Katie Dunbar is one of four people around the world nominated for the Random Acts Caught in the Act award.
The Lombard Middle School 8th grader stands alongside a 15-year-old California student, a California police officer and a surgeon in Ireland.
Lombard Principal Nick Sutton says Dunbar was selected from 67 nominations. He tells WGIL the 14 year old created the anti-bullying Take a Stand Club, which has reduced the school’s number of office referrals.
“In 2002, it was over 2,500 office referrals for the school year,” Sutton says. “And if you divide that by 174 school days, that’s like 12 or 13 referrals a day. Right now, we are at 517 and we’re already at fourth quarter.”
Dunbar says she started the club after going through a dark time in junior high.
“What the group is really, you can go in and you can talk about your problems,” she says. “And we have topics. Last week’s was suicide so maybe if you were dealing with the suicide of a family member or you had suicidal thoughts, you could come in and you could talk about it and you didn’t have to worry about it going to the rest of the school”
People can vote for Dunbar through March 29 at randomacts.org.
