Students To Spread Awareness On Animal Abuse

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The 6th graders at Heritage Christian School in West Allis have come up with a project. It is called Project Citizen and as part of this project, the students have been guided through a process of finding a topic they all care about that in some way involves a government policy and then doing something about it. When it came time to decide what they were going to do to cause a change in a policy in this area, the group was relatively divided along gender lines. Most of the girls wanted to do a paper petition to send to government officials asking them to consider a law banning certain abuses with circus animals. The boys on the other hand were very interested in using a form of marketing known as "guerilla marketing" to accomplish their goals. To combine these two ideas (and bring peace within the group) they agreed that the whole group would work on a petition, but in different ways. The girls would put more focus on getting signatures on a paper petition. The boys would create a website allowing for people to sign a petition online and then use guerilla marketing to get people to go to their site. The boys will be dressing up in animal costumes and standing on the sidewalk by highway 100 and Greenfield. The group has made signs promoting their website and plan to dress up in some animal costumes they found around the school, holding signs to promote their website.

- stopcircus.notlong.com and click on the Support tab -

They started by writing Mr. MacKay (school principal) a letter which they then hand delivered to him. He asked them several questions and had them research answers to specific questions and concerns. After a couple visits to his office, Mr. MacKay did approve this. In order to gain this approval, the students had to call the West Allis City Hall and West Allis PD to make sure what they are doing is permissible. They were told that it is. They also had to find their own parent supervision during this time to be outside with them, which they did and had to contact West Allis Police Department to make their officers aware of what they were doing. After all this was done the principal, Mr. MacKay gave his blessing. The kids put a lot of hard work into this project and hope their message is heard.

The students will be out making awareness known on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12-12:45pm and 1:45-2:30 – weather permitting.