The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Project: Middle & High School Edition

The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Project:

Middle & High School Edition

 

In response to the bullying epidemic in our K-12 schools, nationally and in our own backyard here in Elk and Cameron Counties, the creative collective of St. Marys Area High School’s Dutch Manufacturing x John Schlimm x Community Education Center of Elk & Cameron Counties has spent the 2025/2026 school year creating The “Thumb’s Down to Bullying” Project. The first edition of this project is focused on middle and high schools.

The first six months of the project were spent brainstorming ideas and doing extensive research about bullying by sitting down with local middle and high school administrators, teachers, and students to better understand what bullying looks like across the region, and to especially hear directly from those individuals impacted the most.

After months of brainstorming, research, and development, DM x JS x CEC landed on the idea of a 3-D-printed, thumbs-down design with the word “BULLYING” unsteadily written across the fist. Produced as a Pop Art backpack tag in several different, glow-in-the-dark colors, the design drives home the point that the collective, in collaboration with the schools, aims to put a dent in bullying by raising awareness and getting more people of all ages to talk about it. The initial 3,000 Thumbs Down to Bullying backpack tags are being self-funded by the Dutch Manufacturing program.

Working with partners, such as Dickinson Center, Penn State Extension, and area school districts, the DM x JS x CEC collective will distribute the 3,000 Thumbs Down to Bullying backpack tags to middle and high school students in Elk and Cameron Counties during The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Tour, which will take place during March to May 2026. This tour will also include stops at area seniors centers to thank the grandmas and grandpas who helped inspire this project by telling the collective about their grandkids who are bullied.

Created as a multimedia, STEAM and community-service project, in addition to the 3,000 backpack tags, DM x JS x CEC is also creating two, Thumbs Down to Bullying t-shirts that will be sold to the general public and a video installation that will be played during tour stops. Also, four DM student-artists are in the process of creating a Thumbs Down to Bullying graffiti mural that will be installed inside St. Marys Area High School and which is being generously funded by The Doris E Stackpole Foundation.

Tentative plans are currently underway for an elementary school edition of The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Project and Tour during the 2026/2027 school year.

Below are photos and other artifacts that invite you into the DM x JS x CEC collective’s journey of creating The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Project.

PART 1:

Brainstorming,

Research,

Development,

& Production

 

 

PART 2:

The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Tour

 

PRESS RELEASE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

CONTACT:

Kate Brock

Executive Director

Community Education Center

Phone: 814-781-3437

Email: kate@communityedcenter.com

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The Creative Collective of St. Marys Area High School’s

Dutch Manufacturing Students,

Community Education Center of Elk & Cameron Counties,

and Artist John Schlimm is

Raising Bullying Awareness in Area Middle and High Schools

with 3,000 “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Backpack Tags

__________________________________________________________________________

(Elk County, PA – March 2026) – The creative collective of St. Marys Area High School’s Dutch Manufacturing (DM) students, Community Education Center of Elk and Cameron Counties (CEC), and international award-winning author, artist, advocate, and educator John Schlimm (JS) has created 3,000 Pop Art “Thumbs Down to Bullying” backpack tags that will be distributed to all middle and high school students in Elk and Cameron Counties this Spring during The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” Tour.

Throughout last Fall, the DM x JS x CEC collective brainstormed and designed the backpack tag, which included conducting extensive research about what bullying looks like specifically in our area schools. Over the course of several months, the collective met with experts and with administrators, teachers, and students from local public-school districts, as well as the Catholic school system, to hear from them what bullying looks like in their middle and high schools and what they hope this new project would help accomplish. These discussions were powerful, insightful, far-reaching, and helped to determine the ultimate direction of the bullying-awareness project.

“Getting to interact with administrators, teachers, and students from our school district as well as others was instrumental in helping our team to decide how best to design the backpack tag and message behind it,” said SMAHS Sophomore and DM President Drake Eckhart. “I am also really proud of my colleagues at Dutch Manufacturing for putting in the time and effort to both design and produce the 3,000 tags in our classroom.”

During early 2026 after the design was finalized, the 3,000 backpack tags were printed in the Dutch Manufacturing classroom on three printers producing five tags each at a time in forty-minute installments with the students taking shifts supervising the production. The tags were created in a variety of glow-in-the-dark colors, including blue, green, pink, orange, and purple. Also, while the collective’s previous four projects have been generously supported by local businesses and organizations, grants, and the Elk County Commissioners, the “Thumbs Down to Bullying” backpack tags for middle and high schools are being self-funded by Dutch Manufacturing, making the project an even more personal endeavor for the students. A future elementary-school edition of the project is tentatively in the works.

The project has also become multimedia. In addition to the backpack tags and a multi-stop, middle-and-high-school tour with panel discussions and a student-created video/slide show, DM x JS x CEC has designed two “Thumbs Down to Bullying” t-shirts that will be available for sale to the public from April 1-24, and will be hand-silkscreened by students in the Apparel Division of Dutch Manufacturing. Also, four DM artists are currently working on a large “Thumbs Down to Bullying” graffiti mural that will be installed in St. Marys Area High School later this Spring and is being generously funded by the Doris E Stackpole Foundation. Additionally, Schlimm created the “BULLYING: Words Matter/Actions Matter” artist’s book, which was published by the CEC and will be distributed to area schools thanks again to funding from the Doris E Stackpole Foundation.

“One of the biggest things our collective learned in talking to folks at area schools, especially the students, is that as big a problem as we all think bullying is, it’s so much worse,” said Schlimm. “I’ve now come to think of bullying as a massive, shape-shifting monster, but the very good news is that this has made me and our collective even more determined to put a dent in it with our ‘Thumbs Down to Bullying’ project. Our goal is to do this by encouraging students and folks of all ages to become more aware and more engaged, and to talk more about it.”

The “Thumbs Down to Bullying” project is being facilitated in partnership with Dickinson Center’s Children’s Prevention Services and Penn State Extension. Program Director Sierra Himes and Educator Chi Catalone from both organizations, respectively, will be joining DM x JS x CEC on the tour to middle and high schools. The tour will also include stops at area senior centers to thank the grandmas and grandpas who were also instrumental in inspiring this project on behalf of their grandchildren who are bullied.

“This home-grown, bullying-awareness project is going to have a powerful impact inside our local middle and high schools,” said CEC Executive Director Kate Brock. “I am always so inspired by the Dutch Manufacturing students’ creativity, productivity, and their approach to critical thinking, as well as their thoughtfulness, compassion, and advocacy towards making our local communities a better place for their peers and people of all ages.”

Skills-based and student-led, Dutch Manufacturing is a high school program that is focused on developing students for the ever-growing world of Advanced Manufacturing. The skills that are developed throughout this program translate into qualified individuals who will be successful in the manufacturing sector, post-secondary education, and/or an apprenticeship/internship type of program. The DM students have already designed and manufactured several items for local businesses since the program started in 2022.

“The ‘Thumbs Down to Bullying’ backpack tag is one of our most impactful projects yet, especially because of the support, input, and enthusiastic involvement we’ve received from area schools,” said Dutch Manufacturing Coordinator Jesse Schreiber. “And because we are self-funding the production of the backpack tags, this project has allowed the Dutch Manufacturing students to take even greater pride and ownership in an awareness project that’s very personal to both them and their peers across Elk and Cameron Counties.”

Conceptualizing and creating at the intersections of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) and community service, in addition to the “Thumbs Down to Bullying” backpack tag, the DM students’ first project as part of the DM x JS x CEC collective was 2023’s “THE SMILE COIN,” an edition of 4,000 powdered metal coins. This was followed by 2024/2025’s “The 988 Coin” for which 30,000 powdered metal coins were created in partnership with the Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force, distributed throughout Elk and Cameron Counties, and honored as part of the PA Office of Rural Health’s 2025 “Pennsylvania Regional Rural Health Program of the Year” among other statewide and national accolades.

This Spring, the collective will release “The U.S. Flag Coin,” an edition of 30,000 powdered metal coins created in partnership with the Elk County Commissioners to celebrate the 250th birthday of America. The collective is also about to complete more than two years of work on “The Pillars: A Monument Honoring Our Local Carbon & Powdered Metal Industries,” which will be permanently installed in front of the St. Marys Area High School.

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