Troupe shares hopeful messages with Abbott Middle School in Elgin
March 04, 2013
By Emily McFarlan Miller
MWAH! troupe member Taylor Oechsel seeks responses from students at Abbott Middle School in Elgin on February 28, 2013 about people they consider as their personal heroes.
(photos by Jeremy Reed of Impact Life Photography)
For an improvisational piece about the importance of diversity, MWAH! troupe member Jake Smith seeks from the audience ideas for a story to be told by Emma Brosier, an Abbott Middle School student, and three other troupe members. (photo by Jeremy Reed of Impact Life Photography)
ELGIN – The students used large photos of Hadiya Pendleton, Trayvon Martin and the littlest victims of the school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., to tell a story about gun violence taking the lives of young people across the country.
But Luke Ballard, 17, of Rockford said, "Most of the time, the only weapons used against kids are words."
They told the story of 10-year-old Ashlynn Connor, a fifth-grader in downstate Ridge Farm, who hanged herself with a knitted scarf last year after she'd been bullied at school.
And of Dylan Wagner, a freshman at Batavia High School in Batavia, who had committed suicide in 2010. He had told several friends he was depressed, something his mother didn't learn until after his death.
They talked about recent sexual abuse cases involving Jerry Sandusky at Penn State and former band director Steve Orland at West Aurora High School in Aurora, and about the hazing at Maine West High School in Des Plaines.
Those students all are part of Messages Which Are Hopeful! Performing Arts Troupe, or MWAH!, with members from across northern Illinois including Aurora, Batavia, Wheaton and Yorkville. And they presented those messages through song and dance, scenes and stories, at an assembly last week at Abbott Middle School.
Eighth-grade language arts teacher Chris Zugel said she had invited MWAH! to Abbott because of its anti-bullying and anti-abuse messages. That fits with the school's PBIS program, which promotes good behavior, as well as the anti-bullying program it started this year, she said.
And issues like the school shootings at Sandy Hook are "issues they're aware of," Zugel said.
"We really hope the message they receive today is a positive one and makes them more aware of their actions and others," she said.
On Thursday, members of MWAH! urged Abbott students to remember real people such as Dylan and Ashlynn, as well as the characters in scenes they had acted, scenes of a boy hitting his girlfriend and another boy sharing his story of being abused by his father.
They urged acceptance – calling diversity as "an important thing in our schools that we should embrace because it makes us different and fun" – and encouraged students to reach out to school officials if they or someone they know is being bullied or abused.
"In all of these instances, each one of these people needed someone to lean on. I encourage you with your friends: Be that person," Luke said .
Abbott student Claire Raywood, 13, of Hanover Park said the presentation had moved her to tears several times – "all over my shoulder," her fellow eighth-grader Arifa Baber confirmed.
But it wasn't all a downer. The two girls had been part of a group of 30 students chosen that morning to join the troupe in a dance at the end of their presentation. Afterward, they rushed off to get their picture taken with troupe member Justice Henderson, 15, of Wheaton.
"It was inspirational, but it was fun, too," said Arifa, 14, of Elgin.