Natalie Lueung- It all began when sophomore Katelynn Buchan thought about how many people get bullied. The opportunity to stand up was given by Genius Hour.

” I know too many people that have been bullied and I have been bullied myself. No one should should have to go through that alone, ” Buchan said.

Several English teachers have found a way to keep creativity in education. Once a week students have the time in their English class to work on their Genius Hour project.

Genius Hour is an intellectual method Google experienced with their employees where each individual employee got to use 20 percent of their work week to work on something they were passionate about. The intention was to encourage creativity while working.

To spread awareness and raise money Buchan sells purple and white shirts that read “Stop Bullying” on the front and on the back it reads “Stand Up, Speak Out, Be Strong And Stop Bullying”. During lunch Buchan sells shirts for $10 and also has librarian Renee Isom help sell them in the media center.

“Everyone needs some support and I would like to kind of help with that,” Buchan said. “Possibly someone who got bullied would sit on the bench and someone else would take the time to talk with them and become a new friend of theirs.”

Buchan plans to build anti-bullying benches at every school in the district. For now, her main goal for her project is to create a bench outside of the College Career Academy by the end of the 2014-2015 school year.