The “No Hate Tour” was an assembly that was held on April 14 of this year, and was considered a really out of left field assembly for our school.
When this assembly was announced, it was assumed it would be to solely spread a message about how to stop bullying. Instead, at the assembly, there was the main announcer, Zack “Catfish” Yankush (referred to as the short king), who introduced the bicycle motocross (BMX) riders and told the audience about his life, while the BMX riders would do tricks. During this introduction he related some of these stories to hope and good lessons – mostly about bullying and how to prevent or stop it.
The finale of the show took a few teachers and staff members and one Marine – “bodyguards” – to sit on top of the platform where the BMX rider would fly over them. Although the show didn’t focus as much on bullying, it was still an amazing show and fun.
According to the “No Hate Tour” website, it is intended to be “an incredibly impactful educational program that uses the energy and excitement of action sports to deliver critical bullying prevention tools, techniques, and information to students in a relatable, peer-to-peer manner.”
Though the tour was amazing and was definitely a fun experience, it wasn’t always clear about how the tour used “critical bullying prevention tools, techniques, and information.”
Junior Jaxson Dunphy was asked what he thought of the “No Hate Tour” assembly. “Lowey dope as hell, no clue what the stunts had to do with anti-bullying, but yeah the guys were chill and as you saw I got my T signed. But yea it was a cool assembly. Probably the only one I’ll go to.”
Rhanaia Cheth, a junior, said, “I thought it was cool. Just not helpful for bullying. I don’t think it stopped bullying at all actually. I don’t think it showed bullying. I think all we saw was cool flips.”
But besides students opinions, staff members had thoughts about the assembly as well.
Principal David Friedle said, “I thought it was a good launching point. You know. Just to get students who have a common experience. You know, how many times do we as a school get to be all in one room, and have what is, an entertaining and fun experience. Right? And the value of that, I think, you know, is big.”
Friedle brings up a good point. This assembly really was something to get students together, although it’s rare to have an assembly just to have fun.
It’s something that students would like to see more often. It gets students feeling better about going to school and makes it enjoyable in general, rather than something mandatory.
“The message of the assembly wasn’t as deep, perhaps, as I [would’ve] liked to have seen it. I [would’ve] liked to have seen it dig in a little bit more about how to be an ally, how to interrupt bullying, you know, how to report it, how to seek mental health counseling if you needed all those things. You know that wasn’t really addressed much.”
This last sentiment was shared by several teachers, who thought it was going to be an anti-bullying assembly, and it seems like the wide consensus with the show was that it didn’t really explore bullying that well.
Even though the show didn’t showcase how to deal with bullying or become an ally, would we have it next year? Or years to come? Would this same experience be good for future generations of hawks?
Friedle said, “If I were to do it again… First of all, I wouldn’t do it next year because it’s too (recent)… Not on time – everybody’s seen it. Maybe a couple years from now, but if I were to do it again, I would want to work with the group, to ask them for deeper, more meaningful discussions to occur. I would want to have some activities that happen during in advisory before the assembly so students would have it ahead of time.”
This is honestly really fair. One of the best parts about this assembly was that Terrace has rarely had an assembly like it. It was a shot in the dark for our school to bring the tour to Mountlake Terrace, and overall it seemed like it was a good decision.
Generally speaking, the “No Hate Tour” was useful. Even though it didn’t go into depth about bullying, it was still a fun experience and got people talking.
Students genuinely cheered for the BMX riders on their bikes. Students saw staff, and one Marine, almost getting hit by in the face by a BMX cycle, and much more. It seemed to make students feel a little bit more comfortable at this school.
“I think it’s hard to say, you know I don’t see an immediate cultural shift or anything. What I saw is an entire gymnasium full of kids who were smiling and laughing and having a great time and were impressed at what they saw,” Friedle said when asked about the impact the “No Hate Tour” had.
That seems to sums up how the assembly really was useful to students – it brought community of MTHS closer.
