Skyline implementing bullying prevention program

Early prevention is the key to keeping bullying under control. That was the message Randy Wiler, director of Kansas Bullying Prevention Program presented to some of the Skyline Staff during a two-day program at the school.

Wiler presented the OLWEUS bullying program to the staff. The OLWEUS program is named after a researcher from Bergren, Norway who is considered the father of bullying research, Wiler said.

This program has been very successful. Schools that use the program have shown a 50 percent to 70 percent reduction in bullying over a two-year period.

Skyline has researched several programs and has selected a team to implement a strategic plan. When the training is complete, everyone at Skyline will be involved and the group will lead the program, said Becca Flowers, Skyline counselor.

Skyline is actually going above and beyond the state requirement for a bullying program.

“We want this to be a safe and comfortable environment for our kids,” Flowers said.

By the end of today’s session two groups, one for K-5 and the other for middle and high school students will be in place. Wiler will provide support for a year and help carry out the plan, Flowers said.

The school toyed with program in 2009-2010 and used the class meeting phase. Students responded to the class-meeting format. While Skyline doesn’t have a large-scale problem with bullying, any problem is a big problem for the student involved.

“Large scale or small scale it’s something we need to address,” said fifth grade teacher Eric Bronson.

The program is not in response to anything that happened at the school it was just the general consensus that the school needed to do this, Bronson said.

By state law, every school district has to have a bullying prevention program in place. It doesn’t have to be a researched program but the district just has to have a program. If the program is based only on character education and bullying prevention it is usually not as successful as a researched program.

But the most crucial aspect of a bullying program, whether its well researched or something the district put together, is if it successful. 

“That’s the real test. Is what we’re doing having some effect,” Wiler asked?

A key element in the program is each student making a connection with at least one adult at school. This gives the student someone to talk to and share any problems.

Another important factor is connecting with the student’s dreams and working to stay connected with those dreams though the whole year and through the child’s school career.

If bullying does take place, the program has a system in place that allows students to report the event without fear of being identified. The program doesn’t use the students name so the student can feel safe reporting an abuse.

The success of the program is based on four components: the community, the individual, the classroom and school wide intervention. If all of these components take an active role in addressing bullying, it is less likely that a bullying problem will develop and if one does it provides a method to stop the problem.

This program is aimed at grades K-5. If bullying problems can be addressed at that level then it is much less likely that bullying would carryover into middle school and high school.

Class meetings are also a key element to preventing and discovering bullying. Even though classroom time is valuable, classroom meetings can help reduce or prevent a problem that can take teaching time away from the classroom.

The OLWEUS program is aimed at grade school but no bullying program exists for the high school level. But if used effectively, OLWEUS can greatly reduce the incidents of bullying in grade school and prevent events in high school.

A successful bullying program at the class level includes: posting and enforcing rules against bullying; holding regular class meetings; hold meetings with students and parents. Skyline plans on beginning all of these tactics in January.