Bullying Prevention & Positive School Culture

“Successfully dealing with bullying involves building a genuine community within the school. Everyone accepts they have the right to be free from harassment and that they have the responsibility to support their weaker and more vulnerable peers.” Cleary

Thank you for your interest in the Office of Prevention Program’s anti-bullying and positive school culture efforts. We offer a number of avenues for schools to enhance their efforts toward creating safer and more respectful schools. The effectiveness of the type of intervention often relates to its comprehensiveness and the amount of time and/or effort the school is able to dedicate into incorporating them into already existing structures.

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In brief, some options available from the Office of Prevention for violence and bullying prevention are:

1) Research based materials for classroom presentations

a. Get Real About Violence – an 8-12 week elementary, middle and high school anger management/violence prevention series that can be utilized by school based personnel or presented by outside agencies.

b. Discovery Health curriculum

2) Classroom Presentations and Exercises

a. Stop Bullying Now – an elementary series of 12 cartoon videos to be utilized in the classroom by home school teachers or guidance personnel.

b. Reality Avenue – a series of ½ hour prevention programs using Broward County students. The bullying episode is titled, “Bullying – Who Holds the REAL Power?” Webcast and corresponding classroom exercises at www.BrowardPrevention.org

c. iSafe – Internet Safety; Internet Bullying/Harassment (for staff or students)

3) Assemblies – we rarely conduct assemblies and do not recommend them unless the proper groundwork has been laid through prior staff training and the establishment of schoolwide reporting methods (anonymous reporting boxes, No Blame Approach, etc).

4) Trainings/Workshops:

a. Staff Trainings – Highly recommend! Minimum 1 hour, minimum attendees 30, for a comprehensive training, we prefer 2-3 hours. Staff trainings can also be provided which focus on creating school based intervention systems such as:

i. Peer Counseling/Mediation

ii. Peer Support Approach (formerly The No Blame Approach) – A seven step non-punitive, support group style of intervention that seeks to change the behavior of students involved in bullying by increasing empathy and peer ownership.

iii. The Power of One – (Wayne Sakamoto) Youth intervention and empowerment through the informal facilitation of clique/gang leaders.

b. Parent trainings – The minimum time is 1 hour, the minimum attendees is 30.

c. CHAMPs – classroom management is a huge part of bullying prevention and CHAMPs trainings are available through the Office of Prevention.

5) Schoolwide Comprehensive Initiatives

a. Positive School Culture Initiative – The Office of Prevention helps provide the outline and tools to help a school establish schoolwide, classroom and individual interventions. Each year, the school train their staff, then the students receive an assembly followed the next day by classroom interventions; approximately 2 months later this process is repeated; finally at the end of the year there is a celebration assembly. These trainings paired with surveys and data collection set the stage for a schoolwide cultural shift of increased respect and safety.

b. Foundations – a comprehensive, multimedia program (Randy Sprick’s Safe and Civil Schools) that guides schools through the process of designing a positive and proactive school-wide discipline plan over 3 years.

c. Olweus Bullying Prevention Program – OBPP is recognized by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence as one of only eleven Blueprints Model Programs and by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as a Model Program-two of the highest honors a prevention program can attain. OPP was awarded the Olweus Schoolwide Training award and had a staff member trained to be a trainer for two schools: Attucks Middle School, Fort Lauderdale, and Horizon Elementary School, Sunrise. Although the Florida Bullying Prevention Initiative was only able to fund two schools this year, having the Office of Prevention staff trained in the Olweus Model opens the opportunity for additional schools as funding increases.

6) Assisted determination of school’s already existing structures, data collection methods and best intervention/prevention options.