This week I had the opportunity to serve on a panel with a
group of professionals at the University Of Iowa College Of Public Health. The panel included Marizen Ramirez, M.P.H., Ph.D., Associate Professor,
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Associate Director for
Research, Injury Prevention Research Center, Briana Woods-Jaeger, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Behavioral Health and Shawn
Zierke, parent involved in the development of the show and a MA student in the
College of Public Health.
The panel followed a public preview of the play, Out of
Bounds by Working Group Theater. The
event was sponsored by the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health and
Hancher. The full length performance
was performed at our school and the other two local junior highs in
November. This is an effort to have the
arts help create some conversations about bullying.
I really believe in the work they are doing and know that as
a school administrator this is an issue we deal with on a consistent basis. We
try to solve problems but also serve as resource for our students and
families. I shared during the session
that I believe people really do try to do the best they know how. I do not think our parents, teachers, students,
or administrators have gotten worse or more ineffective. I do think that the methods that we see some
of these issues come forth are very different now in part to emerging
technologies.
To effectively address these situations we need to work as
partners. It pains me that there is a
level of mistrust in allowing school officials to help work though
situations. I do know that some parents
have been burned by the schools response or lack thereof, and movies such as Bully
show that schools do not always get it right creating some of the reason
for the mistrust. The best way to establish
this trust and to regain confidence is to take these situations as serious as
the victims perceive what is happening to them and to provide effective follow
through. Being an overweight child
growing up and getting teased and picked on relentlessly I think helps me
relate our student’s struggles.
At South East when presented with these situations I believe
there are important lessons for our students to learn. The first is empathy. See by sending a text message, post or
picture our students never have to deal with the emotion that comes from the
person on the others side of the screen.
It is just like as adults how we misuse email where we saw more and in a
different tone that we would in person.
Having students confront the feeling this caused to another person is a
powerful experience. The other topic I
commonly address is being kind and humane
to people. I credit @joykelly5 for
helping me frame this conversation. Is
it more important to be right or to be kind? Who are you reserving your best
manners for? Is this what you want people to think about you? Why are you allowing yourself to be treated
this way? Bullying at its core involves
inhumane treatment of others and it is not something we can allow others to
look away from.
Finally, I always
involve the bystanders. I tell them if they are not being part of the
solution then they are part of the problem.
When we see these situations we need to be advocates for others and not
allow this type of treatment to continue.
Most always all bullying situations or peer conflicts that we have end
with some mediation between the students involved. The success rate I have seen by doing this is
very high. Without taking this step the
problem often continues for some of the same reasons listed above.
During the panel I learned from the research of Dr. Ramirez that
schools do a really good job with having policies but that there is great inconsistencies
in the programs schools use to address bullying. No matter the program we use as school
officials we know, as @ToddWhitaker always says, it is the people not the programs that make the
difference. We need to make sure that
the people working in our schools have the skills to navigate the conversations
and work through interventions to resolve these situations. If you are a parent reading this and have an
unfortunate circumstance involving your student I hope you will give us a
chance to work as partners.
Be Great!
Matt
