Kids can be kids, but
not bullies, schools decide
Most districts in Berks County have programs to create a
safe atmosphere for
learning.
By
Merav
Bushlin
Reading
Eagle
Berks
County educators aren't shrugging off bullying in schools as kids
being kids.
“We'll wipe it out,” said Celeste
Brown, principal of Greenwich-Lenhartsville and Albany elementary
schools in the Kutztown School District. “We're empowering the kids
so no one feels like a victim anymore.”
Three Kutztown schools,
Greenwich-Lenhartsville and Albany elementary schools and Kutztown
Middle School, kicked off bullying prevention programs this
week.
They're not alone. Dr. Grace L.
Cisek, a former program administrator at the Berks County
Intermediate Unit, said 15 of 18 districts in Berks have started
programs.
The programs are evidence that
bullying is no longer overlooked as a natural part of childhood,
said Brown, who added that many experts today consider bullying a
social problem.
Cisek said that to create a safe
atmosphere for learning, schools must implement an organized,
scientific anti-bullying program.
The point is for schools to deal
proactively with bullying, Cisek said.
Most people have a limited concept
of what makes a bully, according to Merrill McCubbin, who led an
anti-bullying assembly Tuesday morning at
Greenwich-Lenhartsville.
“All of us are guilty at one time
or another of being a bully,” McCubbin told the students and
parents.
When people think of a bully, they
picture that big kid who picks fights during recess, but acts of
bullying include name calling, teasing, or even cutting into the
front of a line, McCubbin said.
According to Cisek, a negative
action also must be repeated for it to qualify as
bullying.
Patricia D. Werley, whose son
Christopher is a third-grader, said she did not realize bullying can
go beyond pushing and shoving until she recently read a pamphlet
sent home by the school.
One of Christopher's classmates
bullied him by excluding him from playground games and kicking him
in the back, Werley said.
By telling his mother what
happened and not pushing back, Christopher took the right steps,
according to McCubbin's presentation.
Once a bully is identified, a
school can intervene to stop the behavior and help a bully
understand the effect of his actions, said Stephanie Steigerwalt,
guidance counselor for the Albany and Greenwich-Lenhartsville
schools.
Contact reporter Merav
Bushlin at 610-371-5014 or
mbushlin@readingeagle.com.
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