Texas Moms Start Program To Proactively Combat Bullying
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - President Obama's new anti-bullying initiative joins a small list of other programs aimed at proactively combating the bullying issue.
CBS 11 News takes a look at another one of those programs, born out of the desperation of two Texas moms who were fed up with what they were seeing in their children's schools.
For 10-year old Ethan Gibson, school can be a scary place. "I've seen kids being pushed and shoved," he said.
The fourth grader says he's seen plenty of bullying, and has even been a target himself.
"When somebody does something like that [bully] to my son, that is totally unacceptable," Ethan's mother, Toni Rodriguez, said of the problem.
Ethan's parents say they had trouble talking to their son about what to do in those situations. But that all changes when a new anti-bullying program began in their community.
Houston mothers Trish Morille and Sarah Fisher - whose kids were the target of bullies - decided more needed to be done to proactively combat the problem.
It was the near-suicide of a Houston third-grader that pushed them to bring their program to light. The two created a grassroots anti-bullying system called Positive Works.
The mothers explained the program as a two-pronged approach involving both educators and parents. "We saw a need for it, a need for a program that starts at home," said Sarah Fisher. "The schools can't do this by themselves."
The message is simple: it's all about being positive in the face of negativity. The symbol for the program has the word positive represented by a plus sign.
The idea is to constantly remind children, parents, and educators of better ways to act and react. "We want to wrap kids in consistent messages from home to homeroom," Trish Morille said.
There are different types of signs available to place in schools and there are even ones to take home. There are "+Computer" and "+Car" for the home, and "+Tables" and "+Playgrounds" for schools.
"The idea is to put these reminders where negative choices tend to happen," Fisher explained.
Researchers say those reminders are paired with scripted guides on talking to your children, and are encouraging everyone to begin speaking out.
"If we can teach kids the importance of non-violent reaction, if we can teach them to find their voices, then it's so much easier," Morille said.
Dr. Stuart Twemlow has been studying the psychological effects and causes of bullying for decades. He consulted with the FBI after the Columbine shootings. "It suddenly made sense to me," he said. "The impetus for a program should start with the family."
According to Dr. Twemlow, +Works is the first time he's ever seen a program of this nature spearheaded and started by two mothers, who were just simply fed up. And, he says it's working.
"If a kid is two years in a program like Positive Works, they will carry it with them," he said. "The more earlier the intervention, the longer it will last, and also the easier it is to do. Kids will suck it up in elementary school."
CBS 11 recently traveled to Houston to see the program in action. We visited a "Positive Rally" created entirely by the students at Mark Twain Elementary School, where Ethan Gibson is a student.
"To be positive, it means like a sign of friendship, like I don't want to be your enemy," Ethan said.
The program's success has caught the attention of other school districts across Texas including here in Dallas.
Paige Collins, director of the Safe and Drug Schools for Dallas ISD, says the district is looking at the Positive Works program and others to see what will work best for their schools.
So far, Collins says she's encouraged by the results seen in Houston. "You can't train just the students or the staff," she said. "You have to have the parents involved, the community involved so that everyone is addressing it at the same time. It takes everyone holding hand-in-hand and communicating to make sure we're advocating for our children."
And, that's something the Gibson family has experienced. "It just helps to understand what do you earn when you're a bully...the pride of hurting somebody's feelings," Ethan said matter-of-factly.
Part of the program educates on the different roles involved in bullying - from the bully and the target, to the bystander who sees the bullying happen. Dr. Twemlow says +Works has been successful at empowering those bystanders to step in, speak up, and stop the bullies before the situation gets out of hand.
Find out even more about bullying and how to deal with it at stopbullying.gov.
