Team Upstanders inducts, celebrates 21 new members

Team Upstanders at Deer Lakes Middle School has 21 new members who were recently inducted and celebrated at a schoolwide assembly. Upstanders serve as campuswide ambassadors helping to support the school’s bullying prevention efforts. Four high school Upstanders – freshman Joshua J., sophomore Jordan Aa, junior Rebekkah M. and senior Shaun B. – represented each class of the Deer Lakes Upstanders family at the assembly.

Shaun delivered the Team Upstanders senior address, an annual Team Upstanders tradition.

“(Being an Upstander) is about choosing courage over comfort, using your voice when silence would be easier and waking up every day thinking to yourself, ‘How can I make a difference even when no one is watching?'” Shaun said. “…Being an Upstander is going to force you out of your comfort zone, and that’s OK. Sometimes you have to step in when a classmate feels left out, and sometimes you have to listen when someone really needs to be heard.”

Shaun spoke about how being an Upstander prepared him to be a leader in the marching band, on the football team and in the classroom.

“To the new class of Team Upstanders, you don’t have to wait to be a member to do the right thing,” Shaun said. “You already have what it takes to be an Upstander. It might feel weird. It might feel silly. I wouldn’t change my opinion (of what being an Upstander has meant to me) no matter what.”

Families of the newly inducted Upstanders attended and pinned their child with the Upstanders pin after taking a pledge to remind Upstanders to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem when it comes to bullying. The interactive assembly reminded students of the help and support that Team Upstanders represents and that everyone can make a difference.