 Bullying and its detrimental effects have been reported throughout the media lately and school districts are taking active roles in prevention techniques. Friendswood ISD has methods in place to prevent bullying and teach both students and staff techniques for bully prevention and awareness.
Character Education has been in place since 1984 but an increased awareness and focus began in 2005
Capturing Kids’ Hearts was implemented beginning in October 2006; 96-percent of professional and paraprofessional staff have been trained
Each campus has a Character Committee
Safe School Ambassadors training for students and staff began in the fall 2009 for 4th – 12th graders; additional training was held in fall of 2010 for JH and HS students; it was determined that intermediate students are a little young for this initiative so their training was discontinued
In the fall of 2010, the District began a focus on Bully Prevention and Awareness Training.
On August 4, 2010, Donna Clark Love, national speaker and bully prevention expert, delivered a day-long training to the district administrators and counselors. She presented ways to identify both the bully and victims, how to work with both groups, and cyberbullying. The District purchased her book The Bully Prevention Manual for each participant.
Each month the district has a focus for training and awareness for both staff and students. Once a month the focus for that month is discussed and reviewed at the Instructional Leaders Team, Assistant Principals and Counselors meetings. Each campus then delivers the training to teachers/students with a consistent message across the district. Parent meetings will be held later in the year.
The schedule for training the students and staff is as follows:
- September – Forms & Procedures; Indicators and Interventions of Bullies & Victims – Modules 2 & 3
- October – Module 5 – Indicators; How to Talk to the Bully; Update bully documentation forms; campus focus statements due by October 19
- November – Bystanders – Module 6
- December – Bystanders and Review of Fall training
- January and February – Cyberbullying
- March – Relational Aggression
- April – Where Are We Now? Conduct a Bully Survey with students and staff; continue reviewing good character standards and interventions learned throughout year
- May – Data Analysis from each campus; review interventions/training and determine path for 2011-2011
When a parent, teacher, student or administrator states there is a situation of bullying then an administrator follows through with an investigation to determine the validity of the claim and appropriate action taken. If it is determined that bullying has occurred, a copy of the documentation is sent to the Deputy Superintendent. All documentation is retained on the campus of all investigations. FHS and FJH enter any cases of bullying into a Bully Category on Filemaker.
All programs that have been implemented marry well together to provide students and staff with standards of good character. Respect, tolerance and seeing the value in others are foremost in all trainings. |
