Riverside Middle is a No-Bully School
Bullying is different than harassment and peer conflict
It occurs when a student, or group of students, repeatedly hurts or humiliates another student. Bullying and harassment often cause lasting physical and mental harm, marginalize diverse students, and negatively impact the entire school culture.
The ways bullying occurs:
Physical bullying is when a student uses physical force to hurt another student by hitting, pushing, shoving, kicking, taking a student’s belongings, or stealing their money.
Verbal bullying is when a student uses words or gestures to humiliate another student by threatening, taunting, intimidating, insulting, sarcasm, name-calling, teasing, slurs, graffiti, put-downs and ridicule.
Relational bullying is when a student isolates another student from their peer group by leaving them out, gossiping, spreading rumors, and scapegoating.
Cyberbullying is when a student uses a cell phone, text messages, e-mails, instant messaging, chats, and social media to bully another student in any of the ways described above. It also includes breaking into a student’s electronic account(s) and assuming that student’s identity in order to damage their reputation.
Solutions:
Solutions teams
If a student is experiencing a possible bullying situation, Riverside Middle School responds with a multi-tiered approach. A team of staff members, who are trained to facilitate a solutions team will gather peers, including the offender, to create solutions that support the victim. The goal is to change the bully behavior by creating empathy while supporting the victim.
Restorative Circles
Riverside Middle School utilizes restorative circles to repair harm when harm has been done by one student against another. We have used restorative circles both with our internal staff as well as in collaboration with YouthZone.
Mediations
Any time there is conflict, Riverside will conduct mediations to help support and develop solutions for all parties involved.