teachers and faculty in the building to come down to the gym floor. Dawson spoke about the importance of what teachers do for students and the impact they can make in their lives.
The team then rolled out a large piece of white paper across the gym floor and encouraged students to come down and share their stories or write something kind, and to also hug one of their teachers to show their appreciation for everything they do. Dawson called out to the sea of students asking for head nods of who would be coming down first.
As soon as the team gave the okay, students came rushing down the bleachers to hug their favorite teachers. This was one of the most heartwarming moments ever at Palisade High School, with students and teachers alike in tears with arms tightly wrapped.
The assembly was the most impactful way to begin KIC week, touching the hearts of every single person in the school that day. Thank you to our Say Something Assembly team for sharing their stories with our Bulldogs, and impacting our lives forever.