Manassas teen starts anti-bullying group for middle school girls

Bullying is a problem many young girls face, and one Manassas teen is trying to help change that.

Katrina Euresti, a senior at Forest Park High School in Woodbridge, has created an anti-bullying support group for young girls, as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award.

Originally from Troop 987, Euresti has been working toward this award for several months. According to the Girl Scouts website, the Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest achievement one can receive in the organization.

“…it’s kind of like the Eagle Scout [award],” said Euresti, continuing, “We have to make our project go bigger than just in the community, we have to make it more [inter]national – it has to effect someone in some way not just in the U.S.”

But all of that hard work hasn’t deterred Euresti from working toward her goal.

In order to make an impact, Euresti has created the anti-bullying support group – named B.U.L.L.Y (Be Unique Love Life and Yourself) – for middle school aged-girls at Benton Middle School.

The group meets weekly to have discussions about the impacts of being a bully, and what it’s like to be bullied.

“Middle school’s a really tough age to deal with, because you don’t know all of the essentials to growing up yet…I’m teaching them how to take care of themselves, but also boosting their confidence and I also teach them about certain things like bullying,” said Euresti.

As part of her outreach efforts, Euresti invited Mrs. Virginia 2014, Jatana Jackson, to speak with the girls about her own bullying experiences.

“I had Mrs. Virginia come because she’s a great role model for girls. She’s also been bullied before – so she came and talked about her experience with bullying and how she grew up…and that really opened up [the girls] eyes, because now she’s Mrs. Virginia,” said Euresti.

While the project and group meetings will continue for several more months, Euresti is already seeing the impact that the B.U.L.L.Y. group is having.

“I’ve been telling the girls that they’re here to make new friends, and now they have new people to talk to if they ever need help…I’ve gotten them to talk about bullying experiences that happened to them,” Euresti said.