Twenty-nine eighth graders at Ballston Spa Middle School are bullying bullying. And in the spring, they’re going to teach their sixth grade peers how to do the same.
The group of anti-bullying middle schoolers were chosen by guidance counselors and teachers to take part in the first WAVE Program at the school. In collaboration with the Prevention Council, Working Against Violence Everywhere is a life skills program that uses team building and problem solving activities to interactively teach students about all types of violence, origins of it and how to deal with various situations.
`I learned a lot. I learned how to prevent violence and just a lot of different great tips on how to help everyone,` said Sydney Rule, who said she was nominated because of her good grades and leadership traits.
Rule said the WAVE program was split into two days that focused on talking about violence, how to prevent it and where it comes from.
`We took some notes, every no and again we’d play a game, and the main focus was whether it was learned behavior or you were born with it,` said Rule. `You can’t really tell the difference between the two. I learned that everyone picks it up somewhere in life because it’s all around you.`
The most surprising thing Rule learned over the two days, and the message she feels is most important to share with sixth graders, is that people aren’t born violent.
`I thought it could be hereditary; if someone had anger management problems in the family they would just be born with it,` said Rule.
Dealing with a violent situation can be quite simple, said Rule. She said to take deep breaths and think about everything positive and the good things happening in life.
`Think that you can overcome anything and it’ll all be OK in the end,` said Rule. `We talked about how sometimes it can be physical but most of the time it’s usually just with speech.`
Rule has seen violence in her own school, which is why she said WAVE was so beneficial.
`I have seen violence a lot in school, just kids and their language and walking around the hallways screaming at each other,` said Rule. `I definitely think [WAVE] is a great program and it teaches a ton of kids, a lot.`
For her session with the sixth graders, Rule said she hopes to put on a skit so the information lingers in their minds longer.
`They can think back to the scenarios that you do,` said Rule.
Antonio Bianchi said he took away valuable ways of dealing with stress, a situation he was all too familiar with at the beginning of the school year.
`I learned that there’s a lot of different ways to manage your stress and many different ways to stop from a violent situation or bullying situation from happening,` said Bianchi. `I’ve definitely seen stress and had a lot of stress and everything they said definitely helped me cope through.`
Bianchi said if someone is being bullied, it’s not good to get involved. A prevention step is to try to distract the bully or victim and encourage them to leave the situation or do something else. Just saying `stop` helps too.
`I’ve definitely seen people be bullied and things they said I have seen work in action,` said Bianchi.
WAVE made learning about serious and often confusing topic, interesting and fun.
`I know everyone who went had a lot of fun and it was better than sitting in the classroom and learning about it,` said Bianchi.
He’s looking forward to sharing what he learned with his younger peers and thinks they will reach more and listen better if fellow students are teaching them.
`I’d like to get across that when they first get here, they’re intimidated by the older kids and all this stuff they can go to their guidance counselor, their principal, to talk and won’t be known as the person who likes to tattle on people,` said Bianchi. `They’ll see we’re there to support them and we’re not intimidating or scary like they might think we are.`
According to information from the school district, the program focuses on the development of communication skills, diversity and tolerance, anger management, bullying and cooperation.
`Providing opportunities for students to learn how to teach their peers problem solving and conflict resolution is a positive and powerful way to reinforce the skills necessary to deal with conflicts peacefully,` said Laurel Logan-King, Ballston Spa’s coordinator of counseling K-12.
The training for WAVE was hosted at State Farm Insurance Company’s office in Malta and supported by a health and wellness grant the company provided the distr
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