Members of Newtown High School's Best Buddies Club and its Unified Sports program recently teamed up for this year's campaign to "Spread the Word to End the Word" at the school.r-word.org, which is supported by Special Olympics and Best Buddies, the campaign asks people to pledge not to use the word "retard(ed)" because it is hurtful, exclusive, offensive, and derogatory.

The NHS Best Buddies chapter, which fosters friendships between high school students and students with special needs, has participated in the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign annually, but this year's effort was bolstered by joining with the Unified Sports program members.

According to

"They wanted to make it the biggest movement in NHS's history for banning the R-word," said Best Buddies advisor Jill Gonski.

The Unified Sports program at NHS offers competitive sports opportunities for special needs students. Students are assisted by partners, some of whom are traditional high school athletes.

According to Ms Gonski student members of Best Buddies and Unified Sports visited homerooms the first and second weeks of March to encourage their peers to sign a pledge to ban the use of the R-word.

The pledge forms, which are about 4-by-5-inch cards, were then posted by students on one of the main walls in the high school's lobby.

"Spread the Word to End the Word," the cards read. "I pledge and support the elimination of the derogatory use of the R-word from everyday speech and promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities."

Kathy Davey, co-advisor for United Sports with Margaret O'Callaghan, said student leaders for both the United Sports and Best Buddies teamed up to brainstorm this year's campaign before everything began. Ms Davey, Ms O'Callaghan, and Ms Gonski facilitated the meetings, but Ms Davey said the students were "basically advocates for themselves."

Ms O'Callaghan said another aspect of this year's campaign was making the two programs "more unified themselves," by having the student groups work together toward a common goal.

"We wanted whole-school engagement," said Allison Morrill, a NHS senior and vice president of the high school's Best Buddies chapter.

Fellow NHS senior Kyle Stubbs explained the students worked for about four days speaking in homerooms and asking students to sign.

Allison said the signed pledges were put on display in the school's lobby so everyone entering the high school would see the mission and what the students are striving for.

Kira Flynn, a senior and a peer leader for the Unified Sports program, said visiting homerooms and changing when students worked to gather pledges led to having more teachers sign the petition than in past years, when students gathered in the school's cafeteria during lunch waves to spread the message.

Rachel Crosby, a senior and president of the high school's Best Buddies chapter, said this year's campaign collected as many signatures each day than past campaigns collected in total.

The R-word, senior Dani Mola said, is demeaning and derogatory. Kyle added that the word makes people feel singled out when they hear it.

Rachel said she thinks people do not realize the impact the word has on others when it is used. Kira agreed, saying she thinks people are not educated on the word.

By Tuesday, March 15, Ms Gonski, Allison and Kira estimated they had roughly 1,034 signatures and counting.

Students who participated in the campaign to visit classrooms and ask students to take the pledge and sign were, as provided by Ms Gonski: Andrew Hsieh, Emily Charash, Megan Goyda, Dani Mola, Kayla Kordish, Jenna Gonski, Jordan Cicchesi, Rachel Crosby, Kai-li Davey, Nick Rose, Katherine Lurie, Kaitlyn McNichols, Maddie Rose, Jaclyn O'leary, Jessie Cruz, Grace Larson, Ben Suckow, Megan Kelleher, Garrett Fitzpatrick, Kyle Stubbs, Claudia Morris, Sophia Spraggins, Bridget Morrisey, Brianna Linden, Owen Grey, Silas Decker, Johnny Nowacki, Sara Kennedy, Lauren Granville, Isabel Shaw, Alli Morrill, Ashlyn DeLoughy, Brian Smith, Olivia Hamula, Jake Lapp, Timmy Rogers, Danielle Powell, Rachel Tomasino, Rebecca DiDomizio, Alexandra Chatzikonstrahtioic, Kira Flynn, Jackie Magoon, Gillian Kirlin, Katie Mossbarger, Jessie Viesto, Sara Matte, and Jillian Pieretti.