Anti-bullying effort is nonstop
BUTLER TWP — Students providing a helping hand to each other is an ongoing theme at Meridian Elementary School this year, but that lesson was literal Friday morning when students created a human chain through the hallways and helped one another pass several hula hoops with linked hands.
Each student had his or her own technique to pass along the hula hoop. Some stepped into the hoop first; others started out by flinging the hoop around their head.
It was a good way to show that everyone can be friendly and help one another, rather than tease and belittle classmates.
Helping organize anti-bullying lessons is not new for Principal Tim Sisinni, and several Meridian teachers. They organize schoolwide activities once a month, and try to incorporate bullying prevention classroom activities once a week.
Sisinni has organized anti-bullying activities in all of his seven years at Meridian, and for five years previously when he was at Connoquenessing Elementary. He prides himself on being a national trainer for the Olweus Anti-Bullying Prevention program.
Sisinni said bullying at Meridian hasn't gotten any worse in recent years, unlike some other schools, but it's an issue that needs to be consistently addressed.
“It's just part of our curriculum,” Sisinni said. “We do what we can as best we can to solve it.”
The hula hoop activity also was done side by side with buddy classrooms, which is a schoolwide mentoring program that pairs classes of older students and younger students. They come together during activities at least once a month.“The things kids like the most are the buddy activities,” said Laura Coyle, a third-grade teacher whose students were paired with a sixth grade class on Friday.“(Before buddy classrooms) I typically wouldn't see sixth graders playing with third graders, but now, that's not the case.”The mentoring program has established some long-lasting friendships that often surpass their time at Meridian Elementary, Sisinni said. It also helps the school to have a more welcoming feeling and to be united across different grade levels.Coyle pointed out that the hula hoop activity could be difficult for some, since students had to be flexible with everyone being different sizes and shapes.“You're not all the same size,” Coyle said. “Just like we're all different.”The anti-bullying activity was reinforced with a slide show about bullying prevention with tips that Sisinni gives to students again and again: Help someone who is in trouble. Tell an adult. Be a good friend, a helping hand.Students also cut outlines of hands on paper, writing ways to be a good friend on each finger. Those hands are stuck on turkeys on hallway bulletin boards to act as feathers.
