One Smile At A Time

Bully alert

continued from page 12 will take place. He said the letter is supposed to be followed up with a phone call.

Fulton said the Virginia Department of Education has model policies and guidelines on bullying and cyberbullying that each school board has to implement. Those guidelines and polices help administrators determine whether an incident is classified as bullying. He said it often takes several days to review an incident before administers can determine what happened, but said parents should know what is going on even if all the details aren’t available.

He said students need to be supported regardless of whether they are the victim

SCHOOL notebook

continued from page 12 or the one bullying others.

“All students are students and all need to be supported,” he said.

He said the best practice is to have parents notified before the student gets home from school.

Five days after parents are notified, they are supposed to get an update, but Fulton said even then it can sometimes be hard to know exactly what happened.

The former law only required a principal to notify parents about the status of an administrative review into an alleged bullying incident within five school days of when an allegation was made.

Division spokesperson Dan Adams said the division’s policy on bullying prevention and education will be updated to match the new law. n

This is the seventh year of the No Place for Hate initiative

Student Wins Thousands for Music Program, Scholarship

Three Schools Receive ‘No Place for Hate’

Designation

Heritage High School and Trailside and Smart’s Mill Middle Schools received “No Place for Hate” designations from the Anti-Defamation League for the 2022-23 school year.

The initiative is a school-wide strategy that helps students, staff members and communities make schools more welcoming and inclusive, according to the announcement.

The Loudoun schools were among 143 in the Washington, DC, region that participated this year.

“As I think about No Place for Hate and Trailside, being that we are in our second year of having this designation, I’m so proud of the work we have accomplished so far,” Trailside Principal Bridget Bleicher said. “I look forward to where we will be in the next few years as more and more students embrace the philosophy of No Place for Hate.”

Brambleton Middle School sixth grader Simone Rankin won $6,000 worth of musical equipment for her school and a $1,000 college scholarship for herself with an essay she wrote for the June 2023 issue of School Band & Orchestra magazine.

Rankin’s essay, about a “music teacher who has changed your life,” was one of 10 winners nationwide. Her essay about Legacy Elementary School music teacher Allison Kipp was chosen from among more than 1,400 entries.

Rankin said she plans to use the scholarship to attend Harvard and study medicine and hopes to develop vaccines to help people.

“Ms. Kipp is so nice to everyone and understands her students. She makes music fun, and her lessons always go so well,” she said.

Rankin has been playing piano since she was four years old and also sings and participated in the All County Chorus last year. She plans to play the cello next year at Brambleton Middle School. n