Standing Up To Bullying

Alyssa Jensen/Staff Writer

Last spring a suicide at South O’Brien High School in Paullina led many Iowans to realize the effects bullying has on students. Luckily, the Cedar Falls school district has been creating policies and procedures to address the issue of bullying in schools.

“Bullying happens in every school across the country, and we want to do everything we can to stop it from being a problem in our schools so that our students are safe and feel safe,” Hansen Elementary School counselor Jen Alexander said.

        Three years ago, the Safe and Drug Free Schools program ended due to the lack of funds from the state of Iowa.

        Alexander, police officer Katy Burkhardt and CFHS counselor Josh Carnelley volunteered to start an anti-bullying and substance free committee called Cedar Falls Partners for Safe and Drug Free Schools. The group is composed of teachers, administrators, parents, students and community representatives.

        One important change the committee is working on is an improved documentation system for reporting bullying. They have created a web link with information on the schools’ website with the theme, “Close the Curtain on Bullying.” Also included is a workable definition of what bullying is.

        “There’s a bit of confusion as to what’s bullying and what’s not. Sometimes just general conflicts or teasing can be construed as bullying when it does not meet the actual criteria,” Carnelley said.

        Along with these changes come adjustments to the bullying awareness in the class instruction of students.

        “The anti-bullying curriculum has already been in place in grades 3-6 across the district for years,” Alexander said.

        While it has been in place for grades 3-6, grades, 7-12 are a different story.

        “There are a number of holes in the 7th through 12th curriculum on bullying prevention education we want to fill,” Carnelley said.

        Though the counselors are working hard to help, it is also up to the students to end bullying.

        “A good way to help is helping each other out but standing up as well,” Carnelley said.

The anti-bullying posters located throughout all the schools highlight this point with the idea of students “Standing Up, Speaking Up and Stepping Up.”

“While having a consistent definition and communicating our procedures to everyone are key, we know that posters alone are not going to solve the problem. It’s the relationships between students and teachers and students and students that will create respect towards each other. That’s what the committee is striving to do,” Alexander said.

Some believe that this fight to stop bullying is strong enough to abolish bullying from schools.

“I personally think that bullying can be fully eliminated. I think we should strive for that and not stop until we do have it eradicated from our schools,” Alexander said.

While others, however, do not.

“The amount of bullying can highly decrease but not truly be eliminated,” Carnelley said, “It’s a fight worth fighting for.”