by Maya McFadden The New Haven independent
Holding banners reading “Don’t Judge, Just Love” and “Be a Buddy, Not a Bully,” King/Robinson School students chanted “Kindness Counts” while marching down Fournier Street for a school-wide celebration promoting compassion and inclusion.
That was the scene Friday morning during the Newhallville school’s third annual celebration of kindness and anti-bullying.
Kindness took to the streets in the form of banners, chants, and music all made in King/Robinson’s PreK-8th grade classrooms. While the pre-schoolers cheered on the older students from the school’s parking lot, kindergarten through eighth grade students marched with a simple but loud message that Newhallville neighbors cheered for from their front porches.
Friday’s marchers were escorted down Fournier Street by the New Haven Police Department and stepped to the tunes of the school’s small but mighty band led by Michael Roberson, the school’s band director.
Roberson, who has been at King/Robinson since 2007, is working to build up the middle school’s band, but first must find a way to incorporate practice into the school day since the school’s band was partially phased out during the Covid pandemic. He also currently teaches general music classes. Before the band of seven began cycling through the few musical cadence practices before the school day’s start, Roberson said he pulled inspiration from Hillhouse’s high school band.
Students marched Friday holding banners made to represent a “kindness quilt” noting daily acts of kindness one can take, like smiling at someone.
Roberson and King/Robinson students keep the beat Friday.
Sixth grader Peyton Jackson said the half-hour march was an important step toward ending bullying in schools. Jackson played the snare drum in the school’s band Friday.
Alongside Jackson was sixth-grader Thinlay playing the trumpet. “We need to teach others to be more kind so the world can be better,” he said.
King/Robinson Principal Tessa Gumbs-Johnson said the annual march is a concrete way of showing students and the community the true meaning of ending bullying.
“We talk so much about ‘stop bullying,’ but what is the true meaning of that,” she said Friday.
By hosting the march in the community, Gumb-Johnson said the school isn’t just telling its students the importance of standing beside your community, but also showing them what that looks like.
Staff, parents, and neighbors cheer on Friday’s march.