School Bullying Council

Greg Stanford, right, regional vice president for Shopko Stores, Inc., presents a $2,500 check to Superintendent Richard Lahn of the Princeton School District, during ribbon-cutting festivities for the store on Friday, July 8. Stanford said Shopko makes a point to contribute back to the communities in which it does business. The donation will help fund an anti-bullying campaign at the middle school, Lahn said.

The Princeton School District is going the extra mile to ensure students at the middle school are educated in what they feel is a safe environment.

Princeton Middle School, which already has a strong anti-bullying program in place, will be implementing the renowned Olweus Bullying Prevention Program with a goal of improving student relations, making the school safer, and creating a more positive environment for the students to learn in.

The program is being funded in part by the Shopko Foundation, which contributed $2,500 to the anti-bullying campaign upon the opening of the new Shopko Hometown store earlier this month in Princeton.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is administered by the Hazelden Foundation, the nonprofit organization based in Center City that is best known for its alcohol and drug treatment facilities. The organization has branched off into other preventative programs, as well, with one being anti-bullying efforts. The program was developed by Dan Olweus of Norway, who authored much of the program’s curriculum. The program has 35 years of research behind it and has been implemented throughout the world, according to the Hazelden Foundation.

“Bullying occurs at every school and we have in place lots of measures to curb it,” said Dan Voce, Princeton Middle School Principal.

The Olweus program is one more of those resources, Voce said.

The middle school was targeted because research and data show that it’s at the middle school age that bullying occurs first, Voce said. The Olweus program is integrated into the school’s homeroom curriculum and implemented throughout the school year in the classroom setting, he said.

“The goal is to teach our students what bullying is, what we can do to prevent it, and what options are available to students in cases where they are being bullied,” Voce said.

The program also is aimed at defining for the student the difference between being bullied and being picked on.

“Students, parents and the community should understand the difference between bullying and what is not bullying,” Voce said.

Bullying, he said, is an act repeated over time that is unwanted by the person on the receiving end of the action. A one-time act against a person is not bullying.

Implementation of Olweus will begin in August with a Hazelden Foundation training team’s arrival in Princeton to work with a group of middle school staff. Those staff members will then train the school staff as a whole on the Olweus curriculum, Voce said.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to address bullying at the middle school. I see Olweus as an additional step that prevents incidents so students can come to school and learn in a safe environment,” Voce said.

Tags: featured, middle school

State police in Chester County have filed charges against three Downingtown Middle School students in connection with a shoving match on a school bus that one of the alleged attackers videotaped.

The bullying incident in West Bradford Township occurred around 3 p.m. Jan. 20, but didn’t become public until Feb. 18, when a parent alerted school principal Nick Indeglio to the presence of the video on the Internet.

Police labeled the incident “assault-harassment,” but did not say what specific charges were filed against the alleged attackers. The charges were lodged Thursday, but there was no word from authorities on the status of the case, which is in juvenile court.

Police said the victim was a 13-year-old boy from Downingtown, but they did not say whether he was injured.

They indicated that two 13-year-old girls and a 13-year-old boy were the alleged attackers. The boy and one of the girls are from West Chester; the other girl lives in Downingtown.

Patricia C. McGlone, director of public information and development for the Downingtown Area School District, said in a statement Friday the video showed students fighting on a bus, with one of them wearing a Downingtown Middle School sweatshirt.

After watching the videotape, Indeglio was able to identify the pupils. Their parents were alerted, and the matter was turned over to the state police for investigation, McGlone said.

The fight happened while the bus was traveling on Shadyside Road near Marshallton Thorndale Road, the report said.

The district moved quickly to term the incident bullying.

“The students involved in this incident were disciplined expeditiously according to district policies,” Superintendent Lawrence Mussoline said. “The Downingtown Area School District does not tolerate inappropriate behavior in school or on our school buses.”

Neither McGlone nor Indeglio could be reached Friday to determine the exact disciplinary measures taken. Authorities did not release the identities of the three minors.

McGlone said the middle school sent home a letter to parents Friday. The letter described the bullying and steps administrators had taken.

“In a school of over 1,300 students, there are a very small percentage of reported bullying incidents,” the letter said. “However, we take the issue very seriously.”

The letter said school officials were “acutely aware of the issue, and it is becoming more and more of a focus for our teams and entire building. It’s not enough to simply report bullying; our culture needs to reflect the stance that none of us are accepting of bullying behavior.”

The Jan. 20 incident in West Bradford Township followed by just nine days a videotaped bullying attack in Upper Darby in which six teens kicked and beat 13-year-old Nadin Khoury. A seventh teen recorded the attack; the tape was widely viewed on TV and the Internet.

Five of the boys admitted Feb. 10 to charges of false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, simple assault, and conspiracy. They were sentenced to 60 to 90 days of curfew, 45 days of electronic home monitoring, and 16 hours of community service.

The sixth boy, a 16-year-old, was charged with the felony offenses of kidnapping and aggravated assault. He admitted to lesser misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment, reckless endangerment, and simple assault.

He was in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center in Lima pending a March 3 hearing.

Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at 610-313-8232 or bcook@phillynews.com.

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