South Middle School Bully Prevention Plan
Page 1 Bullying Prevention Implementation Plan
Why is our school developing a plan to redirect bullying behaviors?
It is mandated by Kansas law. K.S.A. 72-8256 requires that every school district in Kansas train all staff and students in bullying prevention, develop a district policy on bullying prevention and create a bullying implementation plan by January, 2008.
Bullying among children is aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength.
Bullying can seriously affect the emotional, physical, and academic well-being of children who are bullied. Dealing with discipline problems related to bullying incidents can take a good deal of administrators’ and educators’ time during a school day.
Bullying can contribute to a negative climate in schools.
Bullying is more prevalent than many adults suspect.
Everyone in the school environment will benefit from implementation of an effective bullying prevention program.
Before implementing any strategies to address bullying or other violence at school, we will keep in mind that:
o Effective programs require strong administrative leadership and ongoing commitment on the part of the adults in the school system.
o Those programs that show the most promise are comprehensive in approach. They involve the entire school community, including families, and can take the forms of school-wide interventions, classroom activities, and individual interventions.
o Bullying prevention efforts should begin early—as children transition into kindergarten—and continue throughout the children’s education.
o Effective bullying prevention programs should have no “end date” but should instead become part of the life of your school. Ongoing staff development is important to sustain bullying prevention programs.
Following are steps we will take to develop an effective bullying prevention program in our school.
Page 2 GOALS / OBJECTIVES TO ADDRESS BULLYING
1. We will publish our bullying prevention policy in our student handbook.
2. We will survey students yearly on their perception of bullying at South.
3. Counselors will teach at least one lesson per year to all students to educate about school’s bullying policy, reporting procedures, prevention plan, and consequences of bullying at South.
4. We will survey our teachers to assess their commitment to decreasing bullying at South. We will educate and empower teachers to respond to all reports of bullying.
5. On-going bully prevention education will be offered throughout the year via the Connect with Kids curriculum. This will include small group discussions, videos, etc. about bullying and bully prevention conducted during advisory.
6. Individual counseling will be available to students experiencing bully behavior as well as to those who engage in bullying behavior.
7. A process is in place to prevent and follow up with anonymous reported incidents. Electronic, phone, and anonymous box reporting will be available for students and parents. South’s “reactive plan” will be utilized when bullying behavior has been confirmed.
8. Data (such as bullying survey results, major and minor reactive plan violation numbers, and reporting data) will be utilized in the continuous evaluation and adaption of South’s Bully Prevention Plan.
BULLYING PREVENTION
Assess bullying at our school and determine our staff’s commitment to address bullying.
1. A bullying prevention coordinating committee will consist of administration and the Mental Health Team. Core teacher input will be sought as plans are reviewed. They will explore the problem of bullying and devise possible solutions at our school. The Bully Prevention Plan is approved each Fall by teachers and the CSO. Periodic meeting with core teachers and student reps for discussion of anti-bullying discussions and implementation.
2. South teachers will administer an anonymous Bully Survey to all grades to assess the nature, extent, and location of bullying problems in our school.
3. In addition, South will begin to collect data that can be used to identify bullying behaviors such as:
Page 3 a. Tracking “minor” (level 1 or 2) and “major” (level 3) behaviors. See page 6.
b. Auditing the number of office referrals concerning bullying behaviors
c. Tracking absenteeism and tardiness to classes
d. Monitoring the number of absences due to health concerns
e. Monitor student achievement.
4. All staff members are made aware about their perceptions of bullying at our school. We will determine their current efforts to address bullying and their time and motivation to implement a bullying prevention program.
5. We will work with district officials and other schools who have implemented bullying programs and can share experiences
Raise awareness about bullying at our school
Presentations on cyber bullying, computer safety, and bystander intervention will be provided to all students throughout the year via the Connect with Kids curriculum.
1. Counselors will present a bully prevention lesson to all students in September. The lesson covers the definition of bullying and sexual harassment, what should be done if a student is bullied or sees someone being bullied.
2. Advisory teachers will facilitate small group discussion about South’s Bully Survey data each Spring and solicit ideas from students as to how to better prevent bully behavior at South.
3. Teachers/Administrators will notify parents of bullying incidents involving their child(ren) as indicated in the bully / behavior intervention plan..
4. We will incorporate bullying prevention education and South Middle School behavior expectation guidelines into our small group student orientation presentations and the all school “Expectation Assembly” for all students.
5. We will share our school’s bullying program with District officials.
Strategies to reward students for positive, inclusive behaviors.
We recognize that a majority of our students do not bully others. To preserve the empathy that most students have toward others who are bullied, we encourage bystanders to intervene on behalf of children who are being bullied. This will be accomplished by: 1. Encouraging good citizenship. Teachers will be asked to maintain an atmosphere in the classroom that fosters good citizenship. The Respect portion of South’s Behavior Matrix (see below) specifically addresses this. Page 4 2. Ecourage use of South’s confidential school safety reporting systems. We will incorporate:
a. Encouraging students to contact a staff member in person or electronically.
b. The Cougar Bullying Hotline (330-4321) can be used to leave a message reporting any school safety concern. This will be confidential information but students need to tell us their name, how they were bullied and who is bullying them.
c. Reporting the incident on the Bully Complaint Form where forms can be collected in a drop box in the Nurse’s Office, Guidance, and the Library
3. School staff will reward students with Cougar Cash for positive bystander behavior such as helping a friend who has experienced bullying, blocking bullying behavior, or walking away from negative interactions. Students demonstrating exemplary character can be recognized at assemblies and other special events.
4. Student Council, Cougar Care and Kindness Club will take an active leadership role in the anti-bullying work from a student voice.
Teach clear expectations about behavior to help prevent bullying.
Bullying prevention research indicates that if bullying behaviors are to be reduced, students must feel connected at school. Statistically, students stop reporting bullying behaviors to teachers by fourth grade. In order to reconnect students to staff, we will:
1. Create an atmosphere that fosters connections among students and staff members through both large and small group discussions.
a. Students will discuss bullying during Advisory through a Connect with Kids social skills curriculum as part of our CI3T program.
b. Student respectful behaviors and anti-Bullying will be taught in classes by teachers as they continually reinforce and reteach the Expectations Matrix.
From the SMS Expectation Matrix:
Page 5 Events / Hallway / Arrival / Extra- Classroom Cafeteria Bathroom Bus Technology Locker Dismissal Curricular Activities - Keep an - Respect the - Make your - Use the - Respond - Use kind - Be kind - Be a positive open mind physical choices restroom positively to words - Respond digital citizen - Be space of quickly. and return instructions - Respond positively to when using encouraging others around - Use table directly to and requests positively instructions electronic and helpful you. manners. class from all staff to and requests devices both in - Cooperate - Be - Use - Minimize - Be calm instructions from all staff and outside of with staff courteous of appropriate talking and and school and with other voice level. - Give others controlled requests classmates classrooms - Respond privacy and - Respect the from all - Be kind positively to respect physical staff Respect - Be calm and instructions personal space of controlled and requests space others - Resolve from all staff around you conflicts - Arrive with appropriately a positive attitude - Avoid socializing in high traffic areas
2. South Middle School will create a culture and climate that does not tolerate bullying… 1. We will not bully others.
2. We will try to help students who are bullied when it is safe to do so.
3. We will include students who are left out.
4. We will tell an adult at school and an adult at home when we see someone being bullied.
BULLYING CONSEQUENCES
Our school will teach rules and sanctions related to bullying. Rules and sanctions related to bullying are embedded in the South Middle School CI3T Implementation Manual. This reactive plan will be published in the student handbook and posted in the building.
Reactive Plan SMS Matrix of Inappropriate Behaviors
Page 6 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Minor behaviors that only Minor behaviors that impede Major behaviors that are IMPACT THE STUDENT LEARNING or SAFETY (teacher HARMFUL, ILLEGAL, or “Teachable Moments” managed) show DISORDERLY “Problem Solving: Tier 2 & 3” CONDUCT (office managed) “Behavior Referral”
If these become chronic Includes Chronic Level 1 Includes Chronic Level 2 move to level 2 Behaviors Behaviors (On the 3rd behavior: (chronic=3 in a week per student) (chronic =3 within a quarter) 3 of the same behavior or 3 unrelated behaviors in a trimester) Aggressive Poking/Touching/Shoving Behavior/Fighting Spitting on others Bullying Credible threat to do Throwing things injury to person or property Verbal Aggression or Harassment of others Intimidation to staff/students Throwing with intent to Disrespect to students/staff harm Possession or Use of Inappropriate language/gestures Weapons, or manipulation of items to be weapons
Next Steps Redirect student Have student immediately fill out problem If Major incident and emergency, teacher solving worksheet (Minor) in location of incident. may send student directly to the office and Optional to send home for signature. immediately fill out a Major Form online. Reteach expected behavior in 1:1 Teacher personally contacts parents. If not an emergency, complete the Major conversation as much as possible referral online and an administrator will call If student has 3 incidents in a quarter, set up the student from class as soon as meeting with student and parent to determine a possible. Recognize/reinforce changed behavior support for student using intervention grids. Administration will contact parents. If secondary or tertiary supports implemented with fidelity do not yield desired outcomes, If appropriate, student may be referred to If student continues behavior with 3 student support plan should be developed Mental Health team for supports. separate incidents, move to level 2. After next set of three incidents in a quarter, Chronic issues will result in SSP. complete office referral and principal will meet Administration will follow up with referring with student. teacher.
Sanctions related to bullying behavior will be tracked and addressed through a school-wide system.
Teacher will report “Major Violation” bullying behavior via Office Referral Form in Skyward. “Major violation” of this nature includes a parent phone call by an administrator. Consequences of bullying behavior are based on the school-wide CI3T Behavior Intervention Plan so that clear, consistent, escalated, inevitable, and predictable sanctions are in place to address bully behaviors. (see CI3T Behavior Intervention Plan, specifically the “Inappropriate Behavior Reactive Plan” above).
Counselors, school psychologist, and social workers will keep records of bullying incidents and report incidents to administrators as deemed necessary.
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