Local school takes stand against green shirt bullying - KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

A local school decided to get involved after the green shirt bullying controversy surfaced just last week after an incident at Oak Park Middle School.

Green. The popular color Wednesday at LeBlanc Middle School in Sulphur. But why? All to stand up to bullies.

"It's not right to bully kids, because it's just a kid," said 7^th grader Kennedy Hebert. "You're not supposed to be mean."

In the past bullies took pride in calling others names and harassing them for wearing a green shirt to school, even though it's allowed by the uniform policy. At LeBlanc Middle School, if you wore a green shirt, you could wear jeans.

"We want our students to be aware that bullying is wrong," said principal Joe David. "It takes a lot of courage to say no to a bully and to put a stop to it, especially if you see someone else doing it. By wearing their green shirts today, they're recognizing that they so want to stand up and say bullying is wrong."

Some students at LeBlanc Middle School say they knew about the green shirt bullying issue prior to now. But many just avoided wearing the color.

But while students may have been aware, teacher Kevin Abshire said he had no idea about the green shirt issue.

"Honestly, I did not know, and I have not seen it at our school at all," said Abshire.

But once he found out, he refused to stand back and do nothing. So he brought the issue to the students in his classroom.

"They wanted to sit back and do something to show ‘hey, we're not going to put up with the bullying,'" said Abshire.

Hebert hopes their actions Wednesday will influence others in the future.

"Seeing us try to stop bullying, maybe kids will see kids do care about other kids," said Hebert. "So it'll stop."

For Hebert the bullying issue is something she's familiar with.

"I have gotten bullied in the past," said Hebert. "I just want to tell the bullies that it's not funny, and it's not fair to other kids."

David said it did help that green is one of LeBlanc's school colors. He hopes other schools follow their lead by hosting a similar dress day for their students. He also added that the faculty and staff at LeBlanc are trying to implement other positive programs to influence the students. One of those programs is called Raiders Recycle. With the help of Mayor Chris Duncan, the students are learning to recycle things at school.

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