Anti-Bullying Awareness Week
TOPEKA — Schools across the state next week will be observing Kansas Anti-Bullying Awareness Week.
“By resolution, the Kansas Senate and the Kansas State Board of Education have declared the first full week in October Anti-Bullying Awareness Week,” said Kent Reed, an education program consultant, counseling and social-emotional character development, for the Kansas State Department of Education’s Career, Standards and Assessment Services team. “In the past, we have selected a theme, but our experience is that the local school districts prefer to select their own.”
KSDE also has partnered with the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Kansas Children’s Service League and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) to create the Choose Peace poster. The poster lists phone numbers and a QR code that students can use to report threats of school violence, acts of bullying and suspicious activity. The resources are:
Kansas School Safety Hotline (threats of school violence): (877) 626-8203.
Parent and Youth Resource Hotline (acts of bullying): (800) CHILDREN.
Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) (QR code available on poster):
https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
The 2022 Communities That Care Survey, which is conducted annually and anonymously with sixth, eighth, 10th and 12 graders, shows that 27.7% of respondents had been bullied at least once during the past month. At least 52.8% had seen someone being bullied, and more than 20% of student respondents reported being bullied at school one to two times per month or more frequently. The survey shows that more than one-third of students reported that when they see bullying at school, an adult stops it and solves the problem.
“Parents, school staff and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment and creating a communitywide bullying prevention strategy,” the website states.
At Wanamaker Elementary, Student Council along with Mrs. Slimmer, school counselor, have planned some activities. There will be daily announcements from StuCo, video clips provided to teachers for their morning meetings, and two Spirit Days.
Wednesday, Oct. 5th—-STOP Bullying! Wear your red and even sport your Wanamaker spirit wear to show that we are a united school community that will do what it takes to keep kids safe.
Friday, Oct. 7th—Choose Peace Day. Wear your tie-dye, smiley faces, and Peace signs to show that at Wanamaker, we choose peace over bullying.
And stay tuned for another exciting community service project sponsored by Student Council for the month of October!!!
