I know, it sounds ridiculous at first, but one school district is discovering that a rise in bullying incidents means a new intervention program is actually working.
Millstone Township School District, a small New Jersey school system consisting of 1,600 pre-school to Grade 8 students, recently highlighted the efforts of its REACH program (Respect, Environment, Attitude, Courtesy, Honesty), which teaches students about bullying awareness.
“Bullying is unfair and one-sided. It occurs when someone keeps hurting, frightening or leaving someone out intentionally. Bullying always involves an imbalance of power,” stated one of the program’s students.
The program consists of the the district’s middle school students sitting in a 35-minute REACH classes each week. The students learn the district’s definition of bullying, how to identify different types of bullying, such as racial or ethnic harassment, and are encouraged to report bullying and confront bullies “in a positive way with what that person did to bother them.”
In the past year, reported incidents have increased, which tells administrators that the program is working. But, when students were given a 21-question confidential survey about bullying, school buses were ranked as the number “bullying location.”
What are you doing to make sure school buses are the ranked lower in your district?
