Leah Pefkaros
From February 12-16, Brighton High School’s club Project Unify hosted a Respect Week to showcase why it's important to be kind to your peers. Project Unify is made of a group of dedicated students that are charitable, considerate, and eager to bring about change.
This is the second year Respect Week has been going on at Brighton High School. It was developed when the school became a Special Olympics Unified Champion School.
Having this type of program, promotes social inclusion in schools to bring forth a socially inclusive school climate that emphasizes acceptance, respect and human dignity for all students. A socially inclusive school is a place where no student is excluded because of the degree or type of disability or the services required to meet his/her needs.
Respect has many different meanings for everybody. Teachers and principals have their own outlook on the value. The Project Unify director, Jody Renicker believes in a certain connotation.
“The word respect means different things to different people. To me, respect means accepting everyone for who they are. It's about accepting and valuing others despite our differences,” Renicker said.
Not everyone understands how to teach kindness. Yet, they’re so many people out there including Jody Renicker and Principal Henry Vecchioni that can help give a few tips.
“The best way to be kind to others is to just treat them the way you want to be treated. That been something I’ve lived by my entire life,” Vecchioni said.
“The most powerful tool to teach kindness is demonstrating kindness in every part of your life. You’ll never regret being kind,” Renicker said.
By just being polite and considerate can have a huge impact. This effect has even been seen around Brighton High School by Principal Henry Vecchioni and Educational Assistant Kris Sinacola.
“What I’ve noticed in the last few years is that there's more respect student to student. I see more students accepting others even with their differences and I’ve found that our hallways tend to be a little bit more calming and positive,” Vecchioni said.
“If you give respect, you get the respect back. I’ve even noticed that more of the kids in the hallways are being more respectful with not crowding the hallways and letting others get through,” Sinacola said.
The long term goal of Respect Week is for students and staff to really recognize the importance kindness has and apply it where ever they go. It's about doing it throughout the future so that actions can also be influential for others to be respectful.
One event that took place during the week to help spread awareness and bring about a time of laughter and fun was the Brighton Unified basketball game. This was on Wednesday, February 14th at 7:00pm at Brighton High School in the field house.