Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Author and speaker Jodee Blanco spoke to A. Vito Martinez and Lukancic middle schools Tuesday about bullying.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
“Don’t change for anyone or anything.” So says nationally renowned author and speaker Jodee Blanco who visited Romeoville Tuesday to share her mind-boggling personal bullying experiences with students at both A. Vito Martinez and Lukancic middle schools. “Never let anyone touch your spirit,” the author of Please Stop Laughing at Me said. “Every one of you has a bright candle burning inside you that allows you to get back up and try again even when you don’t feel like it.” Bullies, she said, don’t understand the damage they do to their classmates. “They damage you for life.” Drawing on what she termed her “nightmare” school years, Blanco told students about “the kid nobody wanted to be caught dead hanging out with.” “You never look at us. …
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The new system, Sprigeo, was piloted last spring at four Valley View schools.
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Editor's note: The following is a press release from Valley View School District 365U. Every student in Valley View Community Unit School District 365U will soon be able to report a bullying incident through an anonymous internet-based system called Sprigeo. Four VVSD schools piloted Sprigeo as an anonymous bullying reporting tool last spring with great success, recording dozens of reports. Administrators at Humphrey and Lukancic Middle Schools as well as Wood View and Beverly Skoff Elementary Schools were able to follow up on each and every report. "Every seven minutes a child is bullied somewhere in this country," said VVSD Community Outreach Coordinator Michele Bochnak. "Valley View is taking this nationwide problem seriously but we …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The tool will be accessible through every school's website and the district website.
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Thursday, November 1, 2012
Every student in Valley View Community Unit School District 365U will soon be able to report a bullying incident through an anonymous internet-based system called Sprigeo. Four VVSD schools piloted Sprigeo as an anonymous bullying reporting tool last spring with great success, recording dozens of reports. Administrators at Humphrey and Lukancic Middle Schools as well as Wood View and Beverly Skoff Elementary Schools were able to follow up on each and every report. "Every seven minutes a child is bullied somewhere in this country," said VVSD Community Outreach Coordinator Michele Bochnak. "Valley View is taking this nationwide problem seriously but we need everyone's help." The Nov. 1 launch of Sprigeo, which will be accessible through …
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
A 2011-2012 school year survey found more bullying took place on school playgrounds and school buses than any other location.
- SCHOOLS
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Editor's note: The following is a press release from Valley View School District 365U. Emphasizing the fact that safety on Valley View School District 365U buses is of utmost importance, VVSD Community Outreach Coordinator Michele Bochnak gave district bus drivers a few tips on how to maintain a positive bus environment Monday. Let Patch save you time. To get the news delivered to your inbox, sign up for our email newsletter. Fast signup here. You can also like us on Facebook. “If students don’t feel safe, they can’t do their best work,” Bochnak said during an Anti-Bullying Month seminar at VVSD’s Spangler Transportation Center. “We want all students to have a positive ride to and from school.” Bochnak, who is the leader of VVSD’s Anti-…
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Teachers outside San Antonio reportedly taught kindergartners how to hit.
"Friends don't let friends get huffed and puffed," Big Bird told Slimey the Worm who was blown around by the Big Bad Wolf. That is my favorite anti-bullying message ever. What would happen if we saw Gordon or Maria or Luis doing the bullying? That's exactly what may have happened in Texas. A teacher at Salinas Elementary School lined up kindergartners. Instead of instructing them in manners or etiquette, she reportedly taught them how to hit a classmate. If the news stories I've read are correct, a younger teacher was having a problem with a six-year-old boy in her class. She asked for help from a more experienced colleague on how to deal with a bully. The older, but apparently not wiser, teacher then attempted to teach the boy a lesson by…
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The system was launched this week to give students more tools through which they can anonymously report bullying incidents.
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Four Valley View School District 365U schools are serving as test sites for what could become a district-wide bullying reporting system for students and parents alike in the fall. Beverly Skoff Elementary School and Lukancic Middle School in Romeoville, as well as Wood View Elementary School and Humphrey Middle School in Bolingbrook, all launched the on-line Sprigio system this week to give students more tools through which they can anonymously report bullying incidents. The district is using the Sprigio system because national bullying research indicates oftentimes students are afraid to report bullying incidents if they have to do so face-to-face with an adult. “Confidentiality is of the utmost importance,” Humphrey Principal Dan Laverty…
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Participate in the conversation during the “Bridging The Gap" show on Bolingbrook Community Television, hosted by Valley View School District’s Safety Coordinator Leroy Brown.
- GOVERNMENT
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
Leroy Brown, Valley View School District’s safety coordinator, is putting out the call for community members to sit in the audience of his cable television show “Bridging The Gap” and participate in a conversation about bullying at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 10. The show, which will be seen live on Bolingbrook Community TV Channel 6 and via tape delay on both BCT and on numerous other community cable TV channels in the area throughout the month of May, takes place in the Village Board Room at Bolingbrook Village Hall, 375 W. Briarcliff Road. For those interested in being a part of the audience, show up between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. on May 10.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
New software could help encourage kids to come forward, group says.
Members of Valley View’s Anti-Bullying Task Force spoke up at Monday night’s board of education meeting, urging the district to adopt software that members say could help combat bullying in the district. “The problem is pervasive, yet students do not report it to teachers and staff,” said Michele Bochnak, the district’s community outreach coordinator. Bochnak said the task force recommends that the district adopt Sprigeo, a software system that allows students, parents and staffers to report bullying anonymously. The group cited a report by the U.S. Department of Education, which found that many students are too afraid to report bullying. Bullying also contributes to absenteeism, according to the study. “Students who don’t feel safe don’t …
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
A Canadian school isn't going gaga over Gaga.
She kinda freaks me out a little. Maybe it's because I'm, ahem, older. Maybe it's because I just don't get it. I'm no longer cool. Not hip to the current jive. I no longer slip skin or get down. Whatever the reason, Lady Gaga is off my radar. Except for one thing: her anti-bullying messages. She has used her fame to bring attention to an epidemic in our schools. This is Fonzie cool. Some parents disagree. A Canadian school in a town called Burnaby has a gay-friendly policy. The school is trying to post a YouTube video of its students dancing to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" song to promote anti-bullying. In Canada, Feb. 29 is Pink Shirt Day to stop bullying. A civic group, called Burnaby Parents' Voice, is trying to block the video. …
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Legislation took effect Jan. 1, giving school districts another student discipline tool.
As Romeoville and Bolingbrook schools took part in a nationwide anti-bullying campaign known as No Name Calling Week, Valley View attorney Jeff Alperin on Monday updated the board on a new law that could allow districts to combat online bullying. “As of Jan. 1, a state statute allows Illinois school districts to discipline students for off-campus electronic speech,” Alperin said. That includes threats made against other students, employees or any school-related personnel. The text of the law, House Bill 3281, states that students may be expelled if they’ve been found to: "... have made an explicit threat on an Internet website against a school employee, a student, or any school-related personnel, the Internet website through which the …
Jim Corcoran
7:26 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
A high school in Appleton, Wisconsin tried an experiment under the enlightened guidance of their principal, LuAnn Coenen. She wanted to see if she could positively affect the fighting, weapons-carrying and general lack of focus and discipline in the school by changing the food the kids ate. Vending machines were replaced with water coolers; hamburgers and French fries were taken off the menu and … more ›