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Schools

Heritage School Spells Out The 3B's: Bye Bye Bullying

Students told about ways to ensure Heritage Elementary School is a No Bullying Zone.

Principal Les Sharon and his staff at Heritage School have been talking about the 3B's rule in each classroom over the last couple of weeks. At , 3B's stands for Bye Bye Bullying, and school staff works hard to keep the message at the forefront of kids’ minds.

“Your job is to bring people together, not pull them apart,” Sharon said during a recent lesson for a class of very attentive fifth graders. 

Sharon began his talk by asking kids where they see the 3B logo around the building. The kids knew every nook and cranny and were able to name them all.

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Sharon has three objectives when he visits the classroom to talk about 3B's.

First, he wants to be sure the staff is equipped to handle bullies once they are found out. Secondly, he is reinforcing the 3B campaign to drill home the anti-bullying message to everyone. Finally, probably most importantly, he and staff  are educating kids so they know how to handle a situation with a bully.

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The 3B definition of bullying has criteria that helps differentiate bullying from a random incident or an accident.

“Bulling is intentional, has to happen more than once, and with bullying there is always an imbalance of power between the bully and the person being bullied,” said Sharon.

The power can be physical, social or verbal, and includes spreading rumors, cyber bullying, excluding people from activities and persuading others to do the same.

“The other day I had a kid come up to me at recess and tell me ‘they won’t let me play football, Mr. Sharon,'” Sharon said.  “And do you know what I said? I took him right outside so he could play because that’s not how we do things at Heritage School.”

Sharon went through several scenarios with the class and asked them to decide if the situation was indeed a bullying incident. He asked where in the building bullying was most likely to occur, and asked the clincher question of the lesson.

“Among the bully, the victim, and the bystander, who do you think has the most power?”

Some kids answered that the bully had all the power. Sharon was quick to explain why that wasn’t the case.

“The bystander has the most power to diffuse a bully situation,” he said. 

He described how a bully’s power is diffused when bystanders stand beside victims.

The lesson ended with with Sharon letting the kids know how to report bullies, how they can remain anonymous, how to stand up for themselves and stand with others.

“At the end of the day at Heritage, I want you to be smarter, happy and safe,” Sharon said. “If anything gets in the way of those three things, I want to know about it.”

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