Bullying--Part Two

When Jill Boyd started as Dean of Students at Bullen Middle School in the 1990's, she was appalled at some of the student behaviors she witnessed. Coming from a social service, not an educational background, Boyd remembers, "What I saw was illegal: sexual slurs and touching and grabbing that often escalated into sexual assault." "But," Boyd admits, there were no set, clear-cut policies in the district in the 90's, and the few guidelines we had were unfamiliar to most people."
Boyd set out to discover if an effective, available bullying program existed. "There are a lot of sites out there that offer only someone's opinion, nothing that is research-based. The people who promote these sites are just out for a fast buck." Finally, Boyd found the Olweus (ol-VAY-us) Program which originated in Norway and is distributed in this country through Clemson University. The situation at Bullen was not improving. "Every time I turned around," Boyd recalls, "someone was complaining that most of their time was spent dealing with a bullying issue."
Ultimately, Boyd took the Olweus plan to then-principal Bill Haithcock. Haithcock soon realized that despite what would be an enormous amount of work and staff commitment, the program was exactly what Bullen needed.
The program started with the training of a core cadre of staff members who, in turn, trained the rest of the staff. It is also the task of the core group to keep the bullying program in the forefront, to keep it fresh, a task that is not easy. "Our bullying incidents went down 46% in the first two years of the program," says Boyd. "But then they increased a little because people got complacent." Now in its seventh year of utilizing the Olweus Program, Bullen has been so successful that the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development has produced a DVD about it. Titled "One School's Bullying Prevention Program," the DVD and its accompanying viewer's guide provide a compelling look into Bullen's anti-bullying culture and the roles of teachers, other staff members, students, bus drivers and parents in maintaining that culture.
In that video you can see two eighth grade "Transition Coaches," Tiffany and Katie, talk to a new group of sixth graders and answer their questions about bullying. The sixth graders open up much more readily to fellow students than they would to an adult.
Teacher Jeff Winden puts a dinner plate in a towel and asks his Advisory students to use hurtful language and hit the towel with a hammer. At first, the students treat the activity lightly, but as the insults and the hammer blows pile up, they become more serious. Teacher Jennifer Barbian then points out that while the towel looks pretty much the same, the plate inside is shattered beyond repair. The students then discuss the symbolism of the towel and plate.
Band Director John Nepper leads his Advisory students through a problem-solving exercise, "Magic Shoes," in which one student must help the others across a lake of acid. Afterwards, the metaphor of the exercise is translated into everyday life.
The most significant component of the Olweus Program is its process for changing the behaviors of bullies. For example, any student accused of bullying is required to fill out a "Think-About-It-Form." The first question on the form is "What did you do?" The student must be specific and start the answer with "I." Subsequent questions ask the student what was wrong with the behavior, why the behavior occurred, and how the student should behave in future similar situations. Boyd insists, "Kids are honest on paper, and the activity encourages the art of writing. Kids see it as non-threatening; the pencil just sort of takes over."
Is there still bullying at Bullen? Yes. Is every staff member 100% on board? Not yet. Still, over the last seven years, the Olweus Program has provided the school with extraordinary success by any standard.
Haithcock is now the principal of Harborside Academy. Jill Boyd now serves as a guidance counselor at Bullen. The good work that they and the staff, students, and parents of Bullen Middle School started serves as a model to any school which decides to take on the persistent and pervasive problem of bullying.