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Antibullying advocate addresses Glendale Rotarians

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When Yvonne St. John-Dutra co-launched her first high school event to strengthen students’ social and emotional bonds in 1987, the captain of the football team embraced an overweight female classmate he had teased in the past.

It was then that St. John-Dutra, who had once been teased for similar reasons, began to heal, she said during a Glendale Rotary Club event on Thursday.

“We knew this would be our life’s work,” St. John-Dutra told club members and several Glendale school officials during a luncheon sponsored by Adventist Health Glendale.

Challenge Day, the daylong experiential event St. John-Dutra created with her husband, Rich, has since been spotlighted by Oprah Winfrey and MTV, and implemented in 2,500 schools in nearly every state in the United States and around the world, including Canada, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands and, most recently, India.

One of those schools is Eleanor J. Toll Middle School in Glendale, where the program is held twice a year. The next one, for eighth-graders, is coming up on Oct. 8.

“It’s very powerful to see kids who might not have a history of being close, or might even have a history of not getting along, come together for a day and be real with one another, be authentic, be vulnerable, and just connect,” Toll principal Thomas Crowther said.

Previously participating in the program when he was at John Muir Middle School in Burbank, Crowther said that when he joined Toll around 2015, “I thought right away that our student body and our campus culture could benefit from having a Challenge Day.”

This fall marks the school’s seventh — and Crowther’s 15th — Challenge Day.

Because of the state’s tendency to lean progressive, there’s “more advancement in acceptance of diversity” here, said St. John-Dutra, a Northern California native.

But ultimately, across regions, “on the inside, we’re so much more alike than different,” she said. “Once they get an opportunity, the kids here are the same as everywhere else. Their hearts open up.”

Both victims of bullying as young adults, St. John-Dutra said she and her husband were inspired to create Challenge Day to spare their four children the same grief.

Since co-creating the program 30 years ago, St. John-Dutra said she’s seen some abatement of homophobia, once one of the “biggest pains.” However, LGBTQ teens are still most at risk for suicide, she said.

Lately, she’s seen a rise in girl-on-girl aggression, so she has added more female-empowerment elements to the program.

Blaming the tense national political climate, St. John-Dutra said she’s also seen more separation in schools along political allegiance, and schools have been requesting programs to address the issue, she said.

Toll’s goal is taking the positive growth sparked by the program and finding ways to sustain it, and “we’re always looking for new ways,” Crowther said.

Glendale Council PTA president Monna Johnson asked St. John-Dutra how to do just that given schools’ sometimes limited resources.

One way to create lasting change is to implement systemic service, St. John-Dutra said. Students are also encouraged to start what she calls a Be the Change team to keep the program’s core goals alive.

Currently, there is talk to expand the option to host the program at all of Glendale Unified’s middle schools, Crowther said.

lila.seidman@latimes.com

Twitter: @lila_seidman

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