BlockParent will support and implement positive action items that students can take to make their schools and communities healthier places and to challenge meanness and cruelty. These initiatives are grounded in a research-driven understanding of interventions, practices, and actions that can be helpful in improving school culture.

Student-led initiatives work best when students are engaged with and supported by competent, trained adults. Those students who can engage with and motivate a diverse group of other students tend to be more effective than those who try to operate on their own. There are a variety of specific actions students will be presented with throughout the year:

1. Co-create a culture-change project to reduce aggression against and/or marginalization of people. For example, a certain color Shirt Day, which mobilizes students and adults to express their opposition to bullying by wearing that color on certain days throughout the year.

2. Establish a Take Back Our School Honor Code that stands for creating and maintaining a Culture of Respect. The Honor Code is aimed at establishing civil, respectful behavior as a social norm and marginalizing disrespect, social aggression, and bullying.

• Organize a group or lobby the Student Council to create an honor code that you commit to and work to get buy-in from the whole student body.

3. Conduct a School Culture Assessment Survey Help assess the schools’ strengths and weaknesses by polling the student body regarding their perception of how much of a problem the school has with bullying or social aggression.

• Students will ask administration for permission to use 10-15 min. of “home room” or class time to have all students take a survey provided by Student BPS. If the school has implemented a bullying prevention program, use the survey that comes with that program
• As a possible follow-up project, students could invite fellow students to be interviewed on video about what they learned from participating in and reading the results of the survey. Consider editing and posting those interviews as a single video and/or presenting it to the student body at an assembly event.

4. Identify neighboring High School Students to get involved in Cultural Change efforts at the middle school(s).

• Middle school students look up to high school students. BlockParent will collaborate with administrators and students at the local high school to help the middle school students create a culture of respect at their school (which will have a lot of positive impact on the school in the future, when they’re in high school).

5. Create a “Friend Zone” in the lunchroom for students who feel threatened, marginalized, or for other reasons can’t find someone to sit with at lunch or may need support in other parts of the school and school day.

• Establish a group of students who are willing to watch over the well-being of other students.
• Publicize that a friend zone exists during every lunch period and make sure that at least 2 members of the friend-zone group are sitting at a table with space for anyone who needs someone to sit with – a “new kid,” someone feeling marginalized or threatened, etc. Make it clear that the group doesn’t “require” anybody to be friends with anybody – that you’re just creating a safe space for people to be (nothing required of anybody), that by “safety” you mean a place of respect, no judgment, etc.

6. Celebrate “Random Acts of Kindness” (or Respect) in the school and in community at large and/or create a Random Acts of Respect Day

• BlockParent will assist school and students to develop a plan for raising awareness of how this helps change the overall culture. It will include creating as large a group as possible of students interested in looking – school halls, lunchroom, locker rooms, games, events, etc. – for expressions of respect for others and recording them on papers or school administered recording devices. The plan includes bringing recognition to, or celebrating, these acts and expressions (e.g. have the group compile a list on a Web page or FB group, make periodic announcements,).
• This project might expand to include the showcasing of acts of kindness or respect by students of all grade levels, as well as by staff and faculty, throughout the district – through an event and/or publishing photos of and descriptions of their actions in a school newspaper or yearbook and at assembly.

7. Student BPS will invite Student Government to get involved in Culture Change - make it part of student leaders’ agenda, election campaigns, and/or the Student Council’s work

• A student political action committee (PAC) can be formed to promote a culture-change agenda. Write a “platform” for a culture of respect where we’ll either put forward a candidate or support one likely to run on a culture-change platform. Help the Student Council make the creation or maintenance of a culture of respect a top priority. Develop materials to promote this agenda at all grade levels. Support and celebrate administrators and faculty who give their support to this agenda.

8. Develop a Wisdom-Gathering Video Project to enhance the school community’s learning about the impact of bullying and social aggression

• As an extracurricular Culture Change Project, have students videotape interviews with school staff (bus drivers, cafeteria workers, teachers, librarians, tech coordinators, counselors, administrators, and janitors). Invite them to talk about their own personal and professional experiences with bullying and edit and post a video sharing the best of their insights. You could also organize an event around the presentation of this video, introducing the administrators, faculty, and staff who supported the project.
• A similar project can also be done with students’ parents and other family members, but the idea would be to start with school personnel. A next step in this case would be a video project that gathers wisdom on how to deal with specific types of bullying not already identified, grow resilience, and increase empathy.

9. Implore Students to Dare to be different-- to challenge social cruelty by publicly committing to standing up to it – and standing for civility or social intelligence. For example:

• If you see bullying, don't just ignore it. Talk to the victim and offer support. Don't encourage or reinforce the bully.
• Work hard to make sure that your friends recognize when you’re being funny, teasing, or making a joke.
• Stand up for kindness. Stand up for differentness.
• Refuse to accept language that is homophobic or that which insults people based on their abilities or appearance.

Bullying is an enormous problem, and we must all do our part to impact it. We cannot rely on school board, city, county, state or federal entities alone. We must do our part in small, incremental, yet consistent steps sand enforce our will.

Anyone can help kick start these approaches-- TODAY. If you are interested in joining the good fight to make our schools and neighborhoods safer, please register here.