Case Study 14A

Lynch Elementary School Bullying Prevention Program

Joan Elizabeth Reubens

As the staff came together for yet another monthly meeting in the 2009/10 school year at Lynch Elementary School in Pinellas County, Florida, a teacher was overheard saying, “This is about adding a bullying prevention program. Can you believe it, another program and another thing to do?” Unfortunately, this is common thinking among educational communities across the United States, and Lynch was no different. However, in this urban school of approximately 642 students, a staff that had this one more thing attitude gradually began to see that bullying prevention could fit seamlessly into their existing schoolwide initiatives. As a coordinator of bullying prevention for the district, I was stunned as I entered the large room that held approximately 105 staff members where the meeting was being led by the principal, Lorraine Bigelow; the behavior specialist, Mary Hickerson; and other individual staff. I had been invited to and participated in many meetings, but this one was different. Although there was some skepticism, it was obvious that everyone in that room had a stake in what was being presented and were encouraged to share their views. What was obvious and effective was the teamwork approach. Everyone’s contribution counted, as was evidenced by the principal’s leadership.

Lynch Elementary is one of seventy-four elementary schools in Pinellas County, Florida. With over 102,000 students, the district is the twenty-third largest in the United States. Lynch is a Title I school with 71 percent of students receiving free/reduced-price lunch. The student body is 65 percent white, 9.3 percent black, 8.1 percent Hispanic, 9 percent Asian, 0.6 percent American Indian, and 7.5 percent multiracial. The school serves 12.3 percent exceptional education students and 17.8 percent English language learning students. The mission of Lynch Elementary School staff and community is to provide quality educational experiences as a foundation for the lifelong learning of every student. The Lynch community strives to ensure that these learning experiences happen within an environment that promotes safety and respects diversity.

Looking back to the 2006/7 school year, CHAMPS, Foundations, and Commitment to Character are programs that were already being implemented to help promote a positive school climate and to instill strong character in the students. The CHAMPS and Foundations programs are both part of the Safe and Civil Schools* series and go hand in hand to promote a proactive and positive approach to classroom/campus behavior management. The Foundations program guides a school through the process of designing a proactive, positive schoolwide discipline plan. It provides a framework to help the school’s staff develop and implement effective behavior management and motivational practices, including behavior support for all students. The Foundations process includes a set of specific applications to produce ongoing improvement for student behaviors. CHAMPS (Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Success) is an approach to classroom management that aligns with the Foundations’ schoolwide discipline component. Staff members are provided with the tools for behavior management and discipline practices. CHAMPS expectations are clarified for students using the CHAMPS tool: Conversation—can students talk during the activity? (example: inside voice); Help—how will students have their questions answered during the activity? (example: raise hand); Activity—what is the activity/lesson? (example: partner math); Movement—what kind of movement is allowed during the activity? (example: sharpen pencil); Participation—how do students demonstrate their full participation? (example: written assignment); and Success for everyone! Commitment to Character is the district award-winning model for character education.† The goal of the program is to create a school culture that is saturated with such character qualities as respect, responsibility, honesty, and self-motivation so as to promote the highest student achievement in a safe learning environment. Combined, these three programs produce ongoing improvement for student behaviors.

Each program has a core committee of faculty, staff, and leadership that guides implementation. All committees attend regularly scheduled meetings together to align and improve processes and procedures to ensure they are working at the school. The Foundations/CHAMPS team meets monthly to review data trends and issues at the school. Based on these findings, the team brainstorms new ideas for the classroom and school campus, or revisions of existing programs to meet current needs are discussed. The team is also responsible for prioritizing issues and bringing them to the staff for discussion. Issues identified by the team are discussed at monthly professional learning communities (PLC)/team leaders meetings with the ultimate goal of creating safe and civil behaviors campuswide.

The Principal’s 200 Club is one outcome of this process. This incentive program focuses on positive behavioral change and increases positive interactions between students and staff across the entire school environment. It includes a dynamic feedback system, continually informing students and staff about who is following the school rules. The purpose of the program is to catch students following All-School Rules and behaving appropriately. Tickets are distributed to the teachers to use to recognize a student for following the rules. Students who earn these tickets make a positive trip to the office and receive kudos from the office staff, sign the 200 Club Celebrity Book and have their name mentioned in the morning announcements. Going one step further, the principal makes a personal phone call to the student’s parents to congratulate them for their child’s outstanding behavior. The ticket is then added to a chart in the office for a chance to be selected for a Mystery Motivator. Teachers, parents, and students would agree that this program has been quite successful at Lynch, and the students are thrilled to receive recognition for their outstanding behavior in following All-School Rules.

Despite the many positive things in place to address school climate and student behavior, through data collected during the implementation of these programs, bullying was identified as a recurring problem that needed to be addressed. Following the success of the other programs, the school recognized the need for a specific schoolwide approach. The Foundations/CHAMPS team determined that a research-based proven program needed to be put in place in conjunction with the existing programs. The idea was to integrate the programs in a seamless way that provided a one-program approach rather than having four separate programs working independently of each other. Following the process, the team researched and identified the Olweus Bullying Prevention Schoolwide Program to be implemented at Lynch Elementary School during the 2009/10 school year. The goal of the research-based Olweus program is to reduce, if not eliminate, existing bully/victim problems among students, prevent the development of new bully/victim problems, achieve better peer relations in the school, and create conditions that encourage students to respect each other. This was a natural fit with the existing programs at the school.

The Olweus program is a comprehensive process that begins with staff training for an identified core committee. Nationally certified trainers from the district’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Office led the intensive two-day training and continue with consultative services for the duration of the program. The core team, which attended the initial training to become the school experts in the area of bullying prevention, consisted of the principal, the behavior specialist, the guidance counselor, teachers from each grade level, a physical education (PE) teacher, an exceptional student education (ESE) teacher, and a support staff personnel. Since the program is a systemic approach and the implementation needed to fit with what was already in place, the team helped create PAWS for Success (PAWS is the school’s mascot and refers to the school’s guidelines for success) posters for all classrooms, PE locations, cafeteria, and areas for arrival/dismissal. These PAWS behaviors include self-responsibility, following the rules, being respectful, using safety and civility, honesty and trustworthiness, and the school’s antibullying rules, which state, “We will not bully others, we will help students who are bullied, we will include students who are left out, and we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home if we know that somebody is being bullied.”

Once the staff was trained, the program was introduced to students. Through the We Love Your News (WLYN) daily live student-produced news show, information about the program was introduced by reviewing the school’s antibullying rules, role-plays, student-created posters, and the introduction of class meetings. This format is used for some of the ongoing teaching components of the program. DVD clips from the Olweus program help generate student discussion during classroom meetings to address various bullying prevention needs and issues on campus. Teachers have also successfully incorporated bullying issues for discussion during class meetings through classroom suggestion boxes to support class meetings. The core team also compiled a list of books from the media center that focused on bullying prevention for teachers to incorporate in their classroom read-aloud.

The Olweus program has been well received by staff and parents alike, as bullying behaviors had been an increasing issue with many students. To get everyone involved, families were notified through letters and phone calls about the school adopting the Olweus program, and families were invited to attend a schoolwide kickoff campaign designed to foster student involvement. A presentation was made to the School Advisory Council (SAC) and Lynch Boosters as well. Recognizing the need for consistency, the core team created a specific process that orients new staff as to what they need to know about the school’s programs. At the PLC monthly meetings, identified staff meet with new school personnel in the media center and go through the manual step by step and provide a folder of all necessary information. This approach has lent itself as a structure for success.

Many innovative ideas have been developed and shared with teachers and staff alike to promote the Lynch antibullying campaign. This includes a variety of reporting procedures that align with the program, district policy, and state law. Many classroom teachers have used a suggestion box in their rooms for students to anonymously report bullying. Also, a campus mailbox is centrally located for all students who need to report bullying concerns. These anonymous reports are collected on a daily basis by the behavior specialist who then investigates the situations.

In December 2009, the data collected from the anonymous Olweus Bullying Questionnaire indicated the prevalence of bullying problems as well as the forms of bullying, the location and duration, and the number of incidents. An overall 22.3 percent of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students reported being bullied two to three times a month. Combined with staff input, it was noted that the cafeteria, PE area, and areas of arrival and dismissal were hot spots of concern.

In May 2011, the anonymous Olweus Bullying Questionnaire was taken again by third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students and showed that an overall 20 percent of these students were being bullied. The hot spots that were previously noted in 2009 showed a decrease in being problematic but continue to remain as areas of concern for bullying, so supervision in these areas continues to be heightened. The results showed that there was a 2.3 percent overall decrease in the reports of bullying. Tables 14A.1 and 14A.2 show data from both the 2009 and 2011 questionnaires broken down by gender, grade level, and type of bullying.

Table 14A.1. Percent of Students Experiencing Bullying at Lynch Elementary School by Grade and Year

Grade	2009	2011
Third	24	17
Fourth	19	36
Fifth	17	14

Table 14A.2. Percent of Students Experiencing Bullying at Lynch Elementary School by Type, Gender, and Year

	Girls		Boys
Type	2009	2011	2009	2011
Verbal	24	24	16	21
Rumors	18	19	14	14
Exclusion	14	19	14	14
Racial	14	9	9	6
Bullied another way	13	10	14	13
Threats	9	7	12	6
Physical	6	6	9	12
Sexual	8	9	9	5
Cyber	8	6	5	2
Damage to property	5	4	8	4

Since the core team meets regularly to discuss serious concerns from teachers and support staff, it was important for the staff to know what bullying behaviors were being most exhibited and by whom, thus generating specific strategies that would target the areas of concern. The Olweus survey results combined with a review of bullying report forms and analysis of discipline referrals provided the information about bullying behaviors. The data were used to create topics for classroom meetings so that specific behavioral areas could be addressed and additional teaching could take place. Some of the concerns include the campus hot spots for bullying and the severity of bullying behaviors on campus. These concerns were then addressed and discussed at staff meetings. The hot spots of concern have and continue to be covered with additional supervision by staff in a cooperative effort to curtail bullying behaviors.

The core team observed an increase in student buy-in for the 2010/11 school year. Students are using the language stated in the school’s antibullying rules if they see bullying happen. Students are reporting more incidents of bullying, and each is handled following the district’s policy against bullying and harassment guidelines. Through yearly bullying prevention training, staff know that when bullying awareness is being taught, reports of bullying may increase as well. The process has been very proactive and consistent. Now when meetings occur, comments have changed from “Can you believe it, another program and another thing to do?” to “This is just what we do and what is best for our students!”

*CHAMPS and Foundations, retrieved May 17, 2011, from www.safeandcivilschools.com

†Pinellas County Schools Commitment to Character brochure.