M
o n d a y
, M
a r c h
1911 2011
7, 2011 | V
o l
T H E
. 100, N
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. 97
D A I L Y
MISSISSIPPIAN
Celebrating Our Hundredth Year | The Student Newspaper
of
The University
of
M i ss i ss i p p i | S e r v i n g O l e M i ss
and
Oxford
since
Oxford School District takes measures to prohibit bullying
1911 |
w w w . t h e d mo n l i n e . com
this week
BY BETSY JONES
FORD CENTER
The Daily Mississippian
LOU SYMPHONY CONCERT
Since the establishment of the Oxford School District’s bullying and harassment policy, school officials and faculty continue to make progress in educating students about the ongoing issue. In July 2010, the Mississippi State Legislature passed a bill to prohibit bullying or harassing behavior in public schools. All public schools in Mississippi were required to adopt a policy to prevent bullying in their school environments by Dec. 31. The Oxford School District passed the first reading of the bullying policy on Sept. 27, 2010. This policy adopted a code of conduct that prohibits bullying and harassment. “The official policy was accepted this year,” said Kathy Howington, Oxford High School assistant principal. The Oxford School District established the student bullying policy in response to past bullying incidents. Also, the district wants to raise awareness of these ongoing issues. Bullying incidents are those acts directed toward certain students that make it impossible for them to concentrate or attend school. There is no state or region, nor public or private school, where bullying does not occur. According to First National Survey, 30 percent of U.S. students in grades 6-10 are bullied. Since the Oxford School District set up the policy, students have been informed of the consequences of bullying and have watched awareness videos involving various types of bullying. This past month, awareness of
The LOU Symphony Orchestra will present its Student Soloists Concert today, which will feature Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, concertos by Beethoven, von Weber, and Henri Tomasi, and will conclude with Haydn’s Symphony No. 103. 8 - 10 p.m. $10/$6 with student ID.
BASEBALL Support your rebs as they take on Western Kentucky on Wednesday and Thursday. 6:30 p.m. both nights. $3 with student ID.
inside OPINION
TAD PAD, LIGHTS OUT
GRAPHIC BY VICTORIA BOATMAN
bullying was incorporated in various activities throughout the Oxford School District’s system. Communicare productions provided a documentary film titled “Hating Tami.” Linda Coleman, Students Against Destructive Disagreement (SADD) advisor at Oxford High School, said the film is about a girl named Tami, a high school student, who is a victim of cyber bullying and class room ostracizing. “We picked the story because it provided follow-up questions about the video,” Coleman said. “Also, it had a strong resolution between student, teacher and parent
intervention.” Other activities for students included discussions about the film in activity teams and viewing bulletin boards posted with facts of information about bullying. Also, a guest speaker from Mental Health spoke to the staff, Howington said. The bill defines bullying behavior as “any pattern of gestures or written, electronic or verbal communication, or any act reasonably perceived as being motivated by actual or perceived differentiating characteristics and that no student or school employee shall be subjected to bullying or harassing behavior by school employee or students.”
“Bullying will always be an issue,” said Brian Harvey, Oxford School District assistant superintendent. “It’s a part of students growing up and learning how to treat people.” Harvey said the biggest problem is that students don’t report the incidents. Nondisclosure is a common choice among bullying victims, he said. In response to this problem, a service called Ancomm has been introduced to the Oxford schools. Ancomm, a confidential reporting system, encourages students to report incidents when they feel
SPORTS
STANLEY GETS ANOTHER SHOT AT QB POSITION
See SCHOOL, PAGE 5
Yearbook slated for April release date BY KAITIE HARRISON The Daily Mississippian
The 2011 edition of the Ole Miss yearbook is expected to grace bookshelves at the end of April, but the editor said she is keeping the theme of the annual on the hush. “The yearbook does have a theme,” said, Alex McDaniel, the editor of the yearbook. “It’s a surprise, but it has to do with the direction this university is going in and has been going in for some time.” Different from previous years, the 2011 yearbook, entitled The Ole Miss, which gave the school its nickname, will have personal stories from students, feature profiles and a creative design.
“A lot of things are different,” McDaniel said. “Instead of writing our own stories about the Greek organizations, we asked one person from each organization to write a personal essay for that fraternity or sorority and how it had an impact on their life. “We wanted different voices to be heard and have different perspectives from these organizations.” Yearbook writers interviewed groups and individuals from the community for the feature profiles. McDaniel said the profiles allow readers to more broadly enter the subjects’ lives. “We go to class every day,” McDaniel said. “We all have professors, and we kind of assume they don’t have any fun or have lives
outside of class. We only see one side. “A lot of what we aimed to do with this book was to kind of show the community the other side and show another perspective of life on this campus.” Graduate journalism student Callie Blackwell designed the yearbook. McDaniel said Blackwell’s work is impressive. “Everyone will be blown away by how beautiful this book is,” McDaniel said. “Her talent is endless, and she is the only person I wanted to have design this yearbook. To be completely honest, it’s amazing that she has the ability to take some vague idea about a story or idea or layout and bring it to life on screen. Not many people can do that.”
McDaniel said the yearbook is something different from years past and is approached in an unconventional way. “Nothing is to be expected because, honestly, it’s very different from most of the yearbooks that have been produced,” McDaniel said. “It doesn’t mean better or worse, but it’s approached in an unconventional way. “The staff and I knew early on that we didn’t want this book to be stereotypical and plagued by this university — we aren’t all hard drinkers, we don’t all party and not all girls are looking for a husband. We were really tired of students being pegged as one type of student. The stories we created were created with that in mind.”
SPORTS
SENIOR NIGHT