The Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at WTAMU started the campaign “Stand Up to Beat Downs” in an effort to speak out against bullying in the Amarillo area. The campaign has been on going during the entire month of February, with various awareness events.

Megg Dunlap, a Public Relations major and one of the four students on the PRSSA team, said that different student bodies across Amarillo Independent School District are being challenged to write their own “Lip-Dub” to a selected song with hopes of winning an opportunity to take over the KAMR Studio for a day. The campaign has also participated in a “Love Yourself” day where students were reminded that Valentines Day isn’t just for couples. All of these events took place to bring awareness to the cause of “Stand Up to Beat Downs”.

Lindsay Clark, a Sports Exercise Science major, recalled that bullying didn’t necessarily mean taking a punch to the gut, but usually happens with cruel and negative words.

While some students don’t believe the campaign will affect the issue of bullying, Clark believes she has the one of the only solutions to the problem.

“I think people who have been bullied know how it feels, so in turn, they don’t bully others,” Clark said.
Jae Garren, a Graphic Design graduate, noted that college was much different than high school. Garren recalled not having hardly any bullying problems at WT. She felt like people just don’t care anymore and seem to just mind their own business.

“We are a little bit more grown up I guess, which is amazing,” says Garren.

After the awareness month is over, the campaign will be issuing post-surveys to all the students who participated.