CJUSD celebrating 2nd Year of “Kindness Bus”

COLTON, CA – The CJUSD Kindness Bus has come back for a second year, bringing a message of kindness, inclusion and acceptance to the communities served by the Colton Joint Unified School District.

The Kindness Bus, which was the brainchild of CJUSD Director of Transportation Erick Richardson, serves as a rolling billboard for the CJUSD Kindness Campaign.

The bus was decorated by Bloomington High School art students in Sam Gallo’s class, who also came up with this year’s theme: BE HAPPY. BE KIND.

District staff boarded the bus and visited multiple school sites on Wednesday, October 25, which is Unity Day – a day focused on anti-bullying and positive behaviors. Students were excited to see the bus pull up to their campuses and thrilled to receive stickers and bookmarks with anti-bullying messages. Schools went all out for the bus’s arrival with huge welcomes that included crowds of staff and students clad in orange – the official color of Unity Day — holding posters with positive messages.

In addition to the whirlwind tour on Unity Day, the Kindness Bus also has been visiting schools throughout October, which is National Bullying Prevention Month.

CJUSD is focusing on kindness in an effort to prevent bullying by reinforcing positive behaviors, as reflected in the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework. It is hoped that the message of the Kindness Bus will stay with students and staff throughout the year.

“Our goal is to spread kindness throughout the entire community and to remind our students and community that BEING NICE MATTERS” Richardson noted.

“As the Kindness Bus rolls through our neighborhoods, you can plainly see that it affects everyone,” Richardson said. “The smiles on faces young and old are enough to know and feel that we are promoting positive behavior in our district. We want everyone to know that we do not accept bullying of any kind.”

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