Dec 12, 2006 By Angie Oravec 6 min read

The top television show in Japan arrived at Laurel Highlands Middle School this past week to begin a series of tapings focused on the school’s bullying prevention program. Because of a high rate of suicide in Japan, the show chose to profile an American school that has implemented the Dan Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, the No. 1 research-based model in the world, according to many experts in the field.

Producers and camera crew from the New York Bureau of the Fuji Television Network spent three days at the school interviewing students and staff, teachers and administration, filming a classroom discussion on bullying in teacher Janae Rosendale’s eighth-grade math class and viewing anti-bullying commercials created by students that show bullying from a teenager’s point of view.

The commercials are aired on the school’s morning television program.

The Laurel Highlands footage will be televised on Fuji TV later this month as part of the two-hour morning news program called “Tokudane!” or “Scoop!”

Equal to America’s “Today Show,” “Tokudane!” addresses current issues in society, often profiling the American approach to widespread problems in Japan and worldwide. Fifteen minutes will be dedicated to Laurel Highlands Middle School’s team approach to addressing bullying under the Olweus model.

After a day of filming this week, producer Scott Filipski said the most amazing part of the program at the Fayette County middle school is everyone’s level of involvement, something that occurred in the short period of time since the program was begun this fall.

Filipski also said though the school has a no-tolerance policy to bullying, it also has a very, friendly climate. He added that Assistant Principal Mike Rozgony greeting students with a smile as they arrive in the morning shows the school is a “friendly zone” right upon entering.

In Japan, said Filipski, there has been an uptrend in school violence with a couple of high-profile cases where middle school students have committed suicide because of being tormented in school.

Taking the Laurel Highlands and the Olweus way of prevention back to the foreign country will hopefully encourage educators to try it out in their schools, said Filipski.

Mary Dolan, safe schools coordinator with the Center for Schools and Communities for Safe Schools in Camp Hill, said the Columbine massacre sparked a national response to look at bullying and what can be done to prevent it in schools.

Japan, she said, is undergoing a similar national response because of recent suicides. The country wants to take a look at what is causing school-age children to take their own life. Thus, enter the search by producers of “Tokudane!” to find the one American school that has bought into the Olweus way of thinking.

Pennsylvania, said Dolan, was already high on the list because it has the largest cadre of trainers, numbering 47, trained on the Olweus model.

Laurel Highlands was chosen because of the good things the school has done with the program in a short period of time, she said.

Pennsylvania supports implementing the Olweus program in schools through a partnership between the state Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the state Department of Education. The Center for Safe Schools gives grants to state intermediate units to allow schools to pay for training, the first-step of starting the program.

District Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba and Laurel Highlands Middle School Principal Mary Macar traveled to the Intermediate Unit 1 (IU 1) to explore the state grant possibility.

Laurel Highlands and Zachariah Connell Elementary School in the Connellsville Area School District were awarded the funding this year. More schools are soon expected to come onboard with the program thanks to a second round of grant funding.

Sheba said he is thrilled with what the middle school has accomplished in such a short period of time, noting it’s remarkable to have such special recognition.

“We’ve taken a proven program and implemented it to meet anti-bullying needs,” said Sheba. “It’s unique to Laurel Highlands, but still is the Olweus model.”

Sheba said though the middle school isn’t the only school to have a problem with bullying, it has gotten to the heart of the matter, which must happen to change and redirect the behavior that foments bullying.

“The great thing here is the students and parents bought into it,” said Sheba. “We want this to be modeled in other district buildings.”

Macar said there is a growing list of former student bullies who have undergone a “miraculous” turnaround because of a growing school culture that does not tolerate bullying.

“We have made clear that bullying is not acceptable behavior and that has led to a change of school climate,” Macar said.

At the beginning of this school year, the number of bullying incidents reported by students initially rose since students took advantage of an easy reporting system that allows them to pick up bullying complaint forms from locations around the school, fill them out and turn them into the assistant principal.

Repeat bullying offenders are punished in part by being brought before the 14 members of the school’s anti-bullying committee, which can be quite intimidating for that student, according to Macar.

Dolan said part of what makes the Olweus model effective is the “top-down commitment” that starts with administration and trickles down to faculty and staff, parents and students.

According to Dr. Marlene Snyder at Clemson University’s Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life, bullying is now connected through research to medical mental and physical health problems, lower academic achievement, school truancy, drop out and delinquent behavior.

“This idea that bullying is just a part of growing up – that bullying is a fact of life – that attitude has to be changed,” said Snyder.

And, Sheba agrees there will be academic benefits through the program at Laurel Highlands, though it is too early to tell the long-term results, such as a whether there is a decrease in school suspensions.

“All the time we put into this will pay off academically as well,” said Sheba. “This is the first year in the process. We are a work in progress.”

Macar noted school officials soon will hold a parent meeting to discuss bullying. All parents are invited to attend, she said.

Clemson University has published the Olweus anti-bullying program’s evidence of effectiveness along with other details on its Web site at www.clemson.edu/olweus/content.html.