October Theme: Bully Prevention & Friendships
Meet Octobers’s Community Experts
Names: Rachel Crosby, Carrie Farr, & Stephanie Engebretson
Position: Southwest Middle School Social Workers and School Counselor
Day They Spoke to Southwest Students: Wednesday, October 2nd.
The Message:
October is National Bully Prevention Month so it was only natural we would have this month’s community expert message on this topic. Southwest students heard the message from Southwest’s very own social workers and counselor. Students first reviewed our core values for the year, which the entire student body selected at the start of the year. They are:
1) Responsibility 2) Determination 3) Show Ownership 4) Be a Positive Leader
Our experts first talked with students about the difference between teasing and bullying. Teasing can be playful but can turn uncomfortable. There is no power imbalance (1 vs 1, similar age, generally between close friends, only happens once, etc) with teasing. Bullying means intimidating, threatening, abusive, or harming conduct that is offensive AND there is actual or perceived imbalance of power between the student engaging in prohibited conduct and the target of the behavior and the conduct is repeated or forms a pattern.
Next, they presented students with facts about bullying from www.stopullying.gov. Did you know 20% of kids experience bullying? Of that 20% only 46% notify an adult. One problem with this is the “snitch” culture that our young people have in our society. Our experts talked to students about the history of the word snitch and how it was originally a word that was used in a positive way for people to keep their communities safe. A snitch was looked at as a good thing because they were reporting negative things going on around the community to keep people safe. However, over the past two decades the term snitch has transformed into a negative connotation often being interchanged with the term “tattletale”. It was an important discussion item for our students to hear about the following terms:
1) Bystander: Someone who witnesses bullying but does not act to get help.
2) Upstander: Someone who witnesses bullying and gets help for the individual
3) Bully: Someone who makes repeated attempts to harm or intimidate another
individual.
Finally, our experts talked to students about the role they play. Things that students can do are:
Knowing their classmates’ preferred names.
Make new friends, but be mindful not to say hurtful things as friendships change.
For every negative comment to yourself or another say two positive comments (or more)
Report bullying. Report to their teacher, office, and/or fill out a bully report form.
Family Talking Points:
Ask your student(s) to tell you about the community expert talk.
Ask your student(s) about bullying at Southwest.
Ask them if they find themselves more as a bully, bystander or upstander and why.
Ask them if they know what to do if they witness or are a victim of bullying.
