A school and community that do not address bullying cannot ensure that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Bullying affects each critical dimension of a whole child approach to education because it compromises students’ physical and emotional health and safety; affects their relationships with peers and adults in the school; creates barriers that prevent them from engaging in learning and connecting to the school and broader community; and affects their academic performance. When bullying goes unaddressed, it can create a negative school culture and organizational patterns that shape students’ learning and development.
Join us Tuesday, September 7, on the Whole Child Podcast to learn how we can address bullying locally and nationally so that all students learn in a positive school climate that ensures they are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. You’ll hear from these experts:
- Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, who will talk about what works in addressing bullying in schools and how the department plans to help schools and communities combat bullying and create healthy, safe, and supportive school climates.
- Penny Bisignano, Olweus Coordinator for the state of Iowa, will share her work supporting over thirty Olweus consultants and trainers across the state to deliver this comprehensive, school-wide program to reduce bullying among children, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy.
- Rachel Cole, high school guidance counselor at Malcolm Price Laboratory School (PLS) in Cedar Falls, Iowa (winner of the first-ever Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award), who will share how and why PLS created a bullying prevention program—Be a Buddy, Not a Bully!—for its elementary students. The program has since been adopted by schools worldwide.
Are your school and community talking about bullying and its effect on students? Do you feel your school and community know how to appropriately address bullying and create a healthy, safe, and supportive environment?
