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By Riana Lurice Dazon (News) –

“I want students to know that they have the power… that their voice could be heard in the school, they have the control, and they can make an impact in people’s lives,” senior  StuCo member Han Le said. For its third year, the Lincoln High Student Council launched the RESPECT Campaign in the beginning of the second semester.

“The RESPECT Campaign is a month long campaign run by Student Council that acknowledges the different groups within LHS, and we kind of honor them,” junior Sarah Smith said.

“We try to show the student body what different communities might exist…I think it’s just kind of a way to unite the entire school as one, rather than being part of different groups within the school.”

Each week, the Lincoln High Student Council highlighted the different groups and organizations in the LHS community. This year, StuCo tried to focus on more things than in the years past; and continued the campaign until February to showcase more of the communities in Lincoln High.

This included Multicultural Week, Feminists for Change and LGBTQ+, Bullying, and Special Education – which is a new addition of the campaign. “I think that one will be really powerful just because, especially at Lincoln High, we interact with the Special Education students,” Sarah Smith says. “We just hang out with them and they are really sweet, but they still deserve that acknowledgment.”

For these weeks, the RESPECT Committee published a video every Tuesday on their YouTube Channel; in which was produced by senior Han Le. With the collaboration of the PBIS Team at the school, the teachers then show these videos at the beginning of class instead of listening to usual announcements.

“The way I do video,” Le said,  “(is that) I am not going to write anything and make you say it because it’s going to look unnatural. Like… they got pressured and they might screw up because they didn’t say it right. So, just say anything in your mind. And then, I’ll go home and figure it out. After I got all the videos, I got home and watched all of them. And then I cut them, make it logical and make sense.”

At the end of the bullying week, on January 27, 2017, the Lincoln High Student Council hosted Bands Against Bullying, a free concert that raises awareness about bullying. The event was open to the public and was held in the Ted Sorensen Theatre at 7 PM. Acts included the UNL Boots and Cats, and Bathtub Dogs, LHS Ukeladies and Histrionic, as well as the Lincoln High Illusion Theatre.

Student Council president An Dang hosted the event with introductions of different acts, and stating statistics in regards to bullying and its effects.

“I like singing for something that matters,” UNL Boots and Cats Member Stephanie Graham said after their performance. “I feel like you do a lot of gigs that just wants you to be the sense of entertainment. I feel like entertainment is a part of it, but I feel like it’s really fun to do something that matters at least once every year.”

“I think it’s an individual journey for me,” Smith said,  “but also I just want to encourage the people around me to also do this. Because I think that individuals thrive the best when the community around them is doing what they want to be doing. I think this month is just refreshing because we’re kind of taking a step back and hitting the rewind button, find the state to be compassionate.”