What are you doing to address Bullying and Harassment?

[Michael Rubright]

I know that we all do things related to bullying and harassment - some are things that are CYA and others are useful and effective.  Sometimes the two subsets also cross! 

What are the things that your school and distrcit are doing that really seem to be working and making a difference?

[Terry Sheehan]

The problem with this is that how do you tell what is making a difference...how do you know when bullying isn't happening. We have instituted school wide protocols that allow for people (anyone with a stake in the schools) to report a case of bullying, provides an oultine on how to investigate allegations and assigns consequences for any corroborated incidents. Our issue is the baseline. It would be totally unacceptable to track bullying data and allow it to continue, but without the "control group" how can you tell what is really effective.

Additionally, I think we need to build community and get the kids to become invested members of that commmunty through both the curricular and extra-curricular activities of the school and combine that with a clear anti-bullying policy with straighforward consequences. I know that seems like a cop-out answer, but that is the best one I have.

[Scot Graden]

I can't say it's working, because we are just getting started.... but we are working with ADL to develop a K-5 program around "No Place for Hate" - http://www.noplaceforhate.org Is it corny to "brand" the issue and develop a very visible campaign? To a degree, yes. However, we want to be visible - period.

At the secondary level we are expanding peer listening, and doing a staff training around - "A World of Difference" - http://www.adl.org/education/edu_awod/default.asp Following that we are bring together a committee of 30, 15 adults and 15 students to form a council that will meet qtrly to discuss school climate issues.

In the end, I see the issue as long term commitment to creating a culture of dialogue vs. a culture of debate.

No easy answers on this one.... good luck.

[James Peiffer]

We have several programs working simultaneously at our school. Our over-arching program is Olweus. We have a group of students from across 6th, 7th & 8th grade, known as the Safe School Ambassadors, who are trained to deal with/report bullying and other situations. In addition, our school participates in the Where Everyone Belongs (WEB) program, wherein 8th grade students are trained and serve as go-to people for 6th graders. The members of this group also run the 6th grade orientation at the beginning of the year and attend many extracurricular activities with there 6th grade groups.

[Lori McCourry]

We also just implemented Olweus. Teachers have bought in to the idea and I think that is the key aspect. Too early for data though.

[Courtney Jablonski]

We too are implementing the OLWEUS program at our middle and high school levels.  In conjunction with this work, our district, K-12 buildings, have used Stephen Covey's 7 Habits work as a foundation for our character education/leadership programs.  We have found that this combination has stregthened the impact on students.  Not only are students finding ways to address and prevent negative behavior issues through OLWEUS, they are learning how to become more effective and productive through the 7 Habits.  Our efforts are supported not only at the classroom level, but by grade level, and building wide programs and initiatives.

[Barb Holden]

We have an Early Education to grade 9 school and are implementing The 7 Habits and The Leader in Me program.  The emphasis on engaging and building the whole community has been very positive.  We are hearing from parents that the students are bringing the language and the thinking to their homes.  I really like the energy spent on teaching the kids 'what to do' and how to be with other people. 

I also have some connection to Jeremy Dias in Canada.  http://www.jersvision.org  His organization, I believe, founded 'The Day of Pink'.  He is a speaker that is engaging for students, teachers and parents; his focus is homophobic bullying, and he addresses bullying of all kinds.  Information on the website includes student run conferences 'to promote diversity and stand up to bullying, discrimination and homophobia in their schools and youth communities'. 

There are many pieces to this issue.  There's a couple of them. . . Thank you for the sharing on this topic.