By Alannah Hancock

Simpson Says

The month of April has been a very eventful time period, from the Bulldogs of the Month, to a not-so-exciting video about “Growing Up” for the sixth graders. Every event seems to come slow for everyone though, because Summer is almost here.

Kids secretly count down the days until that one, beautiful day in June. From what I have heard, everyone has some pretty awesome plans for summer break, which now I think everyone is coming to a startling realization — it’s not that long of a wait.

So we, students, trudge through the fast and slow events at Simpson Elementary.

Our new word of the month for this umbrella-unsheathing month is “Focus.” We have so many amazing students at Simpson who show focus: In third grade are Adam Schmitz, Blaine Smith, Hailey Girard, Josie Forster and Kayla Rux; in fourth grade, Aaron Torres, Masen Albert, Royce Gourdin and Wyatt Garrison; in fifth grade, Ava Schrader, Carsyn Wintrip, Jesse Bradshaw and Pierce Gleason; in sixth grade, Faith Marshall, Ellie Robbins, Emily Schallon, Gavyn Purdy and Lilly Causey.

We all feel very ambivalent to the many of us sixth graders waving goodbye to Simpson to move on to the big, scary, world of Junior High. But we will be brave, and survive. As fifth grows to sixth, the fourth having to shift to not having three field trips a month (an exaggeration) to maybe only two a year… We have had Mrs. Wisdom do her powerful job of making us see the most out of the word of the month, doing various exercises with us, and turning that boring, old word into something fun, not just a bore of our time.

All the students at Simpson thank you for helping us learn to be an upstander, not a bystander— to the world. On the topic of what Mrs. Wisdom has done for our community — she’s introduced us to Simpson’s “Pink Shirt Day.” It’s a small event that took place on May 1, in schools all around the nation. Students wear a pink shirt in support of removing bullying.

The tradition of Pink Shirt Day started in Canada, when a boy wore a pink shirt to school and bullying ruined the rest of his day. Two other boys who had witnessed the bullying, decided that that was not okay. So they decided to do something about it. After school, the boys traveled to a local thrift shop and bought many pink shirts for them and their friends. The next day, the boys and all their friends showed up in pink shirts. They made the boy who had been bullied stand in awe and shock, as he realized he wasn’t alone.

Alannah Hancock is a sixth grader at Simpson Elementary in Ms. Irving’s class.