Title and Author
How will completing the process of becoming part of the No
Place for Hate Anti-Defamation League affect the culture of our campus, most
notably anti-bullying efforts? By
Joel Fontenot-Amedee.
Introduction/Background
The name of the school in which the study took place is
CBHS. Our campus is one that is
very diverse. According to
TexasTribute.org, in 2010 our population was broken down into the following
groups: 16.3%African American, 40%
White, 21.2% Hispanic, 0.2% Native American and 14.3 % Asian/Pacific
Islander. 20.4% of our students
are Economically Disadvantaged, 35.2% are At Risk, and 2.6 % are LEP (Clear
Brook). Our currently has roughly
school has 2700 students.
The problem confronted in this research plan is how to
create an environment on our campus that is free from bullying, prejudice and
hate. Bullying is a problem on
every campus. Because our campus
is one that has so many different subpopulations, it could potentially be a
breeding ground for bullying activities.
We are a campus
that values diversity. Part of our
vision as a campus is to have our students live this vision out through their
actions. The vision of this action research project is to improve the overall
culture of our campus by creating a culture that respects and accepts the diversity of our student
body and faculty. It is our goal
to make everyone on our campus feel as though they are a valuable part of this
school, and that they never feel as though their personal rights are being
violated by a bully whether that be a student, teacher, or administrator
associated with our school. It is
our hope that by completing all the activities needed to be part of the No
Place for Hate, that we will increase the feeling of safety on our campus, and
decrease bullying. This will be
measured by surveys, and interviews with students, parents, and staff. Through this project, I will analyze
how anti-bullying and diversity celebrating activities have affected this
aspect of our campus community. We
will analyze the impact of these activities on the overall school
environment.
Everyone involved in our school will benefit from this
project. All stakeholders from the
parents, to the students, to the teachers, to the administrators and everyone
else that help make each day on our campus possible are involved in the safety
and security felt at our school.
Most importantly, this project will study how activities needed to be
part of the No Place for Hate Anti-Defamation League affected the students who
usually seem to slip through the cracks.
By this I mean the studies will show how students who are at risk, have
a disconnection to the school culture, SPED, and possibly anti-social have been
impacted by the activities.
Literature Review
According to Scherr, two ways
schools can reduce bullying is by investing in bullying prevention programs,
and diversity training (p.3).
Scherr also mentions that schools should provide a list of behaviors
that they will not allow to happen on the school’s campus (p.3). The later was mimicked in our project
when we provided all students the opportunity to sign the NPFH Resolution of
Respect. We had over 600 students
sign the document which basically stated that the student would do what they
could to prevent people from being bullied on our campus. This article served as proof that
our participation in the NPFH could potentially serve as a valuable way to
reduce bullying on our campus because it is both a bullying prevention program
and could serve as diversity training.
Action Research
Design
Subjects
The subjects are the student population at CBHS.
Procedures
After meeting with our Associate Principal, it was
determined that I would be the lead on completing the paperwork, and creating
the activities for our school to achieve No Place for Hate status. It was also decided that our STUCO
would be influential in the carrying out of the actual activities that were
created. They were also in charge of providing any monetary funds that
would be needed for banners, and a
donut party. Our PALS organization
was also given a prominent role.
This group volunteered their lunch time and free time after school to
help promote the activities that were eventually completed. The CBTV group was in charge of
creating an anti-bullying video that was shown to every advisory class. They created the video and posed a
question following the video for the advisory classes to discuss. They were also responsible for getting
the information to our students concerning the door decorating contest that
supported our anti-bullying campaign.
This was also presented during a video in our advisory classes. During each activity on our campus that
qualified us for No Place for Hate Status, there were at least two
administrators and one teacher supervising.
The product of a second meeting between myself and our
Associate Principal was a calendar breaking down the possible dates for
completing each of the four projects associated with the NPFHADL. It was then my responsibility to follow
campus protocol in securing each event with the appropriate assistant principal
and organization responsible. I
was also put in charge of filling out the necessary paperwork to become part of
the NPFHADL, which included the actual approval from the NPFHADL concerning the
four activities we were using for application purposes. We used the needs
assessment data by choosing activities that would encourage students who did
not usually feel accepted to participate.
One of the driving forces in the activity selections was the need to
impact all students on our campus.
We chose activities that would give every student and teacher on our
campus an opportunity to participate.
We encouraged this through announcements over the loudspeaker and
through CBTV commercials. The
NPFHADL requires that the opportunity for participation be provided to all
students in order to receive approval.
Data collection
Based upon the
parent/students surveys given out at the beginning of the school year, we felt
as though we needed to increase the feeling of safety at our school. Our survey asked students several
questions about how they felt at school.
Of the students who completed the survey, 67% were female, 33%
male. Of the students who
completed the survey, 78% spoke
English at home, 12% Spanish, 2% Chinese, and 8% other.
There were six questions asked that concerned student
safety. When asked if teachers and
staff treated students fairly regardless of their backgrounds and differences
the students surveyed, 12% strongly disagreed, 26% disagreed, 48% agreed, 10%
Strongly Agreed, and 4% did not know.
While the majority of the students agreed, it is alarming that 38% of
our students disagreed in some sort of way. This is a reason we decided to have teachers participate in
the activities necessary to become part of the NPFHADL. When asked if they felt safe at school,
13% strongly disagreed, 8% disagreed, 69% agreed, 6% strongly agreed and 4% did
not know. The fact that 21% of our
students surveyed did not feel safe at school was a big reason for creating
this action research project.
When asked if students do
not threaten each other at this school, 16% strongly disagreed, 46% disagreed,
28% agreed, 4% strongly agreed and 6% did not know. While a strong 32% agreed, an overwhelming 62 % disagreed in
some form. This shows that a large
percentage of students feel as though people are threatened on our campus. We as an administration felt as though
this had to be changed. When asked
if this school is a safe place from gang activity, 12 % strongly disagreed, 18%
disagreed, 54% agreed, 4% strongly agreed, and 12% did not know. When asked if most students are
friendly to each other at this school, 12% strongly disagreed, 20% disagreed,
60% agreed, 4% strongly agreed and 6% did not know. Althought the majority agreed, we want strive to maintain a
culture on our campus in which all students and faculty are friendly to each
other. When asked if Ifeel safe
when on my school bus, 4% strongly
disagreed, 10% disagreed, 50% agreed, 4% strongly agreed and 32% did not
know. Although it is on a school
bus, and not on our actual campus, the administration felt as though it was
important for students to feel safe and we want to make sure that a larger
percentage of students feel safe on our buses.
Findings
Conclusions and
Reccomendations
References
Clear Brook High School. (n.d.)
Retrieved from
Scherr, Tracey G. Bullying Others: Factoring in Race,
Ethnicity and Immigration.
Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/bullying-factoring-race-ethnicity-immigration/?page=3
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