Kids Still Tired of Swearing

Bremerton High School Campaign Grows

Madonna Hanna says her school's Dare Not To Swear (DNTS) campaign "continues to be an incredible ride." Kids still feel they benefit from the pledges against profanity - they swear less themselves and they feel better being in an environment that's free of hostile language.

Bremerton, Washington
The idea for Dare Not to Swear came from Hanna and seniors in her Advanced Fashion Marketing class. For their final project, the students surveyed their high school's students, teachers, and parents to see how they would improve the school in three areas - respect, responsibility, and safety. The top two answers were attendance and swearing. Hanna and her students decided to work on the swearing problem by creating an anti-swearing campaign.

Hanna's current marketing students continue to promote the campaign by selling goods. In addition to selling their official DNTS fudge, they are now selling promotional T-shirts, hoodies, and backpacks. In fact, they sold nearly a thousand dollars worth during the first week and a half the items were offered.

Community Partners
Local Candy Shoppe owners have "adopted" the anti-swearing campaign. They participate in the DNTS Fudge Flavor Contest (where students submit their own special fudges) by selecting finalists, creating the top 5 or 6 fudge flavors for the students to vote on, and then selling the winning, official DNTS fudge flavor in their store. This year, students created 64 flavors. (Read more in the Bremerton Patriot.) 

The Bremerton Patriot, a local weekly newspaper, has dubbed a portion of page 5 "the Swear-Free Zone," where they feature Dare Not to Swear advice from Hanna and her students. Hanna had asked the publisher to consider a bi-weekly or bi-monthly mention of the campaign, but he was eager to do more.

More About Dare Not to Swear

» Students Pledge Not to Swear - Teacher & students launch Dare Not To Swear.

» Anti-Swearing Campaign Takes Off - Students talk about swearing at school—before the campaign & now.

» Keeping the Anti-Swearing Campaign Alive - School activities keep students on track.

Related Article

» Roughly Speaking: Students & Abusive Language - Dealing with words that hurt.