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Students Tackle Cruelty Bullies

Orlando Sentinel
by Robert Perez

Santa Colon, 15, learned something important about herself and her classmates at Winter Springs High School on Wednesday: They’re pretty similar when it comes to being hurt emotionally or physically, and they all can learn to do something about it.

Colon was one of three dozen students who participated in the first day of a two-day program to stop bullying, cruelty and harassment among students.

The Safe School Ambassadors Program teaches that intervention by fellow students can prevent peer abuse at school. Seminole County School District officials hope that this type of intervention at an early stage can help prevent future tragedies such as the deadly Columbine High School shootings in Colorado.

Colon and her classmates acted out skits that put to practice what they learned on the first day. The scenarios ranged from discouraging bullying to stopping rumors and preventing fights. “This is really what happens in school,” said Colon, a sophomore.

The Winter Springs High students are some of the first in Seminole County to be trained in the program, which school administrators think will give them another tool to keep schools safe.

“Nobody else is doing a peer program,” said Patty Fritch the school districts Safe and Drug Free Schools prevention specialist. “Research shows that when peers are part of the program, they have the best results. It’s my gut feeling that getting kids involved can make a difference.”

The program, which costs $3,500 per school and is funded through a federal Safe and Drug Free School grant, was taught at Teague Middle and Winter Springs High schools this week. Four other Seminole schools will get the program in the fall, Fritch said.

The program empowers students to intervene for others who tend to be victims of peer abuse, said Rick Phillips, a former educator and principal who helped design it.

“The most powerful influence are the kids,” he said. “Adults make the rules, but the kids make the norms. This is an attempt to inspire them to use their social standing to challenge injustice and make kids feel better.”

Key to the program is attracting kids who already are socially influential, such as student athletes, class officers or leader among their ethnic or racial groups. Learning to use that social clout can be a delicate proposition. The students are taught to start with themselves, then spread the attitude to their circle of friends. As they learn to handle different situations, from defusing a potential fight to stopping harassment, students in the program can expand their influence.

After the workshop, students will continue to meet often with teachers, who also participate in the program to reinforce what they learned. The program also offers technical support when teachers and students don’t know how to handle a situation. Fritch said.

While acknowledging the program was born out of instances of school violence such as Columbine shootings, Phillips stressed that it is designed to intervene before situations reach such levels.

“Columbine is the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We’re trying to prevent the smaller incidents that can lead to those larger incidents. You can use metal detectors to check for weapons, but you can’t check relationships, stereotypes and attitudes at the door.”

The 3-year old program quickly became popular, expanding to 165 schools throughout the country. Palm Beach County has 36 schools involved. Rick Lewis, safe schools training coordinator for that district, is one of the programs biggest proponents.

Palm Beach inaugurated the program at three high schools in December 2000. Since then, there have been many documented instances in which students ambassadors have effectively diffused problems, Lewis said.

“There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that shows we’re making a difference,” he said. What’s missing however, is the hard data to back up the anecdotal evidence.

“The ambassadors haven’t been working long enough. Demographics change in schools, so it’s kind of hard to get numeric, but we expect there will be,” Lewis said.

Fritch concedes that program’s effectiveness has yet to be proved, but program operators are gathering data will be peer-reviewed.

Federal education officials have labeled the ambassador program “promising” she said, but it has yet to prove its effectiveness.

By the end of the day many of the students had bought into the program, including sophomore Astrid Rodriguez, 16.

“Its great to know that a few kids here can make a difference at our school,” she said.