High+School


 * 1) The High School sub committee met on 1/6, we reviewed the information we had gatherd from other districts and created a google document to house the information we have obtained.

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The High School sub committee is investigating the following: Olweus in high schools Peer Mediation Challenge Day

This will be updated before our next meeting.

2/14 - The High School sub committee met again the end of January - we decided to investigate the following:

Olewus at the HS level:

 * 1) HS operates under Act 211/Safe and Drug Free Schools. They have formulated a group called ABC (Anti-Bullying Coalition). This group meets regularly to tackle the issues within the school, create assembly programs, and spread awareness. It is headed by Trish Pike, guidance counselor at NPHS.
 * 2) Safe and Drug Free Schools Taskforce addresses all safe school needs, K-12 (D&A, bullying, facilities, etc). The group consists of teachers, administrators, local police, counselors, community members, parents, and students.
 * 3) They offer a parent forum that meets once a month. We also utilize our community forums, newsletter, email, and NPTV.
 * 4) Classroom meetings will be the main component implemented at NPHS. They will also plan to train all of the staff on classroom meetings, on-the-spot interventions, cyber safety, and the bullying circle.
 * 5) In all of the elementary schools and middle schools they have identified the hot-spots. They have identified some at the high school level and had added supervision, security presence, and cameras.
 * 6) They utilize the Olweus Bulling Questionnaires. They administer them to all students’ grades 4-9 at the beginning of a school year. Once the buildings officially kick-off the program, they are re-assessed 1 year after their kick-off date. They then create a trend report to track the progress. At all levels K-12 they track all discipline referrals and harassment reports.

Challenge Day:
**Vision ** - every child lives in a world where they feel safe, loved and celebrated. **Miss **ion - to provide youth and their communities with experiential programs that demonstrate the possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth, and full expression. **Issues addressed ** - cliques, gossip, rumors, negative judgments, teasing, harassment, isolation, stereotypes, intolerance, racism, sexism, bullying, violence, homophobia, hopelessness.

Each Challenge day is a 6.5 hour program designed for 100 students grades 7-12 - 2 highly trained representatives will fly out from California to lead the workshop. It is required that a Be the Change Team (school teachers/ administrators) be in place for the Challenge Day.

**Costs **: Because we are outside of the California area, we would be required to have at least three Challenge Day's at our high school (or we would have to work with another local school to split the days and costs). Here is an outline of the expenses: Here is a link to view some videos about Challenge Day. []

Peer Mediation:

 * 1) ===Students either apply or are faculty-selected to be part of the “leadership” team, then receive training either by a hired outside group or an in-house group of counselors/teachers/administrators ===
 * 2) trained students work in conjunction with counselors/teachers/administrators to serve as mediators for student disputes
 * 3) Students also visit middle schools and elementary schools to put on workshops and programs about bullying, respect, tolerance, etc.

Other Schools: This first link takes you to the Conestoga High School Peer Mediation website

http://www.tesd.net/21282062413832563/site/default.asp

This second link is a news article about a Massachusetts school about to lose funding for its very successful peer mediation program…I was just impressed by the number of cases that they say they handle and how passionate the kids seemed to be about it. It seems to be a program that can be very effective if set up right and fully supported.

@http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x1371485343/Taunton-High-School-Peer-Mediation-in-jeopardy

2/14 - <span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Philly Inquirer, Health section, there was an item revealing outcome of research suggesting that the most aggressive forms of bullying were demonstrated by those in the //<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">2nd // most popular group (perhaps trying harder to be first?). The //<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">most // popular kids bullied others the least; the //<span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">least // popular kids came in second. Target study group was 3722 North Carolina teens (ages not mentioned). Full article / findings appeared in Feb. edition of __American Sociological Review;__ researchers from U of Cali / Davis.