Planning an Anti-Violence Assembly at a Middle School

So you've been tasked with having to put together an assembly at your middle school and you have no idea where to start. You are not alone because many Educators are in the same boat. In fact, recently with the increase on media exposure related to bullying in schools, many are running around frantic trying to figure out what steps to take to protect their students.

Here is a list of steps to take when planning a school assembly:

• Figure out what issue has been apparent within the student body.


• Be proactive as well and have assemblies that focus on anti-violence or school bullyingSet a date with the Principal and make sure she/he is on boardCreate a small committee to look for speakers who can connect with teens


• Review the speaking demo of each youth speaker


• Consider a bullying speaker who is immersed in the topic


• Set a budget for a speaker, hire a good one


• Get a contract in place with the speaker


• Promote the event at the school

You might be asking yourself why you should hire a speaker. You hire from the outside because you want for that person to be a neutral person who can say the hard stuff that no one in the school is willing to say. Speakers know that they are saying the same thing that teachers say but they are more about connecting with teens first before relating a positive message.

The reason why you want to have a school assembly is so that the message can be presented to all students and faculty and so that everyone can be on the same page. The last thing you want is for one grade level to have valuable information and for the rest of the school to be ignorant of what they could have learned. So this may mean that a class gets cancelled so everyone can attend a school assembly but it will be worth their time and yours.