SL Parade on March 10
Junior Miguel Gomez cuts colorful sheets of construction paper that will have a pledge about discrimination on it. The signed pledge stripes of paper will hang from the float made by the student leadership students.
February 16, 2016
Coach Vickie Benson’s student leadership class is planning a parade on March 10 as their No Place for Hate project.
The parade will take place during an extended FIT that will be 45 minutes. The parade will start in the courtyard and end up going around the whole campus. The class has been planning since September and hopes they have done enough planning to get the entire school involved.
“This event could be really neat if Bowie students embrace it,” junior Aleka Neptune said. “I’m hoping this will be a positive influence.”
The goal is to bring awareness to a serious topic that occurs at the school on a regular basis.
“The leadership class is trying to bring awareness to bullying issues,” Neptune said. “We want to promote and celebrate differences and to fight discrimination.”
Before the parade, there will be a rally to get students pumped up to march.
“The class is trying to unite our students and bring awareness to our campus that we have students who are isolated,” Benson said. “By participating in the parade, the idea is to keep that from continuing to happen.”
Other organizations, like the drumline, Silver Stars, and cheerleaders are going to march in the parade, but first the leadership class had to get the parade plan approved by principal Stephen Kane.
“I helped present our plan to Mr. Kane to get our idea approved and I’ve been contacting a few Bowie organizations to see if they want to march in the parade,” Neptune said.
Students of all grade levels will create a banner about a certain topic that has to do with discrimination in their social studies classes. The winning banner for each teacher will be given the opportunity to march in the parade.
“I think the competition is a great way for my classes to bond,” social studies teacher Patricia Maney said.
Even though some planning issues occurred, the class is determined to make this new tradition a success.
“I love being able to put together something that hasn’t been done before,” Benson said. “I really love a challenge, and this project definitely has its challenges.”
