Glen Harris is serious about the Buddy Box.
The River Heights Elementary principal is one of several Cache County school administrators to implement the program — a lockbox for students to report problems they’re having or seeing at school.
Students write their concerns on slips of paper and put the note in the box. The school’s principal checks the box each day and discusses the problem with the students involved.
“I touch base with the kids who leave the notes and with the kids that they are worried about,” Harris said. “I make sure that I take every note seriously, even the frivolous things, just to make sure that the kids know that their voices are being heard.”
The program, developed by Utah State University student Marisa Nielsen, is one initiative being used by area schools, which are approaching bullying with preventative measures in response to an April 2010 edict from the Cache County School District to put bullying and hazing policies into effect.
Since then, schools have been implementing programs and procedures to prevent bullying in support of the zero-tolerance policy, which defines bullying as an act that “endangers the physical health or safety of a school employee or student and is done for the purpose of placing a school employee or student in fear.”
Hazing, according to the policy, is “an act that is done for the purpose of initiation or admission into, affiliation with, holding office in, or as a condition for membership or acceptance.”
In accordance with the policy, each school must train its employees and students to recognize and prevent bullying, hazing and retaliation, and establish procedures allowing for anonymous reporting of those acts. Schools are also required to have at least two employees in appropriate positions or authority to receive and investigate reports.
And that’s where Nielsen’s program comes in. As an elementary school student in Hyrum, Nielsen said, she was relentlessly bullied.
“I was called the witch because I had a pointy nose,” she said. “I also had a girl who bullied me every day. I was terrified to tell someone for fear that the bullying would get worse.”
Year later, as a competitor in Miss Utah Teen competition, Nielsen made bullying her bailiwick. Today, the program has been adopted by more than 600 schools in Utah.
Additionally, some Cache County schools are offering courses intended to prevent bullying. The programs teach students how to be respectful and kind to others and how to handle bullies. The students are also given lessons on the importance of self-esteem.
“I find it interesting how much bullying has to do with perception,” said River Heights teacher Cheryl Orme. “One child might feel like they are being stared at and being made fun of — and another child might think that people look at them because they like them. I teach the kids to try to find their own talents — and to look for the talents in others.”
Cache County schools that have implemented the preventive programs have reported a reduction in bullying cases.
Kyndall Peterson, Jill Dean, Lauren Handy, Cambria VandeMerwe, Heather Foster, Aaron Griffiths and Paige Sjoblom contributed to this report.
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