BWHS takes bullying message to elementary buildings

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Four Big Wal­nut High School Stu­dent Coun­cil mem­bers attended the Novem­ber Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing to give a pre­sen­ta­tion about stu­dents part­ner­ing with the school dis­trict to address bul­ly­ing, and espe­cially cyber bullying

The four stu­dents — Nicole Meyer, Avery Kerns, Lind­sey Adams and Caeilen Lozano – said stu­dent coun­cil mem­bers were cre­at­ing high school, mid­dle school, inter­me­di­ate school and ele­men­tary school age-appropriate pre­sen­ta­tions out­lin­ing the Jes­sica Logan act, a new Ohio law designed to help pre­vent cyber bul­ly­ing using social media. Cincin­nati teenager Jes­sica Logan com­mit­ted sui­cide in 2008 because of cyber-bullying.

The Jes­sica Logan Act man­dates that edu­ca­tors are respon­si­ble for inves­ti­gat­ing and pros­e­cut­ing com­plaints (includ­ing anony­mous reports) of cyber bul­ly­ing, even if the mate­r­ial was cre­ated dur­ing the student’s own time, away from school groups and apart from any school-sanctioned activ­ity. This would include emails and post­ings on Face­book and other social networks.

Pre­sen­ta­tions had been given at Big Wal­nut High School, the mid­dle school and inter­me­di­ate school; and last week high school stu­dent coun­cil mem­bers brought the anti-bullying mes­sage to dis­trict ele­men­tary students.

On Thurs­day, Big Wal­nut High School stu­dents Haley Fer­gu­son, Danielle Her­man and Michaella Young spoke with Big Wal­nut Ele­men­tary School stu­dents about the forms of bul­ly­ing they might be aware of dur­ing their daily lives, includ­ing cyber bul­ly­ing and indi­rect bullying.

“How many of you want to be known as bul­lies?,” they asked the ele­men­tary stu­dents. No hands went up. “How many of you want to be bul­lied?” Again, no hands went up. “If you see bul­ly­ing, tell a trusted adult,” they added.

Dur­ing the Jan­u­ary 14 Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing, dis­trict assis­tant super­in­ten­dent Gary Bar­ber said the Big Wal­nut dis­trict is enter­ing a con­tract with Safe School Helpline, a com­mu­ni­ca­tion ser­vice that pro­vides anony­mous report­ing of bul­ly­ing, vio­lence, theft, drug and alco­hol use, talk about sui­cide, sex­ual harass­ment, and weapons.

Bar­ber said he would be the first point of con­tact when an anony­mous report is made, Gen­eral Rose­crans Ele­men­tary School prin­ci­pal Peggy McMurry will be the sec­ond con­tact if Bar­ber is unavail­able, and a third point of con­tact will be the Sun­bury Police Department.

“It’s for stu­dents, teach­ers, staff, admin­is­tra­tors and any­one else in our school com­mu­nity to use 24/7, with a direct con­duit back to our school dis­trict,” Bar­ber said. “It’s what we’re doing to keep a safe, respect­ful and wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment in Big Wal­nut schools. It’s not only a good report­ing sys­tem for us, but also pro­vides coun­sel­ing 24/7.”

Posted by Gary Henery on Jan 30 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.