Calgrip grant allows more schools to implement
program
Calgrip grant allows more schools to implement program
Aromas school officials and staff members from the YMCA and the Youth Alliance attended a two-day training at the end of November to prepare for the launch of a bullying prevention program at the campus and after-school programs. The following week, Sunnsyslope Elementary School hosted a kick-off of its own program with a community meeting Dec. 7.
“We want it to be seamless from the school to the after-school programs,” said Al De Vos, the gang prevention coordinator for San Benito County. “We want (students) to understand that behaviors at school and after – there is the same expectations so there is consistency.”
The bullying prevention programs are based on the Olewus technique, which requires teachers and staff to receive training so that they can recognize and respond to bullying behavior consistently. The school creates a specific rubric of what the consequences are for different types of behavior so that there is a clear understanding of what is acceptable and what is not. The kids participate in a kick-off event along with their parents and community members, pledging not to bully others as well as to report instances of bullying to an adult at school and at home.
“From all the schools surveyed, one statistic is important to note,” De Vos said, of the survey of students conducted before training begins. “Fifty-eight percent of these students who are targeted are what we call chronic sustained.”
He said that those students had reported being bullied over a period of six months to several years and that the bullying happened several times a week.
“That’s an indication that there are beliefs and attitudes, systems throughout our region…that are not in place to stop this hurtful behavior,” De Vos said, noting that results were similar across all the schools surveyed. “We want to focus on the specific behavior and we want to change that behavior. We don’t want to say the person is bad, but we just want to change the behavior.”
Cerra Vista and Sunnyslope School are running the programs now. San Juan School, which ran the pilot program, had some staff changes so will be going through training again. Tres Pinos School, Southside School and Cienega School have completed the staff training and are looking to have their school-wide kick offs early next year. De Vos said Rancho San Justo has completed a survey of students that asks them about bullying behavior, but they are not ready to have a training yet.
“It’s kind of a long process,” De Vos said, of getting the schools from training to the kick-off event. “It’s definitely involved.”
De Vos said funding for the training has come from Calgrip grants and he still has an open invitation to other schools who are interested in the training while funding is available.
“We will provide all the resources to do it as long as we have grant funding,” he said. “Parents can talk to administrators if the schools haven’t taken us up on it. Parents have a say.”
The cost to start the program at schools can vary since it costs more to survey a school with a larger student body, but the materials cost for the training cost about the same. De Vos completed certification as an Olewus trainer so that when grant funding is gone, there will be someone in the community who can offer the training to schools.
“My overall goal is really to get it in all the schools, the after-school programs and outer-school providers,” he said. “We did a presentation for the faith-based collaborative and they were very enthusiastic about the information and the types of behaviors and myths that people subscribe to it.”
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