Charles Mamolo lead this week's Olweus Staff Discussion in PLT.
- State Bullying Legislation - www.ksde.org/kssafeschoolsresourcecenter - updated as of 2013
- District Policies in the Planner - Bullying is just a segment under 'Harassment' on pages 21 & 22
- A rough draft of the Bullying Definition Behavior Chart
- 4-Anti-Bullying Rules
- Positive & Negative Consequences
- Process of Reporting (for faculty and staff)
Rough Draft of the Bullying Definition Chart
This is a very rough draft of a bullying-consequence chart. The idea would be to have this available to all staff to know what would happen in certain situations, but it would primarily be used by administration to provide the negative consequences for students. Please note that this is a very rough draft and a work in progress!!
Some discussion was:
Some discussion was:
- The behaviors are too detailed, the wording may need to be a little more vague/or broader
- Students should see this once it is finalized,perhaps share in a class meeting so they understand the consequences for different behaviors and can discuss why there are different levels
- Confusion over why some behaviors are under certain levels and should possibly be somewhere else on the chart.
4 Anti-Bullying Rules
There was a good amount of discussion about the wording of the Anti-Bullying Rules:
- Pretty consistent that staff liked the Olweus rules better than the district ones (changes between the two are highlighted)
- It was suggested and usually agreed upon that we should change the "We will" to "I will..." in order to give each individual student more personal responsibility and accountability for the rules
- While the “I” makes it personal, the “we” emphasizes the importance of a collective/concerted/community effort in stopping bullying and creating a positive climate. Besides the “I” is already a part of “we”.
- “Try” is an important qualifier. “Try” is not used in rule 1, and it should be so -“We will not bully others!” But “try” is somewhat essential in rule 2 and rule 3. It was pointed out that there is no way we can help all who are bullied or include (not left out) “everyone” but we will “try”. It was also pointed out that it may have a legal ramifications even if everyone thinks that it is unlikely to happen.
- Thought we should change rule #2 and swap "students" for "others" so that it includes not only students but also other staff, parents, etc.
- Suggested change to rule #3: "I will include those that are left out"
- Suggested change to rule #4: "I will report bullying to an adult"
- Rule 4: I would still like to argue that using the word “adult” alone instead of “adults in school AND at home” makes clear to whom the reporting should go too. If one reports the bullying situation to any adult, would have lesser chance of having a plan of action in addressing the bullying situation.
Negative and Positive Consequences
Negative
Part of the rough draft... still needing to be discussed with administration. Is there a form we would want students to fill out to process and think about their behavior?
Positive
Part of the rough draft... still needing to be discussed with administration. Is there a form we would want students to fill out to process and think about their behavior?
Positive
- Could businesses donate gift cards?
- Staff could have tickets that they could sign off on and hand out to students when they saw something good, students could then turn tickets in to be entered into a drawing for prizes
- We need to focus our recognition on students who are actively working towards a better school environment in a bigger way than just small good deeds
- Reserved parking that chosen students could have for a day/week... then they wouldn't have to worry about parking for that time
- Staff should call home to inform parents about the good thing their child did
- Students could be allowed to cut in the front of the lunch line
Process of Reporting
This is still a BIG question mark. How can we develop a way to consistently and conveniently have faculty and staff report bullying situations? It not only needs to be a simple process for those reporting to admin but also for admin to receive.
- Infinite Campus has a reporting feature but do we own the rights to use it? Angie Messer was going to look into that.
- Teachers would like to know when students in their classes have been involved in that behavior in other classes... how does that information get out to the teachers?
- Teachers also would like to know what happened after they sent a referral to administration. Was it dealt with and how?