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School turns page to prevent bullying
(by Tony Lange - January 25, 2012)
School turns page to prevent bullying
By TONY LANGE
West Geauga Middle School overhauled its academic schedule this week to kick off its new bullying prevention program for which the district received funding from the Ohio Department of Education.
Assemblies, guest speakers, team-building activities and a family night were among the events this week aimed at changing the climate of the school district and the community, said Sarah Widman, the bullying prevention program coordinator.
"We'll talk about diversity and tolerance and how they can get along better with their peers," she said. "The whole program is about changing the school environment so that students feel more welcome."
After receiving a $75,000 Safe Drug Free School sustainability grant, West Geauga hired Ms. Widman to spend time working with students throughout the district and to develop an intervention and prevention strategy to be incorporated by staff, parents and the community.
Part of the grant money also went toward purchasing an evidence-based Olweus bullying prevention program, middle school Principal James Kish said.
"We researched that Olweus was the best, and, if we were going to do something, we were going to try to get the best," Mr. Kish said. "It's quite costly with training all the staff, and now the next step is to train all the students in appropriate behavior and let them know that there's no room for bullying in this school. If we're helping on kid, it's a worthwhile process."
To kick off the kickoff week, middle school students and staff gathered in the school gymnasium Jan. 20 for a presentation by guest speakers and authors of "The Fat Boy Chronicles," Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan.
As a part of their English classes, middle school students read the book, which was inspired by the true story of an obese 14-year-old who battled a constant struggle of cruel taunts and humiliation from his classmates. Students then watched the movie based on the book the morning before Mrs. Lang and Mr. Buchanan gave their presentation.
When they started writing the book, it was about the story of one specific kid, Mrs. Lang said.
"But the more that Mike and I started writing it, the more I saw that it was a bigger issue," she said. "It wasn't just about one kid. It was about many kids. And again, the book itself just stated to take over. It wasn't Doug Hennig's story anymore. It was the story of every child."
Mr. Buchanan said the emotions from the book also stemmed from emotions in his own life.
"It really made me reflect on how I was as a kid and my high school days of just standing and watching," he said. "And so when we give our talks, we always say, 'Don't be the one who stands and watches this stuff happen,' because I guarantee you're going to feel bad about."
During the presentation, West Geauga students were able to Skype and ask live questions over the Internet with young actors from the movie who live in Los Angeles and New York.
Ms. Widman said middle school-age students are often targets of bullying by their peers because of the different maturation transitions that take place in young teenagers.
"It's a time when they're trying to figure out how to deal with things. They're trying to gain their independence, and sometimes when that happens good choices aren't always made," Ms. Widman said.
"I know that it's been thought of in that past that bullying is more physical, like fighting, but now it's a lot of the verbal and nonverbal exclusion. It's not always blatant; it's not always obvious. It's the little under-the-radar remarks or the laughing when somebody participates in class. It's the little things that are very easy to fly under the radar."
Mr. Kish said he tries to do his job from the perspective of a father.
"When your kid comes home with any issue, whether it's being bullied, struggling academically or just having a problem socially, it really affects you," he said. "And parents, I'm sure, would love to not have that happen. So my goal would be to limit the number of negative interactions that happen when a child gets home and they had a bad day at school. So we're looking at changing the culture of the way we do business here at West Geauga."
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