Norup Students Choose Kindness

By Abby C.

A few months ago, an anonymous person put up sticky notes around the top and side borders of the mirror in the upstairs girls’ bathroom. They said things like “beautiful,” “amazing,” and “wonderful.” A few hours later, there were five sticky notes added, filling in the rest of the border. These new ones said things like “don’t care what they say!” and “You’re incredible!” Between the five new sticky notes, there were two distinguishably different handwritings. Someone also had written the letters “ur” (meaning “you are” or “you’re”) before all of the original sticky notes which had featured adjectives without attaching them to a person. 

Then, on Friday, February 10th, they were all taken down. The most widely accepted explanation is that the janitor took them down to clean the mirror. Several girls responded by putting up more sticky notes on the wall surrounding the mirror, and by the end of the day on Monday, there were dozens of positive messages decorating the wall. However, several of these had also been taken down as of Tuesday, and they had all been removed by Wednesday. This raises the possibility that someone is purposely taking down the sticky notes.

Even though the movement of putting positive messages in the bathroom has faced a couple minor bumps in the road, Norup students continue to try to make others smile. This is a big difference from a neighboring school just ten minutes away where there was a noose put up in the bathroom and white students chanted “Build That Wall!” in the lunchroom in front of Latino students.

Norup students are reacting to the division in our country with love and support instead of hate, and that can make all the difference for our students.