As a child, Ron Suvak dreaded hearing his name over the school loudspeaker. He knew as soon as his classmates realized he was going to speech class, the teasing and bullying would start.
Years later, Suvak wants Franklin Regional students to become tattletales and point out when classmates are being bullied.
"We tell children to 'mind your own business, don't be a tattletale' and that there are certain antisocial behaviors we are willing to accept because boys will be boys," said Suvak, assistant principal at the middle school. "We need to remove these preconceived notions one by one."
For the second consecutive school year, the district is using the Olweus system to reduce and prevent bullying problems.
So far, the program appears to be working at four district buildings. According to student surveys completed this school year and last, fewer students are bullied at least twice each month at Heritage, Newlonsburg and Sloan elementary schools and at the middle school.
Additionally, the percentage of parents who have contacted the school to stop bullying has increased. Officials say that indicates that parents are getting involved in the process.
While each school reports that between 16 and 23 percent of students are bullied, those numbers are down from last year, when 18 to 26 percent of students said they were bullied.
Kristi Loyal, middle school counselor, is excited to see progress.
"We're very happy with these results for the first year of implementation," said Loyal, who helps head the program. "Parents should be involved at all levels to really make this work."
School board members were pleased with the program, which officials said puts a stop to notions like "boys will be boys" or it's bad to be a tattletale.
"I'm firmly from the generation that that's how we think," said board member Paul Schienert. "To hear that these types of programs are having an impact is great."
Suvak warned that the biggest challenge is changing the perception of teachers and other adults that bullying doesn't have a lasting effect.
"Most of us turned out fine and went through bullying of some sort," Suvak said. "It's not perceived to be a problem. The individuals we read about in the paper are extreme cases."
Bullying was heavy on Superintendent Emery D'Arcangelo's mind when a Rutgers University student committed suicide last month after his roommate and a classmate allegedly broadcast an intimate encounter online.
"We recognize bullying as a problem, even at Franklin Regional," D'Arcangelo said. "Not a day goes by that you don't turn on the news and hear something negative about bullying. We don't want that happening to one of our students."
