The professional organization that represents school principals and administrators has created a new initiative that they hope will stop excessive bullying in elementary schools. The South Carolina Association of School Administrators (SCASA) on Tuesday launched what they’re calling the Bullying Prevention Initiative. The announcement came at a summit among school leaders in Columbia.
Molly Spearman is SCASA’s executive director. She says the new program is moving forward.
We’re really moving this from awareness into a practical program that can be implemented within a school. We’re in the process now of selecting schools that will be implementing the Olweus training program.
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a research-based plan that Spearman says can cut bullying incidents at a school from 25 to 50 percent if run properly. Four schools will be part of a pilot program in South Carolina.
Joyce Ott is an education professor who works with Clemson’s Institute of Family and Neighborhood Life, which promoted the initiative in South Carolina. Ott says the Olweus program was the idea of Norwegian professor Dan Olweus, who was the first to study the effect of anti-bullying measures in the 1980s.
The program came up as a result of three young boys committting suicide after having been pretty brutally bullied themselves. As a result of that, the country of Norway took bullying on as a major issue.
Under the initiative, every employee of a school is trained in how to properly spot bullying and stop it. The training costs an elementary school $2,000 and is voluntary. It is not required by any state mandate.
Spearman admits the cost is making many school officials reluctant. She hopes the training is sucessful wherever it is used, so other schools will follow.
Spearman said the program tries to take bullying head-on by urging students to report any problems. However, she adds that any success hinges on whether faculty and parents are willing to be approachable.
All the adults in the school have to buy in. All the parents, the janitor, the cafeteria workers (so) every student in the school knows that they can go to any adult and they will understand it’s okay to report it and that there is a strategy in place to handle it once it’s reported.
Spearman said SCASA made the announcement at its conference to make sure that elementary and middle school principals understood their role in the program.
AUDIO: Spearman–Principal’s role is crucial
Spearman says targeting elementary and middle-level kids is the best way to put the program into place. She says, if sucessful, it will build up into high schools.
