Bullying Strategies Detailed for LEAP
Delegates attending the October 10th meeting of the Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents
(LEAP) learned strategies to deal with, and prevent, bullying.
Knowing the students you serve is one of the prime methods to prevent bullying, Mercer Middle
School Principal John Duellman told a full room at the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS)
Administrative Offices in Ashburn. “We really feel middle schools are built for adolescent kids.”
Duellman noted that middle schools are divided into three houses, which create smaller learning
communities. Within these communities there is a dean and counselor who interact with
students on a daily basis. “By creating smaller learning communities, it allows adults to know
students better.” This builds a trust that allows students to talk with adults honestly about
bullying.
Duellman said it’s not uncommon for a guidance counselor to be assigned to the same class
throughout middle school, allowing the counselor to really know students well and their
relationships with other students.
Duellman said counselors speak with other counselors at different levels of instruction
(elementary, middle, high) to identify students who bully or may be bullied so that corrective
action can be taken. He said counselors do not work in isolation and want to be able to follow
students throughout their academic career.
Guidance counselors also conduct surveys to determine student attitudes toward bullying and
its prevalence in a school.
School resource officers (SRO’s) from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and Leesburg Police
Department can be used to track student behavior outside of school. The school resource
officers also are consulted in cases of bullying via the Internet.
Duellman and Stone Hill Middle School Principal Rodney Moore said they always go through the
LCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook at the beginning of each school year so that
students know what behaviors won’t be tolerated and what punishments can result as a
consequence.
LCPS principals are allowed to formulate their own programs to combat bullying. Two of the
programs commonly used are Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) and Safe
School Ambassadors.
Moore said the Safe School Ambassadors program trains students to intervene when a student
is being put down or excluded in common areas such as gyms, locker rooms, hallways or the
cafeteria. (Stone Hill trained 33 Safe School ambassadors during the last school year and 28
this year. Students come in for the two-day voluntary training before the school year begins.)
The identity of the Safe School ambassadors is not known to their peers. When they see a
student being bullied, the ambassadors distract the bully by changing the subject of
conversation or otherwise interrupt the bullying behavior.
LCPS Student Support Services Supervisor Allyne Zappalla said the Safe School ambassadors
are chosen from the socially influential leaders of various groups within a school.
“The peer-to-peer programs are most effective in dealing with bullying and social
cruelties…Students are the ones who form the social norms and we want to see them formed in
a positive way.”
Zappalla said the Safe School Ambassadors program started eight years ago at Blue Ridge and
Harmony middle schools. She said the program has a natural progression that translates well
into the high school years. By the time students reach high school, they are invested in the
concept of social justice.
Moore said the core beliefs of the PBIS system are simple: “At Stone Hill we say you must
respect yourself, you must respect others, you must respect property.” Beyond its core aspects,
such as rewarding students for being “caught being good,” Moore said PBIS can be adjusted to
meet the changing needs of students as they age.
For instance, Moore said sixth-graders like redeeming the tickets they’ve earned for being good
by spinning a prize wheel in front of the whole cafeteria. Eight-graders prefer more aesthetic
rewards, such as sitting in the teacher’s chair for a period or being allowed to eat outside.
LCPS Behavior Support Coordinator Stefanie LaPolla said programs such as PBIS are a flexible
framework for schools to work within. “We’re not approaching this as ‘one size fits all.’ ”
LaPolla noted reactions to programs such as PBIS are different within student bodies. She said
80 percent of students “get” the program’s basics immediately while 15 percent need support
and further instruction and 5 percent need one-on-one instruction in how PBIS works.
LaPolla said PBIS had been very effective; growing from five Loudoun schools during the 20072008 school year to 52 now.
Moore said, as principal, he can’t stop every mean word that’s said or every incidence of hitting.
“I can’t stop all those things, but repeated actions I can (stop); that’s bullying.”
“Programs don’t combat and defeat bullying,” said Duellman. “What does is a community that
knows students and a fully personalized environment, a faculty that cares for each student.”
Moore added that a community, including parents, is needed to combat bullying.
LCPS Guidance Specialist Beth Doyle said the school division’s reaction to bullying varies by
grade level.
In the elementary grades, students are taught to “stop, walk, talk.” Students are instructed to
tell the bully to stop their behavior, then walk away before things escalate. Students are then
instructed to talk to a trusted adult about this situation.
At the middle school level, Doyle said bullying is more covert. Students have to be taught the
difference between flirtation and harassment and about gossip, rumor, relational aggression
and peer pressure. She also noted that, at the secondary level, peers are more important than
adults in a student’s world.
At the secondary level, Doyle said students are exposed to everything from school-wide
assemblies on diversity and tolerance to small-group interventions. The aim of all of these
efforts is the same, she added; create a culture of respect.
Elizabeth A. Ozalas of Loudoun Counseling LLC gave the delegates some practical advice about
handling bullies:






First, realize the symptoms of being bullied in your child. If they have
fearfulness, anxiety or vague physical complaints that keep them from
attending school, chances are they’re being bullied.
Ask questions about what is bothering your child in a roundabout way. Don’t
ask direct questions; stay calm, listen and try to understand.
Make sure you express to your child that their being bullied is not their fault
and that they did the right thing by telling an adult. Ozalas emphasized that
telling is not tattling. Tattling is the relaying of a fact specifically to get
someone in trouble. Telling is relaying information.
Bullying is “an imbalance of power” and every child has the right to feel safe
at school.
Do not tell your child to fight back; fighting back only prolongs the bullying
behavior.
Don’t tell your child to simply ignore bullying or expect children to work out
bullying situations among themselves.
The next LEAP meeting will be at 7 p.m. November 14th. The subject will be “Homework
Strategies.”