The Giving Tree: Cape Girardeau Central High students, administrator team up to combat cyberbullying with kindness

In an age of man-made social media that includes Twitter and Instagram, a symbol of the age-old struggles of youth sits outside the main office at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

It's the Giving Tree.

Fittingly, it's an artificial Christmas tree rooted in reality.

Adorned with hats, gloves, scarves and other winter apparel, its tree-topping angel is a T-shirt emblazoned with #ctkindness.

In tune with the season, the hashtag embodies a unifying spirit the students and administration have been trying to nurture in the face of divisive forces.

The words "Be Kind" is shown on the Giving Tree at Cape Girardeau Central High School part of the social media tag #CTkindness.Andrew J. Whitaker

Vice principal Leigh Ragsdale came up with the hashtag in a dark hour last spring when new-age school bullying came hurtling from cyberspace on a Saturday night.

"I got some really disturbing emails and screen shots of some severe cyberbullying going on," Ragsdale said. "It was very attacking of their character. It was unbelievable the harsh words that they said. So at that moment, on a Saturday night at about 9:30, 10, I thought, 'I've got to do something. I've got to act now before Monday morning hits.' And so young people are extremely active on social media, and that's where I thought, 'If I come up with a hashtag that's positive, maybe we can steer this in a different direction.' And that's kind of where #ctkindness was born."

The students have run with it from there, keeping the hashtag alive through such manifestations as the Giving Tree, which was their idea.

Just as important, they were there from the start.

Ragsdale was not alone in her effort on that night to combat a problem that has no boundaries in a high-tech age among a generation tethered to smart phones.

Social media accounts of students and faculty using the #CTkindness.Andrew J. Whitaker

In fact, it was the students who called the situation to her attention.

Then-sophomore Brogan Davis was competing in a swim meet in Florida when the bullying penetrated the natatorium.

Davis, a Missouri state champion swimmer who helped lead the Tigers to their first state team title this fall, had just finished competing in a race and checked his phone.

He saw notifications that several peers had followed a private Instagram account. After his first request to follow the anonymous account was denied, he was accepted.

"I was looking at it, and I was actually one of the first few posts -- I think there was two or three of me, but I don't really get offended by that kind of stuff; it's not a big deal to me, but some things they were posting about other people was, like, horrible, unbelievable stuff -- photos ..." Davis said, stopping there. "When I personally had commented on it, like, 'This is not cool,' that kind of thing, and a whole bunch of other people were [too]. So I reported all the pictures, took screen shots."

A poster for the #CTkindness at Cape Girardeau Central High School.Andrew J. Whitaker

Allison Vaughn, Central's current student-body president, was attending the Missouri Association of Student Councils state convention in St. Louis, where she had just learned about #icanhelp, a hashtag and movement designed to mobilize a support network to deal with cyberbullying and other negative problems involved with social media.

That help includes reporting a page and getting it taken down.

After seeing the posts, she used #icanhelp and also contacted Ragsdale, making her aware of an excessive number of people viewing the Instagram page.

It was a bad road she did not want to see her school go down.

"I've known other schools that have gone through it, and it's gone really downhill from there," Vaughn said.

Ragsdale started the counteroffensive on Twitter with #ctkindness, and it quickly gained traction.

The anonymous accounts, reportedly started by two former students who attended the school briefly, were taken down, and in their place sprouted "love books" for students targeted by the negativity.

Davis said there were six or seven such "love accounts," a swift response that featured a picture on Instagram of a victim about whom others could make positive comments or voice support.

"It was really cool to see that, and it wasn't just here," Davis said about positive comments that came from junior-high students, others in the district and outside of it.

The negative strike became a catalyst for camaraderie at the high school, according to senior Paeton Outman, a student council representative and Beta Club president.

"I think that we all know that love is so much stronger than hate, so when you got back to school that Monday, everybody was on, like, the right side. Like, 'We are ready to go,'" Outman said.

Davis, also the junior class president, said he could feel a vibe of unity when he walked into the building after returning to school the following Tuesday.

He said student leaders later discussed the momentum of the positive mood.

"We kind of thought, 'What can we do outside of social media and just squashing bullying?' and it came to giving stuff and caring for people," Davis said.

"I think a lot of people began to recognize the impact, that something so small that just started overnight could make," Outman said. "And more people got involved with it and wanted to bring it into their clubs, and we brought it into advisory, and we wanted to make it more knowledgeable to our entire school, and see not only how you could implement it online but how everyday we can make sure that it's on your mind, and others, and how you can impact others positively."

Since the creation of the hashtag, there have been 105 posts tagged with #ctkindness on Instagram.

The kindness initiative also is promoted on the school's Instagram account (@wearect), which has 267 followers, and Twitter account (@We_Are_CT), which has 571 followers. Some students promote the kindness initiative on their private accounts.

Sophomore class representative Isaiah Sterling has taken charge of starting school days on the right note, sending out affirmations early in the morning.

"Every day, I mostly use Twitter as a main outlet, and Instagram sometimes, but I try to post an encouraging quote or encouraging story to Twitter so my followers can see it or other people from the school," Sterling said. "And I think through that a lot of kids see that every morning, and that just starts their day off right."

In social media, sophomore Logan Perry flows counter to her quiet nature, being more visible with retweets and likes of posts she encounters throughout the day.

"She's always loyal with the retweets," Sterling said with a smile.

Ragsdale said she's heard others verbalize the notion a retweet or like of a negative comment is akin to saying it yourself. She views retweets of positives in the same vein: A retweet or like can be a fist-bump of support, providing insight into the nature of an otherwise unknown classmate.

"They know where people stand when they see them in the halls and they've retweeted all this positive stuff or shared stuff," Ragsdale said.

The momentum for #ctkindness continued with an anonymous $500 donation at the start of this school year. The money goes toward a variety of purposes, from stickers for participation and support to the purchase of a #ctkindess T-shirt for a student who doesn't have the means.

The Beta Club is among the clubs that have directed activities toward the theme, handing out personalized notes and candy to students at Halloween and even writing more positive notes when the candy had run dry, and they recently distributed 1,500 cans of food to an elderly home.

The school also held a #ctkindness challenge, which led to some students writing notes and taking hashtagged selfies with cafeteria ladies.

And then there is the Giving Tree. It started with smaller winter items on the branches, but a box was added after some students wanted to donate jackets and coats.

"To me, we want to focus on our backyard," Ragsdale said about families with needs inside the student body. "Focus on our kids that walk these hallways every day, that sit in classrooms next to them every day. If that's where the need is, then that's where it will go first."

Ragsdale said more than 200 items were donated to the tree, and they were distributed along with 75 Christmas-gift baskets to students and their families.

The #ctkindness initiative has a vision that extends beyond the Giving Tree and holiday season.

It could have a long future, as evidenced by the #ctkindness posters that hang in the hallways, provided by students at Franklin Elementary.

The high-school students took pictures of themselves hanging the posters and forwarded them to the young creators.

"We've talked about since the younger buildings are coming more familiar, trying to figure out ways to do something with the other elementary buildings," Ragsdale said about interaction between the high-school students and younger students in the district. "Those are our kids, too, because eventually, they'll be here with us. If we can instill those same things, it follows them through and hopefully prevents them from ever having to go through the moment these guys did."

jbreer@semissourian.com

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