North Carolina Teens Join Together Against Bullying

In North Carolina, teens are joining together to stand up against bullying. As part of the Salisbury Police Cadet Program, teens are joining youth court participants in making an anti-bullying video. 
The Salisbury Police Cadet Program is for young people ages 13 to 21 who are interested in a career in law enforcement. As cadets, they learn about the criminal justice system while gaining life skills and mentoring. This year, they are partnering with local teen court participants and Reclaiming Futures Rowan County.
Teen Court is a program that allows first-time teen offenders to be "tried" by their peers for misdemeanors. Teens serve as attorneys and jurors, while local attorneys serve as judges. Sentences given out through teen court often consist of restitution and community service, with a focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment.
From the Salisbury Post:

The first project for the new cadets is to make an anti-bullying video. The cadets, along with volunteers from Youth Services Bureau’s partner group Reclaiming Futures, came up with the video concept and wrote the script for the video. There is a twist to the video that the students decided to include, an alternate ending...
Daniel Sevigny is project director of Reclaiming Futures and program director of Restorative Justice, a program designed to reduce recidivism. Sevigny guided the group along with Cooper to create and execute a video concept.
Sevigny said the students realized sometimes bullying can end tragically or happily.

Congratulations to Reclaiming Futures project director Daniel Sevigney for his role in helping young people stand up to bullying! Stay tuned for updates on this great project. 

Liz Wu is a Digital Accounts Manager at Prichard Communications, where she oversees digital outreach for Reclaiming Futures and edits Reclaiming Futures Every Day. Before joining the Prichard team, Liz established the West Coast communications presence for the New America Foundation, where she managed all media relations, event planning and social media outreach for their 6 domestic policy programs. Liz received a B.A. in both Peace and Conflict Studies and German from the University of California at Berkeley. She tweets from @LizSF.
 
 
 
 *Photo at top by Flickr user artworksbytb