MEET THE CAST
A Letter from Señorita Ortega
Last year, the school where I teach music, Cherry Hill Middle School, began a program to Stop Bullying Now! It has been a real "hit" so I wanted to share with you some of the marvelous things that our students, administrators, staff, and parents have done. Lots of our ideas came from HRSA’s Stop Bullying Now! Web site.
Here’s a quick peek:
- We asked all students and staff to fill out a questionnaire about bullying, so that we would know how much it happens at our school, what kinds of bullying are happening, where it takes place, and how adults can best respond.
- We created rules against bullying at our school. Students and staff signed a pledge to help students who are bullied and report incidents/situations of bullying.
- Our students and staff hosted a 45-minute school assembly to raise awareness about the issue of bullying. Students performed the Stop Bullying Now! song, we showed Public Service Announcements, students in our drama club produced a bullying skit, and our principal (Ms. Billings) talked with everyone about our school’s rules about bullying and what happens when students bully others.
- Our librarian, Mr. Foote, has ordered books and videos about bullying from the Starting a Campaign page and has put these in a special display in our school library.
- We created a Bullying Prevention Team that meets every month to plan bullying prevention activities. The team is led by Principal Billings and our science teacher, Mr. Bittner,. Others on the team are: Coach Cruncher; me; KB's mom, Ms. Floofinatta; our school resource officer, our school counselor, one of the bus drivers, and several students – Milton, Josh, and Melanie.
- Our Bullying Prevention Team researched bullying prevention programs in the Starting A Campaign page and have started a school–wide bullying prevention program.
- Our classroom teachers have shown the SBN! Webisodes, and we hold classroom discussions weekly.
- We've put up the SBN! Posters in each classroom and in the hallways.
- Our drama club is an after school program, and they took their bullying skit featuring how bystanders can stop bullying "on the road" to other middle schools. They've also performed for scouting troops and other youth groups.
- We held a community-wide poster contest with a Stop Bullying Now! theme. With the help of some community sponsors, we featured the winning poster from each school in the local newspaper.
- Students publish articles for our school's newsletter (the Cherry Hill Chatter) about bullying.
- We printed out Tip Sheets in English and Spanish and working with the PTSA gave these to every family at our school.
Our Bullying Prevention Program is just getting started, but already we have had positive feedback about what we can do together to raise awareness about bullying. Be creative! Think about how you can all work within your school to try these and other ideas to Stop Bullying Now!
