Multimedia Assembly Draws Attention 

to Important Anti-Bullying Messages

Anti-bullying messages are often part of routine lessons, established by policy and practice within a school day, as they should be. The use of regular reinforcements in the classroom, on the athletic field, and generally, at school functions are employed to combat “bias-based bullying, harassment, and discrimination in public schools, and includes awareness and sensitivity in the relations of people including individuals of different races, weights, national origins, ethnicity, religions or religious practices, mental or physical abilities, sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions.”  Creating a culture of acceptance is in compliance with the New York State Public School DASA (dignity for all students act) Anti-Bullying Law.

However, when this very important message is combined with an amazing multimedia presentation of live actors, popular music, award-winning video production montages, it grabs everyone’s attention and leaves a long-lasting impression.

All Access Productions, a performing-arts company currently touring with an anti-bullying school assembly program, visited Sayville High School with a high-energy production that engaged the students. Skits and musical numbers told the stories of high school students suffering through the challenges of a broken home life, lack of self-esteem, peer pressure, insensitivity against each other, and cruel intolerance, all staged in a ‘school setting’ to bring the message home.

Effectively demonstrating the problems of real teen angst, the motivational-speaker's component that followed the skits offered ways to overcome the obvious problems: “To change the way we speak to other people….”  explained Dan Burd, one of All Access Productions Founders,  who lived through the pain of bullying when he was a young teen. “What we want you to understand so desperately is that your words have power. Every time we open our mouths to speak, every time YOU open your mouths to speak, you’ll do one of two things: you’ll speak words of life, or you’ll speak words of death. That’s it… Your world will change, your school will change when one of you make the decision to speak life.”

After such an invigorating presentation that made them sit up and listen, the Sayville High school students were ready to really hear the message.

As a special note: one of Sayville’s own—Class of 2015  Jamie Mas—was a participant in the All Access Productions’ professional acting troupe that was comprised of high school youth and adults from all over the country as well as Long Island.