Bullying Prevention School Essay/Media Contest

Preventing bullying is an important part of our vision of helping communities be safe. Attached for download (see below) is a packet of sample material for schools to conduct an Essay/Media contest on bullying in area schools.

The idea for the contest was taken from the LaSalle County Community Awareness Committee of the 13th Judicial Circuit Family Violence Prevention Council, which had conducted such contests in the past. The subject of bullying derived from a training that our Grundy County Committee conducted in January, 2010, on the 26-week Protocol-Approved Intervention Program in Kankakee for convicted batterers. Physical battery is of course bullying taken to an extreme. The program director said that those who completed the program often expressed that they wished they had learned in school what the batterer program had taught them about respecting their partners and directing their anger appropriately. The implication was that had they learned this in school, they may not now be in the predicament they found themselves of having committed such a crime.

Many teachers, school districts, and administrators are already engaged in teaching bullying prevention, and many agencies also offer outstanding free training to schools on the subject. In addition, the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Councils, our parent Council, has created a toolkit for conducting administrator academies and school inservices across the state on their Schools Respond to Family Violence Project. These trainings provide expert instruction on how detrimental the effects of violence in the home can be on students development and achievement in later life. To learn more about how to conduct one of these trainings in your area, contact www.ifvcc.org.

This essay/media contest will dovetail nicely with all those efforts, and can also serve to educate students in the absence of more formal training. It includes a teachers guide and sites which provide teachers with the resources to discuss the subject in their classroom, focusing on any one of the roles of bully, target, and witness, or on all three together. Districts can choose to have students enter their work as individuals, or as a class.

The contest is unlikely to require funding if materials are emailed or faxed, although some of the resource workbooks for teachers may have a nominal cost. Implementation would mean promoting the contest to schools and to the media, locating judges and prizes. Judges may be recruited from community colleges or other sources not associated with the schools, and prizes may be solicited from local eateries, ballparks, etc.

We hope you find this packet useful, and thank you so much for doing your part to help end violence in our communities!

Download materials here:

Sample Letter to ROE superintendents providing the rationale for the contest.

Sample Contest Announcement to schools, etc.

Sample Contest Rules and submission sheet.

Sample Teacher's Guide with Resources.

Sample Media Release announcing the contest to the media.

Sample Media Release announcing the winners after the contest.