Speech language pathologist Taylor McIntyre of IS 285, the Meyer Levin School for the Performing Arts in Brooklyn, enjoys a laugh with a 7th-grader during a workshop.
8th-graders Brianna Fernandez and Joeny Santos of MS 80 in the Bronx are all smiles in their UFT Anti-Bullying Conference T-shirts.
Educators from public schools throughout the city brought students to the UFT Middle Schools Division’s annual Anti-Bullying Conference on Oct. 15 to learn strategies for preventing and addressing bullying that they could implement in their school communities.
UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Mantell had a simple question for the nearly 400 students who convened in Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters: “Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt left out, embarrassed or picked on.” Many hands shot up in response.
They are not alone, Mantell said. One in every four middle school students feels bullied at some point, but only 15% of them actually report the bullying. He called on individual students to name the four types of bullying (cyberbullying, physical, verbal and social), explain the difference between bullying and teasing, and share their own insights and observations. Mantell closed by asking, “What’s one small thing you can do today or this week to make someone feel included?”
Jasmine Ford, a social worker at New Heights MS in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and John Herron, a social studies teacher at IS 96 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, anticipated that the conference would add to the great work that their students are already doing.
“We have our PGC group, Peer Group Collaborators, where 8th-graders are mentoring 6th-graders,” said Herron. “And they want to take what they learn here and bring that back to our 6th-graders so we can build our community and watch it thrive.”
Ford brought a group of students from the peer mediation program she runs. “Kids listen to other kids. If they get the information, if they are trained in these practices and they can bring it back to the school, kids are more willing to follow them as their peers in this type of work.”
Students learned strategies throughout the day to not only identify and combat bullying but proactively create a culture of kindness and respect. The workshops they attended covered topics such as effective communication, kindness, bias and religious tolerance. The sessions were led by staff from the UFT’s BRAVE anti-bullying initiative and the UFT Teacher Center as well as nonprofit union partners including the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, Harmony Power Foundation, Karate for Change, History UnErased and Tanenbaum.
Laura Ng, a dean and Respect for All liaison at MS 104 in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, said peer-to-peer communication on bullying awareness and prevention is effective in schools. “While we can teach anti-bullying prevention techniques and give them resources, it’s a lot more meaningful if it’s coming from their peers,” she said.
