Six Years In, RSU 12’s Anti-Bullying Committee Sees Results

“Bullying isn’t cool – it’s cruel,” read a series of colorful posters drawn by RSU 12 elementary school students and displayed in the Chelsea Elementary School cafeteria on the evening of Thursday, May 9.

The three posters were all finalists in the district’s annual anti-bullying poster contest. This year’s winning entry was a multicolored poster by 10-year-old Samantha Libby, of Windsor Elementary School. Libby drew 12 silly, smiling faces on her poster, many of them with speech bubbles proclaiming the importance of being kind.

To celebrate their accomplishments, Libby and this year’s other finalists attended a dinner on May 9, where the students and their families enjoyed a meal prepared by RSU 12 Director of Student Nutrition Services Michael Flynn. Each winner was invited up to the stage where, in front of friends and family, they shook hands with state Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, and RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle before accepting a gleaming trophy for their efforts.

“We’re promoting a culture of respect, responsibility, and safety,” Tuttle said to the students and their families at the dinner, adding that the district relies “heavily” on its students to help keep the culture strong.

The poster contest, a tradition that has now run for three years, is part of a larger effort to combat bullying in RSU 12 schools. The district’s dedicated anti-bullying program began in full force in 2018, said Tuttle. School board and anti-bullying committee member Monique Crummett recalled that school board member Russell Gates, of Somerville, made the original motion to form the committee.

Gates said the need for the committee was apparent at the time because a “breakdown in procedure” had left staff unsure of how to respond to incidents of bullying. By implementing a committee and framework to handle such events, Gates said, he and the rest of the RSU 12 Board of Directors hoped to address bullying at the source.

The effort was unique; Gates believes the committee was the first of its kind in Maine.

The team relies on data, holistic techniques for encouraging positive behaviors, and continued collaboration and communication between administrators, staff, and students to accomplish its goals, Tuttle said on May 9 in the small room where the anti-bullying committee meets.

A framework called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, is an important part of the anti-bullying program and behavioral intervention in district schools more generally, Tuttle said.

In this approach, he continued, teachers and administrators attempt to communicate clear expectations and make space for students to develop their sense of empathy. Students are encouraged to find their own motivation to behave and to self-reflect when things don’t go as planned.

This might look like forming a circle to share and discuss feelings when someone has been hurt, doing “silly role-plays” to teach students about the various ways bullying can take place, or working towards awards like pizza parties and games by behaving positively, Tuttle said.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

“We try to make it as fun as possible for students to follow the rules,” he said.

PBIS committees at each school report to a district-wide PBIS committee, which in turn helps inform the anti-bullying committee and the RSU 12 Board of Directors about the climate in schools, Gates explained.

The information transfer that occurs between all levels of the school ecosystem, Crummett said, allows everyone involved to stay aware and address issues before they grow into something more serious.

Much of this communication, she added, involves sharing data about what is happening in schools.

To accomplish this, staff members keep a detailed log of student misbehavior. They record not only the character of offenses – including such categories as “skipping class,” “bullying,” and “abusive/inappropriate language” – but also the time that the events occur. This allows administrators to paint a detailed picture of daily trends and quickly identify problem areas, like recess, when they become an issue, Tuttle said.

The district also conducts a “school climate survey,” asking students 10 questions designed to gauge how safe and supported they feel at school.

Collecting all this information, said Crummett, puts numbers to what teachers are experiencing every day. This helps keep the school community on the same page and guides the school board and administrators in their attempts to keep the school environment safe for everyone.

“We’re looking for patterns of things we can fix as a staff,” Tuttle said. “We’re saying to ourselves, what can we do differently to support students rather than just blaming the students?”

Tuttle acknowledged when the idea was first raised, he was apprehensive about circulating data about student misbehavior within the school board.

“I was hesitant,” Tuttle recalled, but said he was quickly convinced of the plan’s effectiveness when conditions in schools immediately began to improve.

The issues that predated the formation of the committee, Gates said, “cleared up right away” with the establishment of the new protocols.

Tuttle said he recognizes that bullying and misbehavior are not things that can be completely eradicated; even within the PBIS system, sometimes, “getting sent to the principal’s office” still happens, he noted.

“All that stuff still goes on, even though we’re trying to be reflective and restorative,” he said.

Overall, however, the members of the anti-bullying committee – who call themselves the ABC – are excited about the effects of the program so far.

“It’s made a huge impact. It’s undeniable,” Crummett said.

Before distributing the awards, Reny commented on the anti-bullying committee’s commitment to making RSU 12 schools safe places to learn.

“It sounds like they’re doing great work with evidence-based and data-driven policies and strategies,” Reny said. “The importance of having strong communities and safe schools, it can’t be overstated.”

For more information, go to svrsu.org or call 549-3261. T-shirts with all three first place poster contest winners are available for purchase at a link available on the district’s website.