Keeping Our Schools Safe

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Keeping Our Schools Safe

WHERE WEVE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE, AND WORK STILL TO BE DONE

January, 2015

One Year Ago

In January of 2014
Brunswick High School
suffered through a very
difficult week losing two
students within days of
each other.
The deaths of Matthew
Homyk and Anthony Gill
rocked the school and
our community.

The questions of how

did this happen? to
why did this happen?
took on a life of its own
amongst the community.

During many conversations (both informal and

formal) students, staff
and community members
joined together to try to
address some issues that
arose out of these tragedies.

The impact of social

media on our students and community

Bullying amongst
teenagers

Teen suicide.

The administration, with

input from the community
and students, chose to
initially focus on three
main issues moving forward:

While we knew no one

would have the answers
to all the questions, BHS
knew that there needed
to be steps taken immediately to prevent anything similar from happening again.

US. Department of Education,

allowed us to hire Mrs. Nicole
Stacey.

and is available for any crisis

or walk-in problems any
student may be having.

students who may be bullied or

be having mental health issues,
such as depression.

Mrs. Stacey is a licensed clinical social worker and has

over 20 years of experience
as a school social worker in
Michigan and Ohio schools.
Mrs. Stacey currently serves
as the President of the Ohio
School Social Work Association.

She immediately started

working with students who
have issues of depression,
suicidal ideation, home problems, or other mental health
concerns.

We know that a high school of

over 2,500 adolescents can
have issues that may arise at
any given time. Some of these
issues may impact the ability to
be successful in the school setting. Therefore, the priority of
having someone available for
our students was a priority.

Two Months Later

One of the overwhelming
areas of concern in all high
schools today is the mental
health needs of ALL students.
In many ways a high school is
a microcosm of what is going
on in society.
The school district decided
that it needed some assistance in this area. Due to a
tight budget the district applied for a federal grant that
would allow for a mental
health specialist to be hired.
This grant, sponsored by the

Mrs. Stacey is at the high

school every day of the week

Mrs. Stacey has helped us

form the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) and STAND (a
student initiated group that
focuses on advocating for

Contact Mrs. Staceynstacey@bcsoh.org

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In the Meantime
Social Media and Its Effect On Teens
Social media continues to
grow in popularity and
scope. The concern is
that not all that is on social media is positive
and anonymity allows
for cyber-bullying.
There are many different platforms that students use to socialize
and communicate with
each other. A large
problem is many social
media platforms allow
individuals to be anonymous.
This sometimes leads to
individuals posting things
that they do not neces-

sarily have to take accountability for and would not

necessarily say face-to-face.
Some of these platforms include ask.fm, YIK-YAK, and
Streetchat.
In order to address these
concerns the high school invited in Jesse Weinberger,
renowned social media consultant to speak with the
classes of 2017 and 2018
about the ramifications of
their actions on social media.
She will be speaking to the
class of 2019 during Freshmen Orientation in August.

Jesse also met with the community/parents to tell them

what their responsibilities

are and should be The administration has worked to
block YIK YAK on campus
and has had a campaign to
promote positivity with social
media amongst the student
body.
This is continually a battle
for the administration as
new platforms arise to take
the place of another. Parents must continually be cognizant of their childrens social media activity. Social
Media and Your Teen was
the topic for Octobers Coffee Talk and was well attended.

Bullying
In our efforts to do all we can to
make sure our schools are safe,
we needed to take a look at our
bullying policies and procedures.
The district has begun the process of implementing a PBIS
structure throughout the school
district. PBIS stands for Positive
Behavioral Interventions and Support. This is an evidence-based
program that addresses numerous areas of creating a safe and
caring school.
PBIS is comprised of school-wide
systems of support that include
proactive strategies for defining,
teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors to cre-

ate a positive school environment.

Bully prevention is what schoolwide PBIS is about. Aggression,
violence, threats, intimidation,
and isolation compromise the
ability of students to learn and
perform in school. Establishing
school-wide expectations for
common respect, teaching what
that means, and ensuring that all
students and faculty and staff
members share in the responsibility of making schools respectful
settings can make a difference.
In addition, the district has implemented a Safe School Hotline for
any concerned student , parent

or community member to call

completely anonymous, if they
feel someone is being bullied.
We have helped foster a student
led group called STAND that helps
promote a bully-free culture at
BHS.
We are also fortunate that Mrs.
Stacey is a nationally recognized
speaker on bullying in the US and
has helped lead BHS in this area.
Every school in the district is implementing the PBIS system and
this will lead to greater continuity
between schools when the issue
of bullying arises.

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The Help Keep Our Schools Safe link is on the home page
of the districts website, as well as every buildings home
page. The Helpline provides students and community
members with the opportunity to anonymously report
wrongdoing, bullying, potential violence, and/or negative issues that would impede the learning process. The
Safe School Helpline has proven itself to be a very
effective tool in preventing and deterring negative acts
and practices from occurring in over thousands of
schools

Teen Suicide
The issue of teen suicide became
very real in January of 2014
for BHS and the Brunswick community.
There were numerous things in
place already but we wanted to
make sure we were doing all we
possibly could to fight this national epidemic
Since the fall of 2013, we had
SKI boxes in place in all of our
offices. A Ski box is where anyone who is concerned about
suicidal ideation, whether for
themselves or another, can fill
out a note anonymously if they
wish so that they can get help.

Our guidance department, along

with our prevention specialists,
continually go through in-service
training on signs of suicide and
how to assess those students who
may be having suicidal ideation.
In April of 2014, the administration called on our own health
teachers to present to the staff on
the topic of teen suicide. This
was so our teachers were aware
of warning signs and what to
look for. Also, in the health classes, a suicide prevention specialist speaks to all freshman and
then turns over any concerns to
the guidance department to follow up and possibly assess.
As was already stated, the new
groups that have been added to
our already extensive list of clubs
and activities may also help to
connect students we may have
been missing and possibly deter
a student from feeling suicidal.
GSA and STAND can trace their

roots to events January of 2014.

As of January of 2015, the Guidance department has started
Wellness Wednesdays" where
they put out a PowerPoint slide
on different wellness topics shown
to the entire student body on
Wednesday mornings. Some of
these topics will include those that
are directly related to mental
health issues.
As previously mentioned, the
district implemented the Safe
Schools Helpline that can be used
by any student, teacher, parent
or community member to get help
for someone in need.
This would include incidents of
violence toward others, bullying
concerns, and self-harm.

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Family Support
Starting the 2014-15 school
year, Mrs. Stacey has started monthly Coffee Talks
with our parents that any
and all from the community
are invited to. Topics covered so far are: the adolescent brain, social media and
your teen, the safety of our
schools, mental health and
the holidays, and the dangers of prescription drugs
and teens. Coffee Talks are
held the second Wednesday
of every month. Flyers for
each month are posted on

the high school webpage.

We have introduced a new
family counselor that is available to work with struggling
families in our school and district. Her name is Ms. Torrie
Giovinazzi, and she is from
Child Guidance and Family
Solutions, out of Akron. We
also have a counselor from
Solutions in Medina, Ms. Nicole Topp in the building once
a week to assess and refer
families for outside therapy,
as needed. Mrs. Kathy Fulker-

son, prevention specialist, is

also in our building twice a
week to work with students
and families she has connected with through her
days at all 3 middle schools.

Through the PBIS program,

the district will be reaching
out to parents and guardians to provide input and be
a part of different advisory
groups to ensure Brunswicks
communication between
home, school and the community.

Programs that have made a difference already

LINK, VOFT, Student Council, Rachels Challenge
One of the aspects of our high school that we are most proud of is the amount of clubs,
sports and activities that we offer to our student body so that they can be involved. Studies
show that the more involved students are in their school, the more safe they feel and the
more successful they have the ability to be.
Our LINK crew is a group of juniors and seniors that help to mentor freshmen during their
ninth grade year. Every freshmen has a LINK leader that is responsible for working with
them during the difficult 9th grade transition period.
VOFT stands for Volunteer Opportunities For Teens and is a great program that teaches
students the value of giving back to our community and school. VOFT puts on events such
as the annual Dance Marathon and VOFT Charity night.
Student council does a lot of activities around the school to help promote a sense of
belonging as well. This January 23rd they will be holding their first Video Game
tournament for students to participate in.
Lastly, Rachels Challenge is a group that helps promote kindness around our school and
they have put on a Cross the Line activity with the Freshmen every year to help encourage
empathy and understanding. Rachels Challenge also had the 9th graders sign a kindness
pledge to start their year knowing that BHS encourages a positive behavior atmosphere.