Hey, school bully, this is war, and you're losing
A growing campaign is having an impact
AYER - She did her best to ignore them. But it was hard. Eleven-year-old Caroline Noonan shook her head as she recalled the ridicule she was put through last year for being friends with boys: Her peers catcalled on the bus and threatened to give her a lie-detector test to "prove" nonexistent love connections.
"It made me angry," said the fifth-grader, a student at the Page Hilltop School in Ayer. "I have lots of friends who are boys."
But since Ayer Public Schools launched an extensive antibullying campaign for grades kindergarten through 12, "I've learned ways I can deal with it," she said.
Ayer is one of several school districts across the state that have integrated a day-in, day-out antibullying program. The initiative incorporates a strict behavior rubric, attempts to empower bystanders, urges bullies to reflect on their actions, and engenders relationships between students and adults.
And so far, it's worked. Page Hilltop, which has 600 students, has seen a 31 percent decrease in verbal bullying and a 27 percent drop in physical bullying.
Officials gauged the improvements by comparing anonymous surveys performed in September 2006 and this January. The surveys asked students about whether they had been excluded, hit, threatened, teased, or called racial or ethnic slurs. Also, when asked their reaction when they saw someone being teased, 94 percent answered: "They don't deserve it."
"We needed a stronger and more consistent message," said Richard McGrath, assistant principal of Ayer Middle-High School. "It's to be proactive, to try to change the culture, rather than always reacting."
Because bullying has become an ever-present issue beyond the schoolyard - tweens and teens often sling barbs online or through crudely written text messages - more school districts across the state are proactively targeting bullying by incorporating similar programs, setting up antidiscrimination committees, or holding all manner of informational sessions for parents and students.
Legislators are taking a stance as well: Several Massachusetts senators are backing an act that would require every school district to create and establish a bullying prevention and response plan by July 31, 2009. The act, which is being reviewed by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, would also require the state to provide sample policies and prevention resources to school districts.
Officials on all fronts acknowledge that bullying is a bit of a quagmire: Some escape its wrath; others don't.
Missourian Megan Meier is considered a casualty: The 13-year-old committed suicide last November after a neighborhood family taunted her with a fake MySpace page. Locally, the state Department of Education ordered the Milton School District to investigate the allegations of a 9-year-old who said she was assaulted when fellow students discovered her mother is a lesbian.
Ayer school administrators say bullying hasn't escalated to such heights for their students. Its schools generally deal with cyber or verbal bullying or social exclusion, they said.
Most of the work through the program deals with bystanders; in general, they are encouraged to intervene by getting "targets" out of the situation or informing an adult.
Ten-year-old Kassie Breest has already put that into practice: The fourth-grader helped a friend talk to an adult after she was shoved and pushed.
"It made me feel good because it was good that the bully was caught," Kassie said.
And as for herself, she takes no guff.
"Some people have called me names, but that doesn't bother me," she said. "Because they're not the boss of me. I don't have to listen to what they say."
Page Hilltop students, as part of the program, also act out scenarios in which they are faced with challenging situations and have to figure their way out of them. Teachers help foster relationships by putting new students into "friendship groups," as well.
Ayer Middle-High School's 700 students similarly take part in advisory groups with peers and teachers and do group work based around conflict resolution. Officials said they also try to dispel students' beliefs that telling a teacher about a bully is "snitching" or "ratting." Such antibullying messages are integrated throughout the day, everyday.
Administrators said they're ecstatic about the outcome so far.
"We weren't expecting to see these kinds of results so quickly," said Jayne Garrett, a guidance counselor at Page Hilltop.
Funded by the Nashoba Valley Medical Center and the Ayer Education Foundation, the program was first instituted in 2006.
Initially, the district formed a 25-member bullying prevention committee comprising teachers, administrators, parents, and guidance counselors; they examined what the school had been doing to address bullying to that point and what measures could be added to further combat the behavior.
Later, officials chose to adopt a model based on the book, "Schools Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies for Reducing Bullying" by Mainer Stan Davis. Then, there were several days of training for staff, parent information nights, and orientations for students.
Not surprisingly, the model strongly condemns and prohibits behaviors such as aggressive physical contact or making threatening comments and gestures at other students. Depending on the offense, students are given written behavior slips, lunch detentions, or, in worst-case scenarios, suspensions.
But the program adds a clever twist to these traditional disciplinary means: In all cases, the alleged bully must call his or her parents with an administrator listening nearby.
"That's powerful," said Robert Ackerman, principal of Page Hilltop. "It sends a strong message. It may involve a few tears, but that's OK."
In such situations, students also fill out "think about it" or "reflection" forms recalling what they did, why it was hurtful, and how they would address such a situation differently in the future.
In other cases, the program stresses simple cordiality. "You have to share," 6-year-old William Levensailor answered shyly, head down, when asked what he'd learned about good playtime behavior.
"And what do you say to each other?" Garrett prompted.
The first-grader smiled and said enthusiastically, "Nice job!"
Taryn Plumb can be reached at taryn.plumb@gmail.com. 