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Fowlerville Schools Tackle Bullying
by Linda Theil, Lansing State Journal, January 25, 2004
When Sharon Brasch's son, who uses a wheelchair, told her he'd been
punched by someone at Fowlerville Junior High School, she wasn't
shocked.
The 46-year-old parent of four works part-time as a paraprofessional
in the school's special education department, where she has seen
adolescent aggression firsthand.
"Coming into the public school setting was a real eye-opener for
me," Brasch said.
"The values and the respect aren't there. Walking the hall, I notice
kids today don't have the security they need."
The district has made combating bullying behavior a priority by
hiring behavioral consultant Marcia McEvoy to train district
parents, teachers and students how to react and intervene.
Administrators also have appointed a special committee that will
develop procedures for staff response to aggressive behavior and
produce an effective consequence system under McEvoy's guidance.
"By forming this committee and having the administration, teachers
and counselors involved, we're hoping to have a more anti-bullying
approach," said Claudia Sexton, a Fowlerville Junior High School
counselor.
"We want to take a districtwide approach to define tolerance,
clarify definitions of violence and work those into our student
handbook. Our committee and curriculum director will change policy
and actually have anti-bullying taught in our schools. That's our
long-term goal and this is just the beginning."
Sexton wrote a grant request for the project and was awarded $4,000
from Fowlerville's Waldecker Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealership and the
Chevy ROCK (Reaching Out to Communities and Kids) national
initiative.
McEvoy recently conducted a three-hour workshop for 100 Fowlerville
teachers.
"What I have learned are some strategies the school can implement,
like creating new student friendship teams," said Amy Hodgson, high
school biology and chemistry teacher.
"I think the biggest thing is we're all here and we're trying to get
everybody on the same page."
McEvoy will return in February for presentations to district
seventh- and 10th-graders, as well as an evening workshop for
parents.
McEvoy will give parents strategies for helping their children if
they are bullies, targets or bystanders. The parents also will be
taught how to intervene in a bullying situation. She will discuss
ways parents and school personnel can work together to stop school
violence.
Making parents partners with their schools is a key to Mc-Evoy's
preventive approach to reducing school violence. She said research
indicates today's parents spend 40 percent less time with their
children than parents did in 1960.
"We live in a toxic culture," McEvoy said. "Everything kids touch -
TV, movies, music and the Internet - has social toxins: gratuitous
violence and sex, problem solving that involves hurting someone to
get your own way, and social emptiness. Kids are psychologically and
spiritually adrift in this country."
McEvoy advocates combating this malaise by creating a warm and
nurturing environment at school.
She encourages teachers to greet their students when they arrive in
class and to touch students in a safe area - from their elbow to
their fingertips.
Developing a silent mentoring project also can help, said Mc-Evoy,
with each teacher selecting a student for special attention and
encouragement without the student's knowledge. She recommends the
entire staff display empathy and compassion to students.
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