Ronan, Pablo schools lead fight against bullying
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Last May, a concerned parent of a K. William Harvey student wrote a letter to the editor, informing the community of an issue that she considered grave and worthy of the Lake County’s attention: bullying.
“We need to help out whether they are the bullies or the bullied,” parent Selena Gardipe said. “The school needs to find some form of discipline, not just a timeout at lunch.”
In the letter she questions the school’s handle on the bullying issue and beckons teachers, parents and community members to form a united front against bullying.
But the Ronan/Pablo School District was already a year into the process of confronting the issue, presenting instructional seminars for faculty members in an anti-bullying curriculum called the Olweus Bullying and Prevention Method.
The Olweus Method is designed to restructure the school environment by reducing the opportunity for bullying behavior, Pablo principal Frank Ciez said.
“If we can do that, then we will have kids who are happier at school and have a better shot of becoming successful at school,” Ciez explained.
This year marks the first year that the method will be implemented in Ronan and Pablo’s elementary and middle school classrooms.
Obviously, bullying takes on different forms and may not be as easily recognizable in kindergarten or first grade.
So the program has a curriculum that starts at square one, what does bullying look like?
Pablo elementary teachers will hold weekly classroom meetings to identify bullying behavior and give the students rules regarding bullying.
“Keep in mind it will look different to a fourth grader and kindergartener,” Ciez explained.
And it certainly looks different in the middle school.
In elementary school, students rarely have access to cell phones and their knowledge of internet sites such as Facebook is limited, K. William Harvey Vice Principal Shelley Andres explained.
But once the students enter middle school, cyber bullying becomes a threat to a harmonious educational atmosphere.
With the desire to be socially acceptable comes increased social activity off and on school grounds for adolescents. But when bullying occurs in the park or in a neighborhood, the effects linger in the school’s classrooms and halls.
A bullied student may suffer emotional turmoil that can alter his or her academics and social interactions.
“When we are aware of it, we will try to deal with it,” Ronan Principal Mark Johnson said. “It’s a really tough situation to deal with. If it does affect the educational environment, then we have to get involved.”
Students at the Ronan Middle School meet twice a week for 20 minute sessions to discuss bullying. The middle school students are taught about bullying behavior and given coping mechanisms to deal with bullies, such as blatantly ignoring the bully or snapping back with a witty comeback.
They are also given boundaries.
“We teach the kids (about) the expectations and hopefully they will know what’s expected of them,” Johnson said.
School district number 30 is not alone in their stance against bullying, but it’s a leader in academic institutions who are saying enough is enough. Johnson explained that many school districts are looking at Olweus and other anti-bullying curriculums to guide students and staff in the bully-free school endeavor.
“I don’t think it’s gotten any worse (over the years,) but I think we are at the point where it’s an issue and it’s in the forefront of education,” Johnson said. “Ronan school district has made it a priority to address it.”
But even with a year of staff instruction in the Olweus method under their belt, educators admit that it may be some time before they witness positive results.
“It’s proven to reduce bullying,” Schutzman said. “But it’s going to take time for our staff to get used to it, and to train the teachers and kids.”
