Clinton Students create an Anti-Bullying Facebook Page - CBS4 - WHBF Quad Cities, IL-IA News Weather Sports

Clinton Students create an Anti-Bullying Facebook Page

By: Christine Souders

csouders@cbs4qc.com

Students in Clinton respond to this week's case of cyber bullying.  Their response? Creating a facebook page designed to encourage classmates instead.

We first bought you the story on Thursday about a facebook page made by kids from Washington Middle School to publicly make fun of other students, but shortly after that site went down, another facebook page went up called WashingtonPeople Rock.

"I created it so we could help people be more confident about themselves, help them to realize how bad bullying is," said Paula Sceden, an 8th Grader at Washington Middle School.

Paula said she and her friends were inspired by the facebook page used to poke fun at her fellow classmates to spin negative into a positive.

"Because there was a lot of people who posted on our wall messages saying, hey you're inspiring, thank you , your awesome,"said Paula. 

"If we were to say something amazing about them on facebook, these people would realize, hey maybe I shouldn't be that mean to that girl because maybe she doesn't feel very good afterwards, " said Destiny Schoenfeld, who followed Paula's lead to help post supportive messages on the page.

They made the anti-bullying page on facebook shortly after the other site got shut down. WashingtonPeople Rock is where students can write uplifting posts to discourage cyber bullying.

"We're going to take care of it in a positive way, rather than showing this person they can get to us by wanting to hurt them," said Destiny.

It's only been a day since WashingtonPeople Rock was launched, and now the facebook page has more than 100 friends, and the helping feeling is becoming contagious.

"It made me feel good last night that I was posting stuff and helping people. I went to bed happy last night, I slept good," said 8th Grader Tim Lindquist.

Paula and her friends said they will continue writing positive messages on facebook, at least until the bullying stops.

The students said their page has even started a chain reaction among other kids at their school.  They said some students have created other anti-bullying theme facebook pages.