Washington Middle School Counseling

Thomas Perez, appointed by President Obama as assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, visited WMS today, specifically to take a look at our anti-harassment program for all students, “We All Belong (WAB)”. Mr. Perez, who has two children in middle school, was enthusiastic about the work we are doing to educate our students about civil rights for all, and with the protocol we have in place to respond to reports of harassment and bullying.

After discussing our program with some administrators, teachers and counselors, Mr. Perez visited 4 classrooms during our WAB period this morning, observed the curricula exercises and materials being presented in all three grades, and talked with the students. Afterward, he spoke in front of 120 students and Student Cabinet officers, reviewed his own work in civil rights over the past 20 years, discussed the importance of embracing diversity in all areas of our lives, and encouraged students to seek employment in a field they are passionate about. He then took several questions from the student audience. Finally, he met privately with members of WMS’ Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), offering them his support and encouragement.

We were very happy to welcome Mr. Perez to our school. He is highly supportive of our work, and he is also clear about the importance not only of academic achievement, but especially of non-academic learning for all middle school students. Given the financial cuts happening in our schools, and the increasing emphasis in our District and country on test scores and academic courses at the expense of social and emotional and arts education, his words of encouragement couldn’t have come at a better time.

The WMS anti-harassment and anti-bullying program, We All Belong began today. The program consists of 24 lessons spread over 3 years, for all students. Students are randomly assigned to grade-level small groups of 20-25 and a teacher who will stay with them all three years. We run the program 4 weeks in a row each semester, in order to create the group cohesiveness necessary for open discussion of the topics.

Sixth graders have a get acquainted introduction, then are taught what bullying is and WMS’ reporting process. The next lessons help think about the complexities of their lives, and teach them how to distinguish between friendly and hurtful teasing. A 3-lesson video on bullying which features interviews with real teens follows. The last lesson talks about strategies for bystanders of bullying and how to take a stand safely.

The seventh grade lessons begin with a review of the 6th grade material, plus expanded scenarios for practicing bystander strategies. Two lessons are spent on social contracts in the context of online activities and cyberbullying, and the social hierarchy, popularity, and group name calling. The last three lessons discuss gossip, conflict resolution, and the escalation of hate (discrimination, genocide, hate crimes, prejudice, scapegoating, stereotypes and violence.

Representatives from the Dartington Social Research Unit in Great Britain, plus other high-ranking educational and children’s social service agencies, as well as a member of Pariliament, met with WMS counselors David Bilides and Corey Goldstein, Health teacher Amy Miller, and principal Jon Halfaker as part of a U.S. study tour on prevention and intervention. They were specifically interested in our bullying prevention program.

We discussed not only the Olweus Anti-bullying program, but also our Health Education classes, Peer Mediation Program, Equity Committee, and other prevention efforts.The director thanked us, writing, “Our group has been inspired, informed and challenged in equal measure.” She also posted an interesting article about their visit to WMS on their web site.

I found the visit to be refreshing, to take a few moments during the school day to sit and describe what we’re trying to do and what we’re actually doing to help children. I also enjoyed hearing what was happening in Britain, and answering non-trivial questions about our work. These were intelligent, thoughtful policy makers and researchers, who found something at value at WMS and in Seattle in general.

Each year Seattle Public School students fill out a school climate survey, which covers various aspects of day-to-day life at their school. These areas include general climate (e.g., feelings about school, safety, teachers belonging, school interest), Bullying, Decision Making, working with others, and problem solving. Today we comparred the 2007 and 2008 results for Washington.

Here are some results that stood out for us:

• There are almost an equal number of boys and girls attending this year.
• the population of African American students declined by 4%, to 13% of the population. We wondered about the reasons for this.
• Anywhere fro 5% to 10% of the student body is at academic risk at a given time. We discussed ways to be helpful to this segment, and also discussed what services to provide to the other 90%. Our charge as school counselors is to address the academic, career, and personal/social development domains for all our children. The sheer size of the Washington student body (over 1,000 students), the class schedule and personnel resources all impact the delivery of services. I’ll be discussing this issue in more depth here in future posts.
• Although there were improvements in how students feel about belonging, getting help, and having adults around who cared, the numbers were still below an outright “yes”. We’d like to continue this trend to reach and then exceed that goal.
• The numbers on bullying are encouraging. there has been upward movement in all areas. Fewer students report being bullied, more students are speaking up when they are bullied, and the feel more adults in the school are trying to put a stop to bullying. We’d like to see the anti-harassment classes, currently offered to all students once a month, expanded and made more frequent, as they seem to have played a key role in increasing safety at our school.
• Decision making skills need more work, even though students report an increase in use of options, thinking before they act, etc.
• Finally, the school needs to do a better job of informing parents when their student does something well.

If you have any comments about any of these areas, we’d like to hear them. Just click on the comments link just below this post.