BY ROD HANSEN

No sticks. No stones. No dissing.

It’s a simple message, placed on stickers and banners as well as  badges worn by Mountain View Middle School staff  during the school’s annual “No Name-Calling Week.” The message falls into line with the week’s goal of fostering tolerance among classmates.

“We’re trying to teach students that respect is the most valuable thing they can have for each other. We want them to focus on the positive, and be aware that the words you use have consequences,” said Mountain View Assistant Principal Fred Deppe.

The power of words is a central theme of No Name Calling week, which extends this year from Feb. 15 to 22.

Activities of the week include beginning each day with a song that teaches a lesson of tolerance. A typical song of the week was “Don’t Laugh at Me,” a work that has itself spawned a movement with its chorus of, “Don’t laugh at me, don’t call me names; Don’t get your pleasure from my pain...Don’t laugh at me.”

The week also featured a series of guest speakers, including Goffstown News Executive Editor Ginger Kozlowski, Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood and Lloyd Doughty, a retired Manchester police sergeant who served as an instructor and mentor in that city’s DARE program.

Addressing students through the school intercom on Friday, Feb. 16, Doughty delivered a message about the dangers of teasing and bullying. Also in his speech, Doughty offered a quote from poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, saying, “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

With his background of 28 years in the Manchester Police Department, Doughty said he had vast experience in handling conflicts among a wide range of individuals.

Initiatives such as DARE and No Name Calling week provide valuable training in how to deal with the touchy situations they’ll encounter in life, Doughty said.

“Something like No Name Calling week allows students to get more information about situations they find themselves in, and gives them the skills to be able to work their way through it. And young people should be aware, there’s always an adult nearby who is willing to help them,” Doughty said.

In his current position as security manager for the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, Doughty said he has seen instances in which the lessons of No Name Calling week can apply to adults as well as children.

“My experience is, words that aren’t meant to be provocative can lead to an altercation,” Doughty said.
Some of the activities of No Name Calling week address that very issue, including an optional “just kidding”
lesson in which students learn the difference between friendly teasing and harmful taunting.

Now in its second year, No Name Calling Week is a national program aimed at ending bullying through education and activities for students in the middle school age range.

Mountain View students also took part in No Name Calling week by designing their own posters, which featured messages of kindness and understanding.

Seventh-graders Toby Perry, Katelyn Laplante and Emma Sweeney worked together on a poster decorated with words such as “giving,” “care,” “please” and “bless you.”

“They’re all nice words, and we wanted to show people the nice part of being in school,” said Sweeney.