Written by, Alexis Sollund – Lurvey
This is a call for action. One that is long overdue, this isn’t the first call but up to this point Clio’s just let it ring. In the past year I’ve been doing research and finding students who have experienced bullying in Clio are school district. After doing a racial research (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p0x_exJe5Ke-Jrg7WTlP4lxQsaYsy67WQEQu1LX2YiY/edit#slide=id.g70d0df954e_0_2222 ) I found that students of color felt racism was very prevalent at Clio schools. In one question students were asked how prevalent racism is at Clio schools, 26 out of 27 students felt racism at Clio schools. have went to the principles, superintenant and the board of education and each time it’s been ignored and said that it wasn’t happening despite my proof, I think that’s a huge problem for all of us, bullies shouldn’t run the school with no consequences. This shows that the people were trusting with kids’ education are neglecting to provide a safe environment for all. As a community we need to take action before its too late. The power is ours. One thing I’m pushing to get changed is currently there is no 0-tolerance bullying rule at Clio, I wrote one up for them over the summer, here’s what it says…
a 0-tolerance bullying rule needs to be implemented. That means that under no circumstance will bullying of any form be tolerated and anyone who disobeys this rule will be punished…by doing this not only are you putting more pressure on students to behave but I guarantee that it will change the way we see students treat each other as a whole... we will begin to produce more caring intelligent & diverse students. With this policy being implemented I think there needs to be a 3-strike system. On the 1st It needs to be a detention, call home about the incident an apology and education on why what they said and did was wrong and extracurricular probation if its only one strike they have the opportunity to redeem themselves and get it off their record with hard work. On strike 2 it needs to be suspension, community service with an organization benefiting the cause they tried to harm and a meeting with the parents of all students involved (victims & abusers) and for the 3rd and finally strike “3 strikes you're out. If they violate the rule a third time they need to be expelled. Under this new policy the steps to redemption would need to be community service & an essay on why what was said was wrong and the history behind it along with how they plan to continue on the right path. One way bullying Is provenly stopped is with establishing a reporting system, in my policy that would be used by creating a reporting system to The positive climate committee so that they wouldn’t be pushed to the side. Another way to proactively track bullying is by creating a student “ bill of rights” so students know if their incident is reportable and how to easily do so.
The next thing I think that should be implemented is diversity training. Diversity training is training to make students more aware of diversity issues in the world. It covers things like race, color, ethnicity, language, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, gender, socio-economic status, age, and physical and mental ability. This will give students a safe place to honestly discuss these issues. I think it will also provide them different ways of thinking outside of what they’re used to, its very easy for children to be influenced how to think by their role models without knowing all the information on something or why it is the way it is. This will prevent that by giving them all the proper information so they make the best choices for themselves. The benefits of diversity training include increased sensitivity, inclusive thinking and actions, easier collaboration, improved retention, inspire creativity, more well rounded, reduced prejudice and personal growth. In 2019 Harvard Business Review did a study over bias training. Participents took a Implicit Association Test before & after. Then for the next following 20 weeks they observed whom the employees chose to informally mentor, whom they recognized for excellence, and whom they volunteered time to help. After they completed the study they released a statement saying “The bias-focused trainings had a positive effect on the attitudes of one important group: employees who we believe were the least supportive of women prior to training. We found that after completing training, these employees were more likely to acknowledge discrimination against women, express support for policies designed to help women, and acknowledge their own racial and gender biases, compared to similar employees in the control group. For employees who were already supportive of women, we found no evidence that the training produced a backlash. “ . in the second version that focused on gender bias and gender stereo typing the researcher said “ Despite its clear focus on gender, it also had positive effects on U.S. employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward racial minorities. Even though there was no mention of race or racial bias in this training, U.S. employees who took it were more willing than their counterparts in the control group to acknowledge their own racial biases, provide informal mentorship to racial minorities, and recognize the excellent work of their peers who were racial minorities. It appears that helping people recognize biases towards one marginalized group of people can have positive spillover effects on their attitudes and behaviors towards other marginalized groups. “. In both experiments their was measured improvement. I think that we could do this in Clio by introducing a year long required diversity training class to Clio high school.
In conclusion both of those proactive changes are large benefits that make a more well rounded and versatile student. Its time we stop ignoring these issues so that we can move past them to make a BETTER future. If you think that these are necessary changes to clio I urge you to sign this petition
Petition link - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfO0eZ_eeyA-aJEcMt1xKaoQlcqg0AjoBny1J-_y45JocVzIA/viewform?usp=sf_link
Refrences used.
https://www.hult.edu/blog/benefits-challenges-cultural-diversity-workplace/
https://www.edgepointlearning.com/blog/types-of-diversity-training/
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9782-diversity-training.html
https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-diversity-training
https://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/rules