PERRYSBURG – An anti-bullying program put in place this year at the school district’s four elementaries
is showing signs of progress and will be expanded into the junior high and high school level next year.

"I think it’s going very positively," said Dr. Kevin Gorman, the district’s executive director
for pupil services. "I mean the principals seem excited, the kids seem excited. If you walk into
any of the buildings, you can see the rules posted." Students are also frequently wearing T-shirts
related to the program, he said.
The district is using the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, developed by Dr. Dan Olweus, a research
professor of psychology affiliated with the University of Bergen’s Research Center for Health Promotion
in Norway. According to its Schoolwide Guide, the program is "the most researched and best-known
bullying prevention program available today." It features a number of General Requirements at the
school, classroom, individual, and community level, including administration of a school-wide bullying
questionnaire, trainings, posting of school anti-bullying rules, holding classroom meetings, and
parental involvement.
Gorman, along with Frank Elementary School Principal Brent Swartzmiller, "were trained in
Washington, D.C., last summer and the summer before that," said Gorman. "And basically the
cost of the training was" provided through federal stimulus funds. He and Swartzmiller became the
district’s trainers for the program as a result of those training sessions.
"The Ohio Department of Education requires all school districts to have a bully policy," he
explained.
"A year ago October we trained four committees representing each elementary school in Perrysburg in
the project. They in turn spent the rest of the year planning" to train their individual staff. The
Olweus Bullying Questionnaire was distributed to all students in grades 2 through 6 in February, asking
them where the "hot spots" for bullying were in their school, if they had ever been bullied,
and other questions in February. This questionnaire generates a comprehensive report about bullying in
each school. Staff were trained during the schools’ in-service in May.
A kick-off event was held this fall for the program, and students marched in the Harrison Rally Day
parade carrying signs, and signs were put in windows. A school kick-off event is part of the program’s
general requirements.
In November, an overview of the training was given to bus drivers, and in February a committee from the
junior high and high school will be trained on the Olweus program. Staff at those schools are to be
trained by the end of the year, and the bullying questionnaire will be administered in March. A
curriculum is already in place at the secondary school level dealing with bullying to allow guidance
counselors to run groups on the subject for students.
"That’s a change," Gorman said.
Parents have been involved in the program, having participated on the committees for each school and have
taken part in the training of staff. Each school additionally presented information about the program to
parents. The schools’ committees continue to meet every other month.
Some of the schools had T-shirts made referencing the program. Gorman said at Toth Elementary each
student received a wristband, which was taken away from them if they were caught bullying and had to be
earned back by doing nice things for other students to see the importance of treating each other with
respect.
A major component of the program are the class meetings, where students learn about the rules regarding
bullying, and which also provide a safe place for children to tell an adult about those kind of
situations.
"We’re in year one of implementation," said Swartzmiller of the program’s effects in his
school. "I think some of the components of the program have naturally led to some increased empathy
on the part of our students. I think the class meeting component in particular" has provided
students a forum "to talk about some of those social things that in the past they haven’t been able
to. And I think that that in and of itself has led to a change in culture, if you will."
He believes that people are now more able to recognize "unkind behaviors versus behaviors that are
bullying." Bullying is "a buzzword in our culture, really, and there is a distinct difference
between someone not treating somebody nice" and bullying. "More situations are being told to
us that truly are as reported."
The program can help those who are being bullied, but also provide help to those who do the bullying, he
said.
Gorman noted that in February "we will give the survey again at the elementaries and see if
there" has been an increase or decrease in bullying reports. He said he predicts that they will see
an increase in reports because children now have been taught to recognize bullying behavior.
Currently, all cases of bullying at any of the district’s schools go to Gorman, allowing him to see how
many cases there are. "And it kind of lets me know where the issues are" so they can be dealt
with.
"I think if you listen to the media, everyday there’s something," Gorman said of the importance
of the program.
"I think the world isn’t as safe as it was 20 years ago, and if you really look at the research in
terms of bullying situations," going as far back as the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in
Colorado, "the children who did the shooting were victims of being bullied. So I think it’s
imperative that we keep that in mind so that we have safe schools, not to mention that child’s self
esteem."
"I hope that we don’t refer to it as a program at all," Swartzmiller said of the future of the
program at his school. "I hope that the structure of the program becomes embedded in how we do
things around here, and it just becomes the Frank way, if you will, just becomes how we treat people, it
becomes how we report" and he we help children in need.