Bullying has been a longstanding concern for Richland County.
With recent events and initiatives, locals are seeing progress in bringing awareness to the issue. Sydney Shasky, Miss Richland County’s Outstanding Teen, has adjusted her platform against bullying with “No Tolerance For Bullying”. Shasky, a victim of bullying, wants to bring awareness to her community. She is working to implement “confidential boxes” in schools of Richland County for students to voice concerns about bullying.
Ontario, along with many other area schools, are not unfamiliar with reports of bullying. Superintendent Lisa Carmichael shared in a recent board meeting that there were 19 reported cases of bullying/harassment for the 2012-13 school year.
Carmichael is determined to see a turn around. She shared, “Last year, we started Rachel’s Challenge. This is a program that is designed to help our students engage in random acts of kindness.” The program was met with positive feedback, “This program was a big success for Ontario. I know it helped to reduce our number of bullying/harassment incidents.”
Ontario’s northern neighbor, Shelby, is facing bullying issues head on. “Bullying is a legitimate concern in society. We need to face these problems immediately.” said Tim Tarvin, superintendent of Shelby City Schools. Shelby has taken a “Zero Tolerance For Bullying” stand, and has the same set of rules for each school in their system for what is considered bullying.
“We won’t tolerate bullying,” said Tarvin, “We also document all cases of bullying. If a student gets documented for bullying in elementary school, it will follow them when they go to the middle school.” He explained, “That way if they get disciplined for bullying again, we will be able to see a pattern.” Tarvin believes that schools and parents need to work together to help solve the problem, “Parents in the community have done a great job. We have to work together to make it work.”
We won’t tolerate bullying.