Bullying is defined as unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths, who are not siblings or current dating partners, that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance, and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated.
Throughout our school, we have dealt with many bullying problems for a long time. In the 2021-2022 school year, Freedom Middle School introduced a kindness program where students would have lessons on kindness every Monday in their academic support classes, either first or ninth period. It didn’t do as well as it was intended, but it was a great idea, not quite taken seriously enough to work.
Mr. Jeffery Griffith, middle school principal, mentioned the district has been looking at some anti-bullying programs for just the middle school but also some things for the district as a whole. They plan on changing their procedures and incorporating different programs such as Rachel’s Challenge or Olweus (pronounced Ol-VAY-us) for the 2024-25 school year.
According to its website, Olweus is a bullying prevention program with schoolwide, classroom, individual, and community components. This program is intended to create a long-term change with a safe and positive school climate. This program was designed for grades K-12. Its goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems for children and improve school peer relationships. So far this program has been proven to reduce those problems and related anti-social behaviors. Olweus has been implemented in over a dozen countries worldwide and thousands of schools just in the United States.
Rachel’s Challenge is a non-profit organization, for grades K-12, created after the Columbine school shooting in 1999. Rachel’s Challenge was started by the family of Rachel Scott, a victim of the shooting, to honor her after her death. This program’s mission is to reduce violence and encourage compassion in schools, as well as a safer, more connected school environment. According to one of their websites, this program is highly effective in reducing violence and self-harm. Rachel’s Challenge is intended to bring healing and hope by reminding us through Rachel’s example that the little things we do/say every day have a huge impact on the people around us. Rachel Scott once said “I have this theory that if one person will go out of their way to show compassion, it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.” Freedom has already introduced this program twice before, once in September 2013, and again in September 2017.
“…The things I witnessed since I have been the principal here, more students have dealt with bullying than I expected. I knew it was one of those things that is a problem in lots of schools. I have talked to other principals and other school counselors and unfortunately, there are a lot of schools that are dealing with bullying-type issues and kids mistreating each other, it’s just something I have witnessed and it has been worse than I thought it was, ” Mr. Griffith said.
Mr. Griffith plans on making some changes to the middle school in the following school year, 2024-2025. Mr. Griffith says he is still trying to figure out the middle school more as the principal and better understand the students.
“You would see more school-wide assemblies. I am hoping from that point on some breakout things and going from there, I still have a lot to learn about some of those programs. What I have been doing at the middle school is figuring out on my own what makes sense, talking to students [and]teachers; I am kind of excited to see what other options are out there,” Mr. Griffith said. He also added the school would want to take some time during the day with anything they decide to do. Something else commonly mentioned is that they don’t have everything worked out yet and anything they decide to do will be put into place next school year.
