What happens behind the curtain of fourth grade at Philips Preparatory School – the teasing and cattiness, the whispering between girls, the deliberate pushing and shoving – usually finds its way to Jennifer Grant’s classroom mailbox.
The new teacher, who has a class with 14 girls and eight boys, asks students to write her notes when they feel bullied or if they see lousy behavior going on.
“Bullying is really an imbalance of power, and I think if kids deal with it in some way, it helps,” she said. “My kids now know that we don’t do that at Philips.”
Grant’s east Denver elementary school is among 23 schools that have implemented the Olweus Bullying Prevention Curriculum in hopes of tamping down on an age-old problem.
The Olweus model stresses open communication about bullying – including classroom meetings and “letters” to teachers – as well as parental involvement. Even when what would be considered mild bullying occurs, parents are usually called.
“I realize I cannot impact what goes on in the home, but we have these kids eight hours a day, that’s one-third of the time, and I feel like we should be a model for how to act,” said Charles Babb, principal at Philips Preparatory.
Bystanders also are taken to task in this program. Bullying is exacerbated as the audience grows, so students are encouraged to walk away and go tell a teacher.
“When kids walk away, there’s not a lot of joy in doing the bullying,” said Lisa Pisciotta, a prevention coordinator for Safe and Drug Free Schools.
The Olweus program, pronounced “Ol-VAY-us,” was started in the mid-1980s by a Swedish researcher. Denver Public Schools leaders picked it three years ago for six starter schools because the program had proven it had worked, Pisciotta said.
Olweus, like other anti-bullying programs, caught many Colorado districts’ interest after two students went on a lethal shooting rampage in April 1999 at Columbine High School, killing 12 people and a teacher before taking their own lives.
Somewhere between 20 percent and 30 percent of students report being bullied. The problem cuts across all gender, socioeconomic and racial lines, Pisciotta said.
But dealing with it seems to help, at least a little.
In the program’s first years at Kunsmiller Middle School, bully-related suspensions fell by 9 percent, from 755 suspensions in the 2002-03 school year to 708 in the 2003-04 year. Abraham Lincoln High has had only three fights this school year, when there used to be 10 to 15 a semester, said Antonio Esquibel, the school’s assistant principal.
“We’re working hard at this, but I think we could do more,” he said. “It takes four or five years to change a school’s culture, and we’re trying every day.”
At other schools, like Philips, results haven’t been measured. But students’ stories, like that of Jelani Pruitt, show teachers that consistent language about not tolerating bullying, as well as signs hanging up all over the school, could be helping.
Jelani, a fourth-grader, often had trouble controlling her temper when she had problems with students last year. She was frequently in the principal’s office for fighting, Grant said.
Now, Jelani writes three- and four-page letters to her teacher to talk about her problems. A top student academically, Jelani hasn’t been suspended at all this year.
“I now try hard to ignore it when someone yells at me,” said Jelani, noting that most of her problems come from girls. “Boys don’t roll their eyes.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
