Chloe Wilson has seen her fair share of bullying going on in the classrooms she visits as the regional 4-H extension agent, and this year has been no exception.

Every month, Wilson and 4-H Agent Lisa Towe travel from school to school, bringing relevant activities into the classrooms of fifth and sixth graders. Since October is National Bullying Prevention Month, it was only natural for the two women to focus recent activities on bullying.

According to the National Bullying Prevention Month website, www.pacer.org/bullying, one out of five students reported they were bullied in 2016. The site also highlights that bullying is most prevalent in middle school and can lead to anxiety, depression and in extreme cases, suicide.

Towe wanted to come up with a way to connect with students on the issue. After doing some online research, she came across a unity circle. The circle consists of numerous posts dug into the ground and connected to one another by string. In the center stands a single post, representing unity. The posts on the periphery are each labelled with a different saying that students might use to describe themselves.

Yesterday, Wilson and County Extension Coordinator Chris Becker showed up early in the morning to set up one of these unity circles at Creekside Elementary. The labels included things like, “I like pizza,” “I yell ‘War Eagle!'” and on a more serious note, “I’ve been bullied.”

Throughout the day, 4-H youth council members walked Creekside students through the circle, stopping at each post and asking them if the label hanging from it applied to them. If it did, the child would take a piece of string and walk it to the middle, where Wilson would wrap it around the center post.

By the end of the day, those once dangling lines of string came together like spokes of a wheel. Some posts only had a few strings leading into the center, but others — particularly the ones about being bullied or being a bully — had many.

“The circle is a visual reminder to our kids that they may not like someone, but they probably have all sorts of things in common with them, like a love for pizza,” Towe said. “Once they understand that, it makes it harder for them to be mean to each other.”

The circle is also designed to help students open up and talk about their bullying experiences, whether it was physical, verbal or cyberbullying. Wilson partnered one student per council member in the hopes of further encouraging students.

“It’s cool to get them by themselves, because they are more apt to say what’s really on their mind, and a lot of times it creates a connection,” Wilson said.

“We want them to know that we are their friends,” Alexis Steele said. Steele is an eighth grader and 4-H council member. “Bullies want to make you think that you are alone, but we want them to know that they are not — that we are there for them.”

Unity circles will be popping up at school campuses in the city and county through the end of the month.