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Be A Friend, Step In

Published August 19, 2016

Williamson County Schools will continue its fight against bullying with the help of a new video series starring WCS students.

Over the summer, the district enlisted the help of several BE NICE student ambassadors to tape three Public Service Announcements which are based on true stories from WCS students who have experienced bullying. The PSA’s are titled “Be a Friend, Step In” and the first one can be seen below.

The idea for the PSA’s grew out of the district’s involvement in the Bullying Prevention Advisory Council. BPAC is a joint endeavor between Williamson County Schools and the Franklin Special School District and is dedicated to minimizing bullying behaviors in our schools. Additional PSA’s will be shared in future issues of InFocus.

WCS Counseling Specialist Becky Mitchell coordinates the efforts of the advisory council and says the BPAC will provide the public with tools focused on gaining common understanding among school staff, students, parents and community members about bullying behaviors and prevention in the coming months.

“We look forward to providing our community with common language and understanding about bullying and bullying prevention,” said Mitchell. “In addition to periodic InFocus articles, we hope to have a panel discussion in the spring for our community to continue the dialogue about bullying prevention.”

Since the fall of 2014, the BPAC has implemented a variety of bullying education initiatives. Principals’ training and resources to train school staff have been provided to increase awareness of bullying issues. Two community summits have been sponsored on topics of bullying awareness, misconceptions about bullying, ways to reduce the incidence of bullying in our schools as well as safe and appropriate use of the internet among children and teens. Four schools have hosted events for parents and community members that featured Rodger Dinwiddie, CEO of STARS Nashville.

In addition, “Bullying Stops Here” posters have been designed and dispersed for display throughout WCS schools to make the WCS Tip Line and email reporting options more readily available to students. Moreover, this information is included as a part of all WCS school websites.