Make Waves by Kaitlyn Bracken

MAKE

WAVES a campaign against bullying 2013 Bateman Case Study Competition Chapman University team TEAM MEMBERS Hanna Williams, Caitlin Valtierra, Kaitlyn Bracken, Nicole Mynott, Devon Hillard FACULTY ADVISORS Janell Shearer, APR, and Veston Rowe

Introduction Make Waves was inspired by a small pebble which, when tossed into a quiet body of water, creates an expanding circle of ri pples that radiate far beyond the original point of impact. Likewise, individuals have the potential to create change that extends past their immediate spheres of influence. When faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenge of bullying, we believe it is the individual student who has the power to make waves in his or her home, school, and community to create a more inclusive society. Although each student is unique, many share similar bullying experiences. Make Waves aimed to equi p students with strategies and responses that can be used in real life bullying situations. From “ ” was born. When students realize the many forms of bullying, respond in an effective, appropriate, and time-sensitive way, and feel empowered to reach out to bullying targets, the cycle of bullying can stop from within a community. With the help of Bullying Awareness Resource Education (B.A.R.E.), we created a campaign that did just that. The Make Waves campaign targeted middle school students in the Orange County area, created a social media platform for sharing personal experiences, and culminated in assemblies to educate students on bullying and bullying solutions. Although the Make Waves campaign only lasted one month, the messages we communicated will endure through each student’’’ s scholastic career.

Situation Analysis According to DoSomething.org, a national organization inspiring young people to ignite social change, more than 3.2 million students are bullied in United States each year. In response to this issue, the California legislature created bully-harassment laws aimed at punishing students for engaging “that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to have the actual and reasonably expected effect of materially disrupting classwork, creating a substantial disorder, and invading the rights of either school personnel or pupils by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment.” Although California has taken the initiative to stop bullying, it is difficult to monitor every school in the state to ensure the bully-harassment laws are being enforced. As a result, many communities around California have taken more focused approaches to determine the best way to end bullying in their specific region. An example of such action took place in Huntington Beach, Calif., where city council officials commissioned a citywide study to examine the prevalence and effects of bullying on the Huntington Beach community. While the city council researched effective methods to end bullying in Huntington Beach, we aimed to research and create a campaign specifically tailored to the Orange County, California, area. Our team decided to narrow our focus to middle school students as our research indicated that 77 percent of middle school students experience mental, verbal, and physically forms of bullying. Because of the oversaturation of bullying initiatives offered to students today, we worked to create a campaign that was both relatable and innovative, while still emphasizing our princi ple that one person can create substantial change in a bullying situation.

Our campaign title, Make Waves, reflects the culturally ubiquitous Southern California beach lifestyle. Additionally, the message behind the title emphasizes how like a single wave gains massive momentum before crashing to shore, one single individual has the capability to take a stand and make the first wave of change. We communicated the slogan: Realize, Respond, Reach Out to promulgate the idea that each student, regardless of his or her role in a bullying conflict, can acknowledge bullying behavior, stop it, and work to help others realize that they have the potential to end bullying. Rather than our team presenting facts and lecturing students about why bullying is bad, we asked our students to partici pate in activities that encouraged interaction, individual responses, and physical representations of their thoughts on bullying. By allowing students to individually answer questions and communicate their opinions to their peers, we were able to promote the idea that every student can stand up to bullying and Make Waves in his or her community.

Research In terms of research, our team benefitted from the fact that the subject of bullying was already a topic of passionate investigation by one of our members, Kaitlyn Bracken, who investigated the subject through her reporting for the Orange County Register. In September, before her selection for the Bateman team, Kaitlyn met with various students, quasi-officials, organizations and local politicians, conducting various interviews that bolstered Make Waves. In addition to Kaitlyn’’’s findings, we wanted to focus our research efforts as much as possible on Southern California. While national bullying campaigns have made great strides in the area of awareness, they don’’t specifically address issues that face students in Southern California. However, we discovered there are not many statistics on bullying in our area. This led us to create our own means of gathering information through both a survey and a classroom activity. One of our goals through the survey and activity was to see how much the students knew about different types of bullying, as well as to whom they could talk about bullying problems. We distributed a 16-question survey, of both multi ple-choice and free response questions, that addressed all perspectives of bullying (target, aggressor, bystander) as well as bullying behaviors, locations, and solutions. Two local schools, McPherson Magnet School and Portola Middle School, allowed us to distribute this survey to several students. The results provided in-depth insight into how students felt bullying affected their school. An example of the survey’’s effect was shown in the results collected before implementing the program at McPherson. While 64 students marked that they had never physically bullied someone or had been bullied themselves, 36 students responded that they have seen a friend be bullied. This made it clear to us that we needed to focus on emphasizing the importance of the bystander during our time at McPherson. Our team used a sticker game to begin our program activities as another method of research. By using this to begin our session, we were able to assess the students’ current thoughts on bullying. We noted that “kicking or hitting” as being an element of bullying, it was interesting to see how the students differed on what they believed were other definitions of aggressive behavior. For example, only nine students at McPherson marked

“ ”, we were able to get results from the students we were targeting and hear their thoughts directly. This is also a great resource that we wanted to leave with the teachers and administrators so in the future they could distribute this survey or run this activity to gauge the bullying climate in their schools. It will allow them to implement our activities or use other resources to address the issues that are most prevalent in their school.

We also looked to local officials and bullying programs to learn more about California state regulations as well as efforts in our local schools. We talked to several Huntington Beach council members and Christine Laehle of the Orange County Department of Education. Through these contacts we were able to find our partner B.A.R.E. The founder, Deborah Reisdorph, proved to be an invaluable source in our campaign and helped us strengthen the effectiveness of our school activities.

Our research derived from various methods, including interviews to gain insights into the community and ultimately develop the strongest direction for our campaign. Interviews were conducted with a variety of sources such as city council members, school administrators, county agencies, nonprofits, students and quasi-officials from several county organizations. Conducting these interviews led to many key findings that further developed our objectives and strategies.

Subjects and Key Findings Christine Laehle Orange County Department of Education, School Safety and Violence Prevention, Program Specialist Parents are an essential audience to reach because they’’’re often unaware if their child is a target of bullying. It’’’ s essential to provide support and guidance. Bullying is most prevalent in grades 6-9, peaking at grade six when kids are transitioning into middle school. Special education students are three times more likely to be targets of bullying. The highest percentages of children bullied in California are of a minority race and ethnicity. Deborah S. Reisdorph Bully Awareness Resistance Education (B.A.R.E), Founder B.A.R.E. works with schools, government/official agencies and various organizations to spread bully awareness in Southern California (Orange County, Los Angeles County and San Diego County). This interview established our partnershi p to work with this nonprofit organization and widely spread our message. Other interviews conducted for preliminary research: Joe Carchio Huntington Beach City Council member Carchio is leading a citywide anti-bullying campaign in Huntington Beach, Calif. Joe Dagley Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force, Chair Dagley led an investigative research team to report on bullying within the city. Fred Provencher H.B. Reads, Founder Provencher implemented an anti-bullying reading program for the community in Huntington Beach, Calif. Jason Ross Huntington Beach High School, Assistant Princi pal Implemented the HB Reads anti-bullying reading program at Huntington Beach High School. Joe Shaw Huntington Beach City Councilman Liaison to the Human Relations Task force and enforcer of the city’s anti-bullying proclamation. Don Garrick Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force, Vice Chair Accepted the first anti-bullying proclamation in Orange County from the city council of Huntington Beach.

High school students Samantha Sharkoff, Huntington Beach High School, junior Greg Welker, Edison High School, senior Emily Le, Edison High School, junior Austin Smith, Edison High School, sophomore -- Key Findings: Bullying isn’t much of an issue past freshman year; however, the students all see a prevalence of cyber-bullying in high school.

Key Publics As a result of our research, we designed a program to create awareness about bullying among elementary and middle school students ages 10-15 in Southern California. A Harvard University study determined that to combat bullying, we need holistic solutions that involve youth, parents, educators, social workers, community members, and others who touch the lives of youth. We then determined three important secondary audiences: parents, teachers, and the community. Primary Audience Middle School and fifth grade students in the Orange County area, Ages 10-15 Bullying has been shown to have long-lasting consequences for victims, for bullies, and for those who witness incidents of bullying. We felt that the most effective way to attack this issue was to address students at a younger age. This public is old enough to comprehend and retain information, but young enough to pick up new habits. We chose not to target specifically “ ” “ ” children due to findings in a Harvard University study that said we must have empathy for those who hurt as well as those who are being hurt. Recognizing that many bullies have problems at home or in school, and need help just as much as those who are targets of and bystanders to bullying, is crucial to stopping the cycle of bullying.

Secondary Audience Staff/Faculty, Parents, the community (agencies and organizations advocating for safer communities) Throughout history, schools have been the archetypal setting for bullying to occur. Investigations nationwide have confirmed that this is a very pervasive phenomenon. At the same time, many parents and teachers have become more determined that action must be taken to stop severe bullying. Training youth is important, but adults need training in order to help young people. Bullying is a systems problem and many well-intended people don’’t realize the complexity of the issue. But more importantly, bullying doesn’t happen just in middle school - or even just in school at all. As we saw with the Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force research report, opportunities exist for community involvement enabling concerned citizens to address an issue that threatens the safety of all citizens

Theme To make our campaign relevant to Southern California students, we chose a theme that not only fits our famous Southern California setting, but that would also resonate with students across America. Make Waves was the perfect choice for a few reasons. Few can picture the state without images of sun, surf, and sand coming to mind. We felth this theme would appeal to local students and beyond for its fun, beachy theme. Make Waves also exemplified the three main points that we wanted to get across to our students: Realize, Respond, Reach Out.

Why those three? Well, much like a wave, change has a starting point and so first, before any change can happen, students must realize what bullying is. Realize is our first stage in the cycle to end bullying because without the proper knowledge of what bullying is, students will not be able to recognize the behavior in others and in themselves. As the wave builds momentum and becomes bigger, students learn that they must respond to the situation. In the respond stage, students learn the techniques to handle bullying situations whether they are a target, a bystander, or an ally. By teaching students how to respond to bullying situations, they become models for their fellow students, building the wave against bullying. Finally as the wave crashes to the shore, the water spreads across the beach making an impact on the sand. To make that same impact on their communities, students learn to reach out to end the cycle of bullying. Students understand how they can become allies and learn to see the consequences of negative behavior to know the lasting effects of bullying.

Key Messages As we developed our campaign, we realized the extensiveness of the subject. As a result, we narrowed down some specific messages that we felt needed to be emphasized to inspire a change in behavior. All of these key points were part of the discussions with students and presentations/ materials for parents and teachers.

Students You can start the wave by being an ally to your friends. When you step up to stop a bullying situation or report an incident to a teacher or staff member you are starting a positive wave to end bullying. If you are the bystander in a bullying situation, you can make the wave stronger by standing up and reporting a bullying incident. Bullying may take place in unexpected places or come in unexpected forms. You can realize that bullying can happen anywhere and to anyone, so always think before you speak and know who to talk to if you see bullying or feel you are being bullied. Your parents, teachers, faculty, coaches, and after-school leaders are all great resources to talk to about bullying. They are there to help you in any way they can. A black eye and some name-calling may seem like it does not have much of an effect now, but it does. The consequences of bullying start now and continue later on in life. We need to stop the cycle of bullying now so it does not impact us negatively later in life. School Officials Multi ple resources are available through online and non-profit organizations (like B.A.R.E and stopbullying.gov) that can give you tools and training for the employees at your school. Students need to believe that they can report bullying incidents in a safe and confidential way. They also need to be ensured that proper steps will be taken once a bullying situation is reported in accordance with Seth’’s Law. “anti” activities that involve movement, partici pation and critical thinking. While students may be experiencing bullying all across the country, you need to discover what specific bullying problems are happening at your school. When you know the hotspot bullying areas, reasons for bullying and who is involved on both sides of the bullying situation, you can better address and solve the problem. Parents Your children look to you for guidance and support. They want to talk to you first about bullying situations so think about how you react when they speak to you. Give them

your full attention and be understanding. Think before you react and calmly address the situation before you interact with staff and faculty at school. While your child may want to talk to you about bullying, they might not always know how. Be aware of signs that your child may be being bullied. Children play all types of roles in a bullying situation, which means yours may be the target, the bystander, or the aggressor. Know who your child hangs out with and pay attention to changes in personality or behaviors. When you know what role they play, you will be better equi pped to handle a situation should one arise.

Challenges During the course of the Make Waves campaign, our team faced several potential roadblocks. Nevertheless, we viewed each challenge as a trough in a wave, thus serving as a reminder of the wave’’s inevitable crest. For each challenge or trough, our team created a crest or opportunity. The Trough - Although bullying is a common, widespread issue, attempting to encompass every aspect, form, or behavior of bullying into a campaign appeared daunting. Therefore it was essential that our team conduct thorough research to decide which aspects of bullying were most relevant to our middle-school demographic. The Crest - While our team had the opportunity to tackle virtually any segment of bullying, we chose to research which forms of bullying Orange County area middle school students encountered most frequently. Our primary research enabled the team to focus on examples of bullying the students could relate to, therefore allowing us to facilitate positive, memorable solutions. The Trough - Due to the immense amount of information, campaigns, and resources covering a wide spectrum of bullying topics disseminated throughout the nation annually, our team understood that we needed to develop an innovative campaign that would apply to our community while standing out from past anti-bullying efforts. The Crest - We had the opportunity to show schools and students that we were a unique program driven by interactive activities and student responses. While students were encouraged to answer questions with verbal responses, our program also sought to incorporate activities that provided both physical and visual representation of students’’ opinions. We found that having multi ple representations of their own ideas increased students’’ awareness of the different forms of bullying occurring in their own schools as well as their commitment to the “3R’’’ s” of Make Waves. The Trough - At one time or another during the research phase of our campaign, each member commented on how difficult it was to create a definition for the term bullying that adequately encompassed every form of bullying. Our team also felt that many resources failed to provide a definition of bullying that would be easily comprehended by younger students. The Crest - This challenge helped in developing our goal to engage students in significant conversation regarding bullying rather than merely presenting students with a fact-based, consequence-heavy lecture. To derive a comprehensive, relatable definition of bullying, we turned to our local middle school students in the Orange County area, who anonymously provided personal ideas of bullying as the basis for discussing and defining bullying in ways that resonated with students at each school.

Objectives

Strategies

Tactics

Objective One: Establish strategic partnershi ps with local influentials to deliver key messages to the community daily for the month of February. Strategy: Increase awareness of bullying behaviors and social definitions through two-way communication and collaboration. Rationale: There is not one all encompassing definition of bullying. We need to define it ourselves within our community.The Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force Committee has identified a number of interventions related to bullying and recommends the sponsorshi p of a series of events

Tactics: Create an Instagram page and a Facebook page for followers that include photos with within the online community. Partner with Bullying Awareness Resistance Education (B.A.R.E.) founder Deborah Reisdorph to deliver relevant, knowledge-based and effective programming and education. Expand on currently used anti-bullying programs and collaborate with test school princi pals and teachers in promoting the longevity of the message. Inspire school children through the presence of the Make Waves team members as role models to speak up in presenting their own knowledge and opinions about bullying. Partner with local middle schools and high schools to gather primary research and assess current bullying situations. Collaborate with B.A.R.E., the OC Human Relations Committee, and Huntington Beach City Huntington Beach. Teach parents how to respond to a bullying situation that involves their child.

Objective Two: Educate students and parents in two local school districts on how to best react to bullying situations by February 29. Strategy: Use dialogue and interaction to actively engage, ensure retention of the material, and inspire adoption of proactive behaviors in bullying situations among students in fifth through seventh grade at two local schools. Rationale: In our research, we determined that a majority of bullying happens at school. Therefore, we thought it was better to address this situation there. Our research showed that to be effective, much of what needs to be done needs to take a constructive form, even though much of the public narrative tends to emphasize punitive approaches. A Harvard University study mentioned that programs that emphasize social-emotional learning tend to work best. The Make Waves team compiled several activities that were adapted to address the needs of the school setting as well as to provide students with opportunities to make their own realizations about what bullying is and how to combat it. Implement a program called Make Waves to create opportunities for repetition of key messages as well as chances for interaction among students on the topic of bullying. Plan activities to reinforce specific aspects of dealing with bullying: --Inform students about who they can talk to in a bullying situation and what their

--Demonstrate to students the power of the ally versus the bystander in a bullying

Program content that utilizes the students’’ knowledge and opinions as the foundation of activities and use their ideas to reiterate key points and research. Distribute a student resource card to provide interactive websites and other resources for students seeking more information. Quiz the students after each activity to reinforce bullying education and gauge retention of the material. by expressing their thoughts on “What adults should know about bullying” through art, music, poetry, etc., an assignment to be followed up on by teachers.

Objective Three: Create a long-standing campaign that can be used by schools after February 29. Strategy: Create a culturally relevant, provocative campaign theme that resonates with Southern California residents. Rationale: Our survey and observations proved that most students know what bullying is. Schools are required to uphold the three California laws surrounding bullying in addition to Seth’’s Law, and many already have anti-bullying programs in existence. The Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force found that each of the three school districts in their study recognize that bullying is a serious problem and is attempting to address the issue as directed by recent state legislation. In fact, the study found that all three districts have taken steps even beyond their legislative mandates. Because schools are already enforcing the anti-bullying mandate, selection of a theme with a specific call to action was crucial to our success in adding to what is already being done. Create a call to action that follows our flow of behavioral change. Start every program with an activity that exemplifies the message.

Strategy: Test and track program components to determine the effectiveness of Make Waves activities and messages. Rationale: We did not want to leave schools with a program that was ineffective in conveying our message. Proper testing and evaluation in addition to careful construction that parallels research would ensure a lasting campaign that teachers will find value in using in the future. Tactics: Implement, evaluate, and revise each activity in an on-going process to test the ageappropriateness and interactivity of key messages as well as the children’s and teachers’’ responses to the planned activities at local schools in Southern California. Issue a written quiz prior to the program to evaluate retention of the key messages. Use daily oral quizzes to ensure maximum partici pation and evaluate what the children learned from each presentation. Provide an opportunity to record the children’’s feedback in their own words. Issue a survey for the teachers and administrators in attendance of our test program to determine their satisfaction with the Make Waves presentation and content. Provide copies of activity outlines and discussion questions to faculty for potential program reproduction.

Make Waves Program A major component of our campaign was reaching local schools and interacting with students to facilitate dialogue about bullying behavior students experience or witness and collectively strategize solutions they can employ when similar encounters arise in the future. MAKE WAVES Before the start of our first activity, we asked for a volunteer from among the partici pating students. This a practice common to sports fans who stand and raise their arms, section by section, creating a wave like crest throughout an arena. This activity demonstrates the theme key to the educational foundation of our presentation: that it only takes one person to start the wave. This illustrates how one person can step up to be the ally in a bullying situation. STICKER GAME The first activity, based on questions from the surveys distributed before the start of the program, allows students to share their perceptions of bullying in their school. Using small stickers on labeled posterboard, students identify who they can talk to, what bullying is, and where it happens. This activity builds a sense of unity among the students, helping them to realize that bullying is a universal issue, and empowering them to work together in subsequent activities to create a solution. Students realized that while there are some things that they know are bullying, they must be sensitive to what others perceive as aggressive behavior. BYSTANDER ACTIVITY The second activity educates students through discussion of the many roles at play in a bullying incident including bully, bystander, target, and ally. This activity helps students see that even if they are not a bullying target or an aggressor, they are still a vital part of the bullying solution. NEWSCLIP ACTIVITY In the third activity, a facilitator leads a PowerPoint presentation illustrating the tangible consequences of bullying through real stories and news articles. According to our partners at B.A.R.E., legal consequences are a strong deterrent for bullying behavior, and this activity showed students that academic expulsion, lawsuits, and even prison time are possible outcomes for students who chose to partici pate in bullying behavior. 4 CORNERS ACTIVITY After clearly defining and explaining the negative consequences of bullying, the fourth activity engages students in a dialogue about how to handle hypothetical bullying situations. Students are presented with a scenario and choose one of four possible solutions, represented by the four corners of the room. After picking a corner, the facilitators and students discuss the benefits and drawbacks to each potential solution, helping students analytically evaluate how to respond to different bullying incidents in the future. By the end of the 60 minutes, students have a grasp on what kinds of bullying are most common in their community, what roles they can play in different bullying incidents, and how their simple actions can proactively make waves to end bullying.

Evaluation and Conclusion For our campaign, we knew that it would be critical to set objectives that would best meet our goal our three objectives during the month of February. While numbers may reveal part of our success, the best reward was the excitement and interest from the students with whom we met. Their hugs, laughter, and insightful remarks showed us that our program left a positive impact that would

Objective One: Establish strategic partnershi ps with local influentials to deliver key messages to the community daily for the month of February.

COMPLETED

With our partnershi p with B.A.R.E. and resources from the Huntington Beach City Council, Task Force and the Orange County Department of Education, we were able to better focus our campaign to the Southern California area and structure our classroom assemblies to address the students in the most interactive and engaging way possible. The schools where we conducted our activities also were extremely important in delivering our campaign messages. Not only did they allow us to come into their schools and run our program, they continued to support us afterward. The princi pal of Cubberly sent an email to the students’ parents with a summary of our program and encouraged parents to engage their child in a conversation about bullying. They also helped us shape the direction of the messages on our social media platforms through Facebook and Instagram, which were posted to daily (sometimes with multi ple posts per day) and focused on bringing uplifting, feel good messages to our audience. We were extremely successful in this, reaching 267 followers on Instagram with 7,264 likes and 164 likes on Facebook reaching 2,566 people during February.

Objective Two: Educate students and parents in two local school districts on how to best react to bullying situations by February 29.

EXCEEDED

Our assemblies at the Parent University in Huntington Beach, McPherson Magnet School and Cubberley Elementary (K-8) allowed us to reach out to both students and parents about the topic of bullying in three different school districts: Long Beach Unified, Huntington Beach Union High School District, and Orange Unified. At the Parent University, held at Ocaen View High School on February 25, we were approached by several parents and school officials to ask for our opinions and experiences with bullying. From the evaluations that we distributed to the teachers of Cubberley, we were acknowledged for our enthusiasm, the structure of our program, and our repetition of key ideas.

Objective Three: Create a long-standing campaign that can be used in schools after February 29

COMPLETED

“ ” bullying programs is that they often offer only one-time activities that did not make an impact on students’’ lives. We designed Make Waves to be a series of activities that could be completed in multi ple sessions. With the creation of our own survey, each school would be able to measure what their exact problem areas are for bullying. They can then use our activities or programs listed by our recommended partners and sites to create an anti-bullying program that fits the needs of their school. We also made our materials available to the schools to ensure that the program could be run successfully again. Deborah Reisdorph, our partner at B.A.R.E. sent us an email after implementation complimenting us on the structure of our campaign and saying that she used our metaphor of the wave several times in her own speaking engagements. To know that a professional speaker on the topic of bullying was using our concept with other audiences truly met our objective to create content that could be used effectively again.

Make Waves communicated key bullying messages to more than 225 students, their parents, and their educators through a dynamic campaign that defined bullying behavior, equi pped students with solutions for responding to bullying behavior, and empowered both students and adults to reach out to prospective bullying targets. Parents expressed a renewed commitment to their child’’s emotional health, educators gained insight into their school’’s bullying climate, students eagerly shared their thoughts and personal experiences in support of their classmates, and we received multi ple requests to repeat our programming at other local schools. More than anything, we were inspired by the way Make Waves opened up lines of communication between students, parents, and community members not only in person, but through online platforms.The Make Waves campaign is extremely versatile and can be replicated in groups of various sizes and with children of all ages in a wide range of settings. This program has the potential to reach children on both the local and national level and will give each child the inspiration to make waves in his or her own community!

APPENDIX Budget.....................................12 Program details............................13 Print Material.............................16 Primary Research - Survey..................20 Evaulation.................................22 Print Materials............................23 Bibliography...............................26

Budget Item

Quantity

Price Each

Subtotal

In-kind Donations

Subtotal

360 pack of circular stickers

$1.00

$6.00

Printing (Dodge College of Film and Media Arts)

Approx. $75.00

T-shirts for facilitators to wear during presentations

$4.48

$22.40

Posterboard for activity

$0.77

$15.40

Hard candies to give to participating students

$8.48

Total

$52.28

$75.00

TOTAL CAMPAIGN COST = $127.28

Make Waves - Program Details Once we had identified our target audience and developed an idea for our program, we wanted to understand how it would look in action. We sought out McPherson Magnet School and Cubberley Elementary School, two schools nearby, to help us test the effectiveness of Make Waves. We presented to: 115 5th graders, including special education students, in a 90-minute assembly at McPherson Magnet School. 107 5th graders, snf 25 6th and 7th graders representing various campus organizations, in a 30-minute assembly at Cubberley Elementary School.

We were trying to evaluate several key points of our program before leaving the activities and program sheets as a resource for the school. These points were: 1. Can the Make Waves activities work with older kids involved too? 2. Could Make Waves be condensed into shorter time periods? 3. How did our selected activities and approach to education test with our selected age group? 4. Do students actively respond to activities? Are they responding to the dialogue?

Start each program with the act of making the wave. Complete all activites within the alloted time. Ask students to record the most important thing they learned. Distribute student resource cards. Conduct a diolgue with students, encourage them to respond to facilitators and each other.

Children ages 8 to 10 have a short attention span, so sessions need to be kept brief and highly interactive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;another bullying assembly this was consistent with our understanding of the intense saturation of bullying

Retention of the material is ensured through repetition. For a shorter program, some activities need to be ski pped in order to provide opportunities for more stimulating dialogue versus completion of programming. Set Up: Time: 60-90 min session 3-5 facilitators Teacher(s) and students

Activities: Introduction of Program Facilitators

with the facilitators and communicate the goals for the program. Facilitators chose one Survey Results/ Sticker Game Discuss the results of the survey previously administered. Next, students will be given a small stack of dot stickers. Posters hung up around the room read different locations where bullying may take place as well as individuals who might play different roles in a bullying incident. When asked questions, students move around the room using the stickers to identify their responses to these questions. The purpose of this activity is for students to engage with each other to determine the climate of bullying in their community. The visual representation of the answers are a clear illustration of whom bullying affects and where it occurs. Locations Include: Questions Include: Home Where do you see bullying happen most? Class Are there places where you feel unsafe? Break or lunchtime Who have you seen be a target of bully? After-school activities Who have you seen use bullying In public behavior? In your neighborhood Who helps stop bullying most often? At a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house Who do you think has the power to stop People Include: bullying in your school/community? Classmates Friends Family members Teachers Coaches Princi pal Adults Teammates Strangers Bully Roles/Bystander Activity the corresponding number of players in each role, students will be able to see how they can make a positive impact on a bullying situation and take note of their own target and aggressor behaviors. We asked students to identify the five roles people play in bullying situations, as they will normally only think of the bully and the target. As facilitators lead a discussion to identify these different roles: bully, target, bystander, ally, and potential ally - partici pants are asked how many people are in each of these roles in a typical bullying situation if the event occurred in a classroom. The breakdown reveals that there is one target, one aggressor, a small group of instigators (4-5), a large group

of bystanders (15-20) and one ally. Facilitators ask which group can change behaviors to ti p the balance, and who can start the wave of change. The purpose of this activity is to illustrate that like a wave coming onto the shore has to build momentum - starting as just a tiny wave and growing bigger and bigger as it comes to the beach - the ally has to be the one to start it all. They may think that they can’’’t do much, but really the ally has a lot of power. Once the ally starts the wave, the bystanders will know that they can stand up too. They can join the smaller wave and make a bigger wave. Once we realize that we can all be a part of the big wave of change, we can react by standing up to the aggressors, and reach out to help the targets out of those bullying situations. News Clip Activity Present a slideshow of recent newspaper cli ps to show students the consequences that bullying can have for both targets and aggressors. Facilitators will encourage discussion and show cli ps of other students working on anti-bullying campaigns to illustrate the positive outcomes of taking action against bullying. Through our research, we found that middle our examples address the possible legal ramifications of engaging in bullying behavior. The articles also cover the emotional ramifications of bullying, briefly addressing recent suicides involving bullying victims. Our goal in this activity was not to scare students into good behavior but rather to present the diverse and long-lasting consequences of bullying. Four Corners Activity potential bullying situation and four possible responses. Students move to the corner of the room that best matches their preferred response. Facilitators discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each outcome, and students learn the best strategies for handling bullying situations. One corner is always left open to give students the opportunity to share a different reaction. Example Question: Your friends start calling you names, sending you mean text messages and forcing you to give them things. You don’’t feel good when these things happen. What should you do? 1. Nothing.You must have done something wrong to make your friends act like that. 2. Start calling them names in return and threaten them. 3. Speak to your parents or teacher and tell them what is happening. 4. Something else (Open corner). Wrap-Up and Dismissal Facilitators thank students for allowing them to visit and encourage them to consider

asked to share the most important thing they learned and student resource cards, listing “reach out,” are distributed.

Make Waves - Print Material

Make Waves Creativity Contest

One aspect of our campaign was to inspire children to respond insightfully to the material through a sponsored

As a part of our campaign to create awareness of the consequences of bullying, Make Waves, sponsored by Chapman University PRSSA, is holding a contest to showcase the creativity in every student. By encouraging students to reflect on the consquences and definitions of bullying, we hope to inspire students to realize, respond, and reach out to stop bullying in our community.

Contestants are asked to submit entries that convey the following message:

by teachers, asked them to showcase their talents and think critically about the subject matter through art, music, poetry, etc.

Make a Story. Make Art. Make a Change. Make Waves. PRIZES for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Entries will be displayed at school

SEE YOUR TEACHER FOR RULES AND ENTRY FORM This program is sponsored by Chapman University PRSSA and B.A.R.E (Bullying Awareness Resistance Education) If you have any questions, or wish to learn more about this program, please contact makewavesoc@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (@makewavesOC)

Make Waves

Bullying Prevention Program Key Concepts school once a day.

Because we wanted to implement this program in local schools, we had to abide by certain school policies. This parental consent form outlines our program concepts and activities to explain Make Waves to parents. The form also features several facts about bullying as a resource for them.

Our goal is to start the waves to make a change The Make Waves Bullying Prevention Program is a resource for students, parents, and teachers. The program demonstrates that we must: 1. Realize what bullying behaviors are and how to recognize them in ourselves and others 2. Respond to these situations differently and safely 3. Reach out to others and work together to eliminate the threat of bullying locally

Activities: REALIZE through the “Ever been a bully?” survey and interactive activities RESPOND - Students will engage in improv and role playing games to encourage them to think about the consequences of bullying behavior REACH OUT - Students will have the opportunity to reach out to their community and spread their knowledge through art and other media

Child’s Name ________________________________________________________________________ Please return this form only if you wish that your child NOT participate in this program [

] My child may not participate in the Make Waves Bullying Prevention Program

Parent Signature _____________________________________________________________________ This program is sponsored by Chapman University PRSSA, B.A.R.E (Bullying Awareness Resistance Education), and McPherson Magnet Middle School If you have any questions, or wish to learn more about this program, please contact makewavesoc@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (@makewavesOC)

Make Waves Contest Entry Form Contestant Name: ___________________________________________________________________ Age:_________________ Address:_____________________________________________________________________________ City:_______________________________ State:_________________________ Zip:_______________ Phone:______________________________________________________________________________ School:___________________________Teacher:___________________Grade:__________________ Title of Entry:_________________________________________________________________________ Entries must be delivered to your vice principalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office by the end of school February 28, 2013

The Make Waves contest entry form outlines the rules of our contest and provides other necessary information for potential contest partici pants.

Rules and General Information: 1. All entries must be accompanied by this form. 2. Entries may take the form of any variety of media including but not limited to: photography, artwork, poetry, short story, film, song or dance (recorded onto a DVD). 3. You can express the theme in any way you want - the point is to GET CREATIVE and show us your BEST! 4. Entries will be judged based on creativity, originality, and consistency with the theme. 5. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. 6. Entries will be displayed at school and winners will be announced during the last week in March 7. Be sure to label your entry clearly with your name. 8. If you wish the return of your submission following the showcase please check this box: Entries will be available for pick-up during the first week of April in your vice principalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office.

Student Signature: ____________________________________________________________________ Parent Signature:______________________________________________________________________ If you have any questions please contact us at makewavesoc@gmail.com or find us on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

Student resource cards were distributed to over 200 students who attended our program. The card details who to talk to and provides links to websites that are fun and interactive, but also provide multi ple resources and educational tools.

The Make Waves team distributed these parental brochures to parents attending the Parent University in Huntington Beach. Content here supplimented our presentation and provided other bullying information to be kept as a permanent resource.

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MAKE WAVES. MAKE CHANGE.

take action Teach your student how to respond with

Report it at the proper time and place, in writing, with details

statements Get all the facts Avoid emotional reactions

Respond Slowly:

What If My Child is Bullied?

nightmares Changes in behavior, may become uncharacteristically aggressive

distressed Cutting

cries often

Friends change dramatically, or your child has no friends Clothes are torn or missing Personal items are missing

Your child prefers to be alone or isolated

We are a team of students from Chapman University competing in the annual Bateman Case Study competition sponsored by Public Relations Society of America, the national professional PR organization.

According to Deborah Reisdorph, B.A.R.E founder, there are various signs of children involved in bullying-- both as the target or the instigator. Parents can take preventative measures by keeping an eye out for the following: Changes in the way your child travels to school, walking or refusing to ride the bus Your child becomes ill before school each

For more information, call Deborah Reisdorph at call, 714.375.1529 or visit: www.BAREthebully.org

Left to right (back): Devon Hillard, Nicole Mynott; Deborah Reisdorph and Kelly Brown from B.A.R.E.; Kaitlyn Bracken. Front: Hanna Willams, Caitlin Valtierra

We hope to inspire others to make waves...waves of change. Each action, whether small or large, can have a ripple effect, spreading awareness of bullying throughout Orange County and beyond.

Educate students and parents on how to best react to bullying situations. Equip staff and administration to respond to bullying in their schools.

Along with our partner B.A.R.E (Bullying Awareness Resistance Education) we hope to: Increase awareness of bullying behaviors

About Us

Signs of Bullying

A Bullying Prevention Program

MAKE WAVES

OND ACHOUT LIZ EA E ESP E

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s critical to encourage taking a stance against bullying: Realize, Respond, and Reach Out.

BULLIES have a higher risk of abusing alcohol/drugs, and are more likely to: fail/ drop-out of school, engage in early sexual activity, have criminal convictions as adults, and be abusive to romantic partners BYSTANDERS are more likely to: have higher use of tobacco/alcohol/drugs, experience mental health problems (i.e. depression and anxiety), and to skip school/classes

Huntington Beach: NO DIFFERENT! A study conducted in May 2012 shows 28-30% of H.B. students experience bullying There are state laws in place regarding bullying, but no federal laws There are three main components of bullying: repetition, intent to harm, and an imbalance of power TARGETS of bullying tend to be more insecure than most children, are more likely to exhibit poor academic performance and experience long-term health effects (i.e. anxiety, depression, headaches, unexplained abdominal pain and fatigue)

Nationwide rougly 30% of students experience bulllying, either as a witness, target, or perpetrator

Did You Know?

19 Source: Orange County Register, October 17, 2012

"With this proclamation it's really going to help the community set an example for the cities around us," Smith said.

Le and Smith both hope the proclamation will serve as a starting point to spread word on ending bullying in Huntington Beach and cities beyond.

"To do something like this lets people know that this is an issue that's important to us and it's on our agenda and that we care about it," Shaw said. "We don't want anyone to be mistreated in our community."

Shaw said the city is working with schools and monitoring bullying through police liaisons. Shaw also said that the proclamation is meant to reach the community at large, and will engage residents through various events.

month," Smith said. "If a lot of people know about it and it's something that the whole community is behind, then I think it will help greatly. But I don't want this to be just another 'thing' on bullying. ... It gets so repetitive and it doesn't really do the job."

Edison High School sophomore Austin Smith is also on the Youth Board, and was unaware of the adopted proclamation.

Carchio met with various community members to gain insights to best execute the project, working closely with the Youth Board to establish student perspective.

Carchio will lead the implementation of "Be a Buddy, Not a Bully," an initiative to further anti-bullying efforts and tackle the issue at a grassroots level, starting with high schools in the Huntington Beach Union District.

"I think it will raise awareness, but I honestly don't think students will change themselves just because of one proclamation," said Emily Le, a junior at Edison High School and member of the city's Youth Board. "I didn't even hear about this proclamation, so I'm pretty sure other students won't hear about it either."

The proclamation aim is to create a safer environment for students and residents, but some students feel a proclamation isn't enough to combat bullying.

The proclamation encourages the community to be involved in prevention.

"There seems to be a lot of interest and a lot of enthusiasm," Garrick said. "I anticipate a lot of volunteer efforts and spontaneous initiatives by various groups."

In March, Councilman Joe Carchio, commissioned the task force to conduct a study on bullying and provide the council with a recommendation whether or not to enact an anti-bullying ordinance. The task force ultimately decided an ordinance was unnecessary, but recommended the city adopt a proclamation.

"The purpose of the proclamation is to let everyone know that we, as a city council, take bullying seriously. We don't want to put up with it in our community and we're going to do what we can to stop it," Councilman Joe Shaw said.

to coincide with National Bullying Prevention Month, said Don Garrick, task force vice chairman.

Mayor Don Hansen presented the signed proclamation to the city's Human Relations Task Force, stating the

County.

In Your City: H.B. adopts anti-bullying proclamation

Primary Research - Survey 1. What is bullying? _______________ 2. Which of the following actions are bullying? (Check all that apply) Telling people negative stories about someone that are lies Telling people negative stories about someone that are true Excludng someone from social groups Spreading rumors about someone Sending mean emails, messages, or texts 3. Have you ever hurt someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feelings on purpose? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 4. Have you ever physically hurt someone on purpose? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 5. Do you feel that you have ever been bullied? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 6. Have you ever seen a friend bully someone else? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 7. Have you ever told a teacher, parent, or other adult about someone getting bullied (you or another person)? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 8. Where have you been bullied? (Check all that apply) School After-school activities (sports, drama etc.) In your home

In your neighborhood None of these

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9. What do you think people are most bullied about? (Check all that apply) Race or ethnicity Disability Religious beliefs

Physical appearance Being unpopular Intelligence Hobbies 10. What technology do you use? (Check all that apply) Twitter Facebook Myspace Instagram Youtube

Instant Messaging Online Forum/Message Boards Texting None of these

11. Have you ever used technology to hurt someone else’s feelings? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 12. What technology have you used to hurt someone’s feelings? (Check all that apply) Twitter Facebook Myspace Explain: ______

Instagram Youtube

13. Has someone ever used technology to bully you? Often Sometimes Never Explain: ______ 13. What technology has someone used to bully you? (Check all that apply) Twitter Facebook Myspace Instagram Youtube Explain: ______

Instant Messaging Online Forum/Message Boards Texting None of these

14. Are you happy with the friendships you have at school? Yes Explain: ______

Kind of

15. What is your gender? Male Female I don’t want to answer

Evaluation

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Social Media To reach our target audience and beyond, we utilized heavy social media techniques on both Instagram and Facebook. To effectively reach our younger audience, the majority of our social media outreach was conducted through photos shared on Instagram by @MakeWavesOC. Our research showed that younger audiences use platforms such as Instagram more often than Facebook, which draws an older audience (Dougherty).

INSTAGRAM Our Instagram page attracted more than 200 hundred followers in less than one week and throughout the month of February, all 48 photos posted received more than 100 likes. In four weeks, our photos accumulated a total of 7,264 likes.

Our Instagram account uploaded original content as well as re-posts from various accounts, and the page was highly supported by our community. The account @ILoveCaliCouture is devoted to California culture and clothing, and reposted our photo to more than 1,200 followers.

The photos shared were engaging and relatable, and utilized the most popular hashtags on Instagram as well as specific hashtags to target our audience,

followers, we posted photos encouraging others to speak out against bullying and let their voices be heard.

Examples of Content:

FACEBOOK To effectively reach beyond our target audience and engage our university and local community, we also created a Facebook account. Our account was synchronized with our Instagram, so every photo posted was shared on both platforms. The Make Waves Facebook account had a total of 164 likes and reached 2,566 people alone during just one week of the campaign. Analytics of the page show more followers in our target audience compared to anything else.

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Our page reached people across the world from seven different countries and more than 14 cities in California:

Users were highly engaged on our page and shared our content on their personal accounts or spoke about our page to spread support:

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Fletcher, Jaimee Lynn. "H.B. Elementary Students Take on Bullies." The Orange County Register. N.p., 26 Apr. 2012. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ocregister.com/news/-351234--.html>.

Telephone interview. 10 Oct. 2012 HB Reads. Orange County Book Group Sponsors Anti-Bullying Event Oct. 10. PR Buzz. N.p., 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 Jan. 2013. Laehle, Christine. Orange County Department of Education Interview. Telephone interview. 18 Dec. 2012.

Oct. 2012. Martin, Dina. "Anti-bullying Bills Signed into Law." CTA. California Teachers Association, 2 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. National Association of State Boards of Education. "California Bully Harassment Laws."Bullying Prevention Initiative of California. Bullying Prevention Initiative of California, 12 July 2009. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

Sept. 2012. Reisdorph, Deborah S. "B.A.R.E. Interview." Telephone interview. 21 Jan. 2013. Reisdorph, Deborah S. CPR That Works. Newport Beach: BARE, Bullying Awareness Resistance Education, 2012. Print. Reisdorph, Deborah S. How to Respond to My Child’’s Bully Complaint. Newport Beach: BARE, Bullying Awareness Resistance Education, 2012. Print. Reisdorph, Deborah S. The Honor Team Program. Newport Beach: BARE, Bullying Awareness Resistance Education, 2012. Print. Research Brief: District Policies and Trainings. Rep. California Safe Schools Coalition, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.casafeschools.org/getfacts.html>. Research Brief: School Safety and Academic Achievement. Rep. California Safe Schools Coalition, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.casafeschools.org/getfacts.html>. "Resources to Prevent Bullying." NEA’s Bully Free: It Starts With Me. National Education Association, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.

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Safe Place to Learn Fact Sheet. Rep. California Safe Schools Coalition, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.casafeschools.org/getfacts.html>.

interview. 21 Sept. 2012.

Oct. 2012

10 Oct. 2012. “Stop Bullying”. Department of Education, n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2013. United States. Counseling and Student Support Office. California Department of Education. Bullying at School. Ed. Faye Ong. Sacramento: California Department of Education, 2003. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/se/documents/bullyingatschool.pdf>. United States. Orange County Grand Jury. Anti-Bullying Programs in Orange County Schools. N.p., 1 July 2012. Web. 9 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/artic_anti_abreport/ antibullyingreport.pdf>. United States. Orange County Health Care Agency. Behavioral Health Services. Frequently Asked Questions VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMS. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http:// ochealthinfo.com/bhs/about/pi/school/vpe>. United States. Orange County Human Relations. BRIDGES Program. OC Human Relations. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ochumanrelations.org/programs/bridges/bullying-resources-andinformation/>. United States. U.S. Department of Education. Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Analysis of State Bullying Laws a Nd Policies. By Victoria Stuart - Cassel and Ariana Bell. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 2011. Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www2.ed.gov/ rschstat/eval/bullying/state-bullying-laws/state-bullying-laws.pdf>.

Planning. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <http://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/in-the-community/ community-action-planning/index.html>. Welker, Greg. OC Register Bullying Interview: Huntington High School Students. Telephone interview. 21 Sept. 2012. ’s a Will, There’’s a Social Network: Instagram Is the New Facebook for Tweens and tween-us/2012/10/social-networking-will-find-a-way-instagram-is-the-new-facebook-for-tweens-andteens/>.

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