Mrs. Lewis, the Super Friends, and P.A.L. are joining forces to celebrate not saying the R-word.  The R-word is “retarded” this is a very derogatory word and all negative words in general do hurt people, even if they do not show it on the outside.  The National holiday is on March 7th, but here at Cypress we are celebrating Friendship week starting March 5th and ending March 9th.  We do this every year to raise awareness of how saying negative words like these are hurting those around us, even the special needs students who attend this school.  P.A.L. is going to have a signing in the quad March 7th so that we can all take the pledge to end the R-word.  You can also make your own pledge or take a pledge on www.saynototherword.com which is a site dedicated to this very worthy cause.

“Everyone in the community needs to learn to speak with care and be aware of what words come out of their mouths, because of how some words can really hurt those around us even when we don’t notice it,” says Mrs. Lewis.  She continued, “People in general have unique skills and we all have battles we need to face. The special needs kids are just like everyone else, they want to belong and make friends. Words like the r-word are very hurtful and some of them can’t respond to it.”  P.A.L. is helping out a lot also, by organizing sales of rubber band bracelets and shirts that “Spread the message about the r-word, and hopefully we can get everyone at Cypress to wear them,” says Ms. Ursich, who is the teacher that organizes P.A.L. and Super Friends club.

Volunteers and T.A.s, along with others who interact with the special needs kids, are heroes in their own way. They help the special needs students to gain social skills and make friends, which is very important to them and is appreciated very much. They will also start working on their annual mini-prom and having a bake sale to raise money, so be sure to eat some sweets and support.

Everyone at Cypress can be a hero and make a difference in the world around us by participating in not saying the R-word or even going a step beyond and stop saying all negative words that hurt people around us.  Together we can start a revolution and make the whole world a better place, what better way to start this change than together?

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