Laurel Highlands middle school bullying prevention Program Profile : December 2006

In 2006, Japan was gripped by a series of suicides by middle and high school aged children, many cases which cited bullying at school as a factor. 

Subsequently, there was a rush to find solutions and examples of schools and programs that had some success in confronting and reducing bullying and its impact on students. 

I set out to find a successful model that could serve as a case study and template for parents and educators in Japan. Any example, however, would need to be translatable to a Japanese context, to be of any use. Furthermore, it would have to have shown results in a similar cultural and educational environment that educators in Japan were confronting.

My research led me to some interesting work that was being done in Pennsylvania which had recently increased funding for such programs. Through the help of the PA State DOE's Mary Dolan, I was introduced to the incredible team at Laurel Highlands Middle School, in Uniontown, PA south of Pittsburgh, who were in their first months of an anti-bullying program that was already getting rave reviews from parents and students.  

Demographically, this middle/working class post industrial, relatively racially homogeneous community shared many of the characteristics of the Japanese communities that were confronting these issues. Furthermore,the fact that the model was based on a program from Norway that had success in schools in many different countries, suggested that it offered strategies and solutions that successfully transfer across cultures.  

With enthusiastic support from parents, principal Mary Macar and her team generously invited me and my crew to spend a week with full access to document how they were able to reduce bullying incidents by 83% compared to the previous year's first semester, in just the first 3 months after implementing the program.

Through interviews with school administrators, teachers, parents and students, as well as extensive observations of classrooms, student activities and all program manuals and materials, we were able to assemble this portrait of a program that was enthusiastically embraced by the school community as they saw the positive transformation before their eyes. 

Our presence sparked the interest of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review who came out to chronicle our visit. 

As referenced in the above article, on the last day of filming a student handed me this heartfelt note and artwork. Many students had approached me throughout the week to express how safer and more comfortable they felt compared to the previous school year. 

It were these testimonials that were the most convincing endorsements of the program's effectiveness.