Hands-down positive approach

School counselors spread positivity to prevent bullying

Students at Lewis and Clark Middle School made hand print cut outs with simple ways they can be nice to each other written on them.
Students at Lewis and Clark Middle School made hand print cut outs with simple ways they can be nice to each other written on them.

Kindness is simple.

It's a plain but powerful message that turned Lewis and Clark Middle School's anti-bullying campaign on its head.

The school's trio of counselors decided to send a message of positivity instead of telling students how they shouldn't treat their peers. Students in sixth through eighth grade have been making paper cutouts of their hands showing five ways they can spread kindness in and out of school.

Kindness campaigns have been in full bloom across the country during October's Bullying Awareness Prevention Month. The counselors got the idea to do a "Kindness is Simple" campaign after watching a YouTube video of a 10-year-old girl preaching how important kindness is and that anyone can do it.

"Be positive, be kind," seventh-grade counselor Samantha Cassmeyer said. "It's a great message for all students that you can never have enough kindness."

"Even if you've had a bad day, you don't have to take it out on others," added sixth-grade counselor Lauren Pierce. "It's easy to smile."

Students are taught about what bullying and harassment mean at the elementary level, and that's continued into sixth grade. In seventh grade, students learn more about cyber-bullying and understanding that anything posted online will exist on the web even if it's deleted, Cassmeyer said.

They also teach the difference between bullying and a conflict - the counselors work with students through peer mediation to help resolve those issues.

The counselors found students at all three grade levels have social media accounts - Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram being the most popular. They also said they get more cases of cyber-bullying than in-person bullying.

One of the difficulties that comes with cyber-bullying is unless students are using a school device to bully another student online, school officials can't discipline the attacker. Pierce said if a student is being harassed online, the victim's parents should contact the police.

Eighth-grade counselor Carrie DeSimone said usually online fights or bullying carry over into school, which is when the counselors can try to intervene.

Cassmeyer said parents can get involved by monitoring their children's social media accounts and having the passwords. They encourage students to be wary of who they let use their accounts and only follow people they know.

The counselors plan to host more anti-bullying activities throughout the year. The student council and TREND (Turning Resources and Energy Into New Directions) Club have held their own anti-bullying campaigns this month, which tied into the schoolwide "Kindness is Simple" project.

So far, it's been well received by teachers and students, DeSimone said.

"We hope it improves the culture, too, for students and teachers," Cassmeyer said. "We're encouraging them to be kind to one another and be positive. We want to be a kind school - a school that displays kindness."