Students Honored for Anti-Bullying Poster Designs

Picture this: The world is a puzzle filled with interconnecting different pieces. Now remove one of those pieces and watch everything begin to crumble.

That is the image about to become very familiar at Royal Oak High School. It's the winning design of Austin Carter for the school's anti-bullying poster contest.

"I wanted to show that we're all different but we have this connection, and we shouldn't bully each other and disconnect the puzzle," Carter said.

For his winning poster, School Liaison Officer Steve Teichow handed Carter the grand prize—an iPad mini.

Artists Kelly Audito, Tula Porterfield, Tomas Abrams and Maddie Bolton were also recognized for their submissions.

The poster competition is the brainchild of the anti-bullying committee, which consists of Teichow, Carrie Laurence, a counselor, and Vern Ratliff, a physical education teacher. 

"The contest is obviously to raise awareness," Teichow said. "Bullying, including cyber-bullying, is just crazy. There were 37 entries and the three of us picked the top five. We interviewed the students about their vision and we thought their ideas were fantastic. It made it that much more difficult to pick a winner."

Carter's winning poster will be duplicated and distributed around the school.

Jason Stiltner, the Royal Oak Memorial Society and Bryan Edy contributed funds to purchase the prizes, which also included gift certificates.