Princeton Schools Get Creative With Anti-Bullying Efforts

PRINCETON, NJ — October marks National Bullying Prevention Month and Princeton Public Schools District is getting creative as they get students involved in anti-bullying activities.

Princeton kicked off its anti-bullying activities on Monday as part of the Week of Respect.

"At Princeton Public Schools each school has its own age-appropriate activities to prevent HIB (harassment, intimidation and bullying) behaviors," said Elizabeth Collier, spokeswoman with Princeton Public Schools.

Here is a more indepth look at what each school in the district has accomplished to to prevent bullying, intimidation and harassment.

Community Park School

In Community Park School Liz Cameron, the guidance counselor, has been doing the "Start With Hello" program which encourages kindness. As part of the program she had the students all wear dark shirts and then form the letters to spell out "be kind" and then took a photo with a drone.

Students at Community Park also "Put Bullying to Bed” on Monday by participating in pajama day.

Other activities throughout the week included:

• Tuesday - “Team Up Against Bullying”- Wear your favorite sports jersey. Invite a new friend to play.
• Wednesday - School Closed
• Thursday - “Hats Off to Being Respectful”- Wear your favorite hat. Give five compliments.
• Friday - “Being Respectful is No Sweat”- Wear your favorite comfortable sweatpants and sweatshirts!

Little Brook School

At Littlebrook School Principal Luis Ramirez reports that they will be celebrating "Respect" as their Character Theme the entire month of October.

There are quotes of the day read aloud by the students during the morning announcements, scenario-based lessons around respect in the health classes, and self-regulation lessons for the K and 1 students during guidance.

Additionally, Kidsbridge has been working with Littlebrook 4th graders on Mindfulness activities this week.

John Witherspoon Middle School

This year John Witherspoon Middle School is changing up their activities by focusing on "upstanders and practicing upstander behavior," said Collier.

A staff person shared a daily morning announcement that included information about being an upstander and an upstander challenge. An upstander is someone who stands up and speaks out when someone is being hurt.

"Upstanders treat others with kindness and care. Upstanders create a warm and welcoming JP community. At JP we believe every student can be an upstander!" Collier said.

Here are some examples of activites students participated in during the week at JP School:

• Monday - Say hello to three people you don’t usually talk to.
• Tuesday - Give three sincere compliments.
• Wednesday - No School.
• Thursday - Say "thank you" to three people who have been kind to you.
• Friday - Mix It Up! Sit by someone at snack or lunch today that you haven’t sat next to before.

Riverside School

Students make a special announcement each morning with an "Upstander Challenge for the Day" — things like doing a random act of kindness. They also have a whole-school assembly on Friday to promote Upstander behavior.

"Dress up" days (like the PJ theme day at CP) are done during School Violence Awareness Week (October 21 to 25).

Princeton High School

"At PPS we have both proactive and reactive approaches to preventing bullying. On the proactive side, for instance, we have a homeroom initiative at Princeton High School that helps students strengthen their relationships with other students and with the community in general," Collier said.

"Higher levels of engagement result in lower levels of bullying," says Princeton High School Principal Jessica Baxter.

• Monday - PJ Day, putting bullying to rest
• Tuesday - Hat Day - Hat’s on for Heroes
• Wednesday - No school
• Thursday - Sports Jersey Day - There is no “I” in team
• Friday - Blue and White Day - Show your PHS Pride

The bullying problem isn’t isolated to just New Jersey. National statistics vary, but an aggregate of 80 different studies on bullying suggests one in five American students between 12 and 18 is bullied at some point during their middle or high school years. Traditional bullying — name calling, public humiliation, isolation, physical violence and that sort of thing — occurs most often, with 35 percent of kids reporting they’ve been targeted in one of those ways. The studies cited by the PACER Center, which established National Bullying Prevention Month, show that 15 percent of kids surveyed report being cyberbullied.

Among the marquee National Bullying Prevention Month activities is Unity Day, observed on Wednesday, Oct. 24, when everyone is encouraged to wear and show orange to send a message that no child should ever experience bullying.

“Orange provides a powerful, visually compelling expression of solidarity,” Paula Goldberg, the executive director of the PACER Center, said in a statement. “Whether it’s hundreds of individuals at a school wearing orange, store owners offering orange products or a community changing a landmark to orange, the vibrant statement becomes a conversation starter, sending the supportive, universal message that bullying is never acceptable behavior.”

Here’s more about Unity Day:

Laws In New Jersey

Although New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill Of Rights is one of the strictest anti-bullying laws in the nation, we could soon see the laws become even more stringent.

"Mallory's Law,"which aims to strengthen the current laws by forcing parental involvement, was recently approved unanimously by the State Senate.

Under the new bill, parents could face civil liabilities if they show "blatant disregard of supervising their child, [or] if their child has been judged to be delinquent of harassment or cyber harassment," a press release says, and parents would be subject to anti-bullying education classes.

The reporting and notification process for bullying incidents would be expanded: any accounts of bullying would be sent to the executive county superintendent and the parents of any students involved.

Any student found guilty of bullying would have the incident placed on their permanent record. After three proven bullying incidents, a student and their parents would be required to attend an anti-bullying training session, and law enforcement would be notified to see if any crimes were committed.

THE MENACE OF BULLIES: PATCH ADVOCACY REPORTING PROJECT

As part of a national reporting project, Patch has been looking at society's roles and responsibilities in bullying.

Do you have a story to tell? Email us at bullies@patch.com, or share your views in the comments.

With reporting by Deb Belt and Katie Kausch, Patch Staff