Students work to prevent bullying
October is National Bullying Awareness month. A recent report from wallethub.com ranks Idaho schools with having some of the highest bullying incidents.
Sandcreek Middle School has developed an anti-bullying campaign.
The principle from Sandcreek said that a number of steps have been taken to bring down bullying, including a group of students who are part of the No more bullies Club.
“They hang up posters they wear shirts that say ‘Bully Free Begins with Me,’ they’ve got a sign on the back that says ‘No more bullying,’ so it’s kind of fun that way to get those kids involved,” said Principal Lyndon Oswald.
He said the kids even picked the name for the club.
“But the kids said no we just don’t, No More Bullies, that’s the name of our club and it’s a rather large club,” Oswald said.
There are about 50 students in the No More Bullies Club.
Oswald said that working with students, parents and other schools also helped them address this issue.
“Once we gathered all the stake holders and started meeting and talking about it, we came up with a pretty good anti-bullying campaign,” said Oswald.
Oswald said that the first step Sandcreek took was admitting that the school has bullying. He said that this happens in every school.
“Bullying is taking place everywhere. No school is exempt from bullying,” he said.
Another way the school is taking this on is by talking about it in the classroom.
“Kids start thinking, ‘You know, I never looked at it that way. I never thought I was hurting somebody,'” Oswald said.
He said that bullying might not come to end, but schools can help.
“Realistically, we don’t live in a bully-free environment, but we can make our schools better for the kids,” Oswald said.
Sandcreek Middle School, along with other local schools, has a system for students to anonymously report bullying. Kids can do this on the Internet or even from their smartphones.
