Student leaders from 17 high schools across Baltimore County are taking action to strengthen the kinds of positive learning environments they believe all students deserve. They have announced plans for the first ever Bullying Prevention Week in Baltimore County Public Schools, to be held March 3-7.
Initiated and coordinated by the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, the week will feature special activities and videos each day, including a special episode of the new BCPS-TV show “Chat Café.”
The student-led bullying prevention week coincides with the public release of an online Bullying, Harassment or Intimidation Reporting Form. Students, staff and parents will be able to complete and submit the form electronically. The new form is designed to facilitate the process of reporting incidents of bullying and increase the anonymity of reporting.
Across the county on Monday, students and staff will be encouraged to sign bullying prevention pledges and to wear orange to represent unity. Elementary students will receive “Loving is Louder” stickers, while secondary students will be offered temporary tattoos.
The color of the day for Tuesday will be green representing empathy, and students will be encouraged to eat lunch with different tablemates than usual and to build new friendships.
Wednesday will be “Random Words of Kindness Day,” and the color of the day, to represent kindness, will be blue. Students and staff will be invited throughout the day to write positive words about each other on designated bulletin boards in their schools.
The focus for Thursday will be cyber-bullying awareness, and the campaign will seek to combat negativity with 5,000 positive tweets. Students will be encouraged to tweet affirmative words, statements, and pictures about their school and other students using the hash tag #lovingislouder. The color for the day is red to symbolize respect.
On Friday, schools are encouraged to celebrate the week through classroom discussions or assemblies and to develop schoolwide plans for continuing bullying prevention activities. Pictures from the week can be shared using #lovingislouder or sent to nallen3@bcps.org. Any schoolwide plans developed to address bullying prevention should be sent to spatterson2@bcps.org. The color of the day, purple, represents positivity.