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Hannah Jasinski, 12, watches Thursday as a
group in her seventh-grade health class at Templeton Middle School
in Sussex performs a short skit about bullying.
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Dan Carey watches Thursday as a group in
his seventh-grade health class at Templeton Middle School in
Sussex performs a short skit about bullying.
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TOWN OF LISBON – Ripping her students’
carefully drawn posters into pieces, Templeton Middle School teacher Lisa
Strauss surprises the seventh-graders in her health class.
She gives the students tape to repair the damage, but the posters aren’t
the same.
"That’s how a victim feels," Strauss tells them.
The exercise, part of the school’s bullying prevention curriculum,
"impacts students through and through," she said.
Preventing bullying is so important to Strauss that she has taken on the
roles of instructor, evaluator, and even bully as part of the curriculum.
"It’s exciting for me to be a part of this," she said.
Strauss became involved with the Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction’s bullying prevention curriculum last February. At that
time, she was getting her master’s degree at Carroll College and her
instructor, Jon Hisgen, was the lead writer of the curriculum.
Strauss agreed to test and evaluate the program in her seventh-grade
health class at Templeton. The curriculum, which empowers students and
teaches them skills, is now being used in more than 250 state schools, she
said.
The program recently drew the attention of State Superintendent Elizabeth
Burmaster, who visited the school Feb. 20. Templeton students were
planning to perform a bullying role-play skit for Burmaster, but a small
electrical fire at the school canceled the event.
Regardless, Burmaster is a strong supporter of the curriculum.
"First of all, our schools have to be safe for our kids to
learn," Burmaster said. "Bullying is something that can
absolutely not be tolerated."
Burmaster said that Templeton piloted the curriculum for the state and the
results of the curriculum at the middle school have been helpful.
"When there are incidents, they have a strategy, a method to deal
with the bullying immediately," she said. "They are not afraid
to come forward (to say) that I was harassed because they know that there
will be a response."
‘Confidence and skills’
Strauss said she has seen the positive results of the bullying
prevention curriculum firsthand.
"Students became more empowered to deal with bullying behavior on
their own, which includes feeling more confident about reporting it to a
trusted adult," she said.
Restorative justice lessons, which teach students who act as bullies how
to apologize to victims, and role-playing activities, in which Strauss
gets involved by playing the role of bully, help get the message across.
Strauss said that students don’t fear retaliation after learning how to
properly address a situation that involves a bully.
"It gives them confidence and skills to handle the situation on their
own, which requires knowing when to report to an adult," she said.
Students also learn about behaviors that aren’t traditionally considered
bullying, such as students taking objects without asking and friends
bullying friends. After learning how to identify bullying behavior, more
students are reporting bullies to her, Strauss said. The majority of
students are not bullies, only 15 percent are, she said. Knowing this
helps students to feel more empowered, Strauss said. "There is
strength in numbers," she said. "Together they can go report or
together they can go help a victim. That’s what helps to break the code
of silence."
Templeton Middle School Principal Patricia Polczynski said there isn’t a
bullying problem in the school. She stressed that values of the curriculum
are character-building and giving students the skills needed to actively
address bullies.
"Our whole philosophy is helping our kids be good school citizens and
making good choices," she said.
Polczynski said the curriculum has helped Templeton students.
"It’s a very positive and proactive approach in helping kids
identify what are negative behaviors and how to deal with them if and when
they would ever occur," she said.
Burmaster said that she hopes to make another visit to Templeton before
the end of the school year to see the curriculum at work.
Strauss hopes to continue to improve the bullying prevention curriculum
and is doing so with the help of fellow Templeton seventh-grade teacher
Dan Carey.
Strauss hopes that the curriculum continues to have a positive impact on
the lives of students.
"It’s time to react to bullying in elementary and middle
schools," she said.
Katherine Michalets can be reached at kmichalets@conleynet.com
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