Claremont
Students exited moments later. Some boarded buses, others crossed the street to their cars or began their walk home.
It was an uneventful dismissal, as the group of about a half-dozen residents who called for an anti-bullying demonstration had moved several hundred yards away to nearby Broad Street Park after school officials at a Wednesday night meeting said they were worried about the negative impact such a showing could have on students.
Resident Erica Sweetser, who organized the event on Facebook, said she was told by some parents and staff that the original plan to stand in front of the high school may be unsafe.
“Adults with signs could be considered a form of bullying,” Sweetser said while holding her poster in the park on Thursday. “Being here, at least I can compromise.”
Sweetser was joined by a few others, including School Board member Patrick Adrian, who held a sign that said, Kindness and Courage. At Wednesday night’s School Board meeting, Adrian had a heated exchange with the board’s vice chairman, Chris Irish, when he attempted to speak in support of Sweetser’s objectives for the demonstration.
Sweetser on Thursday said her purpose was not to put pressure on the schools to step up anti-bullying efforts, but to assist the schools in their endeavor.
“It is not the schools’ responsibility (solely),” Sweetser said. “So if we don’t do something, nothing will change.”
Anyone, student or adult, was welcome to sign the posters as a pledge against bullying, but demonstrators made it clear they were not actively soliciting signatures.
While Sweetser held her poster on the sidewalk across from the park, two sixth-grade students stopped to look at the poster on their way home from school. She politely asked their opinion about the need to stop bullying, and both students agreed it was a good idea.
“Awesome,” one boy said as he signed the poster. “I think this will help,” said the other, who also signed his name.
Sweester said they were not sure what they would do with the posters, but said she was pleased with the number of signatures from students.
“I think it is pretty awesome we got as many kids to sign as we did,” Sweetser said by phone on Thursday night. “I’m not sure how many signed them, but one poster was completely full.”
Makita Miller, who was holding a poster in the park with a few signatures while her 2½-year-old daughter, Janelle, sat in a stroller nearby, said her son was bullied at the middle school last month. He now is being home-schooled.
“Lately it has been about race,” Miller said, referring to the alleged hanging incident in late August involving a biracial Claremont boy and some teenagers. “But there is an underlying problem of bullying here.”
Miller said she was only planning to hold a poster and did not intend to engage any passing students.
“I wasn’t going to pressure anyone to sign,” she said.
Outside of the school, Principal Pat Barry said she had not heard from the group prior to dismissal on Thursday following her comments at the School Board meeting, where she expressed concern about the potential impact on students if there were police and media members present at the demonstration.
Barry said she was hoping to have heard at the meeting what organizers were planning to do on Thursday, but when Sweetser and two others she attended with left the meeting without speaking to the board, it left Barry wondering if the students were going to be approached and asked to sign the posters.
“That is what made me uncomfortable,” Barry said.
If there was going to be a large group with police and media present, Barry said, a number of students said they would prefer to leave school through another exit.
At a meeting of Student Voice — a group of pupils that Barry said meets with staff to discuss student-related issues — Lexi Grenier, who also is the student representative to the School Board, said students “did not want to be exploited,” Barry said.
At the park, resident Suzie Gordon said she felt the alleged hanging was an incident separate from the issue of bullying in schools and said that weekly anti-bullying demonstrations might be helpful.
“We are not out here to force anyone to sign,” Gordon said as a driver yelled, “Stop the bullying!” out the window on his way around the park.
“It is a positive thing. We want to do something positive to make things better here,” Gordon said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
