October is National Bullying Prevention and Awareness month. At GMS our Bullying Prevention program has a 4 tiered approach. Education Prevention Intervention Maintenance

We have several prevention and awareness activities planned throughout the month.

The October Theme is the end of bullying begins with me. We will also celebrate Random Acts of Kindness. 10/5 We’ve scheduled a Run/Walk and Roll Against Bullying Obstacle course during recess. 10/10 is National Unity Day – Make it Orange and Make it End. We want all students to wear orange clothing. 5 th grade will take a pledge and create a canvas poster with their hands. The pledge is…I will use my hands and words to make people feel safe. 6 th grade will create posters in Art class (some are completed and displayed in this Power Point). 7 th grade had a T-Shirt design contest and Rachel Dunkley won the contest. Her design will be printed on orange shirts and sold for $10. They will also have very focused lessons on Cyber-Bullying.

Definition of Bullying: Bullying is unfair and one-sided. It happens when someone keeps hurting, frightening, threatening or leaving someone out on purpose.

Bullying vs. Conflict Bullying - unequal power to solve the conflict (1 sided). Conflict - equal power to solve the conflict (2 sided).

Types of Bullying include – Behind the back, face to face, verbal, nonverbal, physical and cyber- bullying.

Student Response should be to recognize when bullying is occurring, tell them to STOP, WALK AWAY and TALK/REPORT the bullying to someone they trust!

SWAT stands for Stop, Walk, and Talk to someone you trust!

Bullying Roles – the one who bullies, the target or victim and the bystanders. As a bystander you could be an encourager, discourager, an ignorer or a reporter. We want our GMS students to be discouragers or reporters.

If your child reports bullying to you, please encourage them to speak to an adult at school or call Mr. Peterson, Mrs. Thayer or Mrs. Zachow!