Pocahontas County’s Board of Education has fully committed to the implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in all five schools. Committees from Green Bank Elementary, Marlinton Elementary, and Hillsboro Elementary completed training on July 24 and 25 and will go on to train the entire staff of their schools in August/September. The trainers were Tiffany Pittman (Marshall University’s School Health Technical Assistance Center, Department of Family and Community Health, School of Medicine), Peggy Stull (ESMH Grant Coordinator, Youth Health Service, Inc.), and Kenneth Birchfield (Division Director of School Based and Children’s Grant Services, Southern Highlands CMHC). The middle and high schools will complete their committee training in August/September.
The Olweus Program (pronounced Ol-VAY-us) is a comprehensive approach that includes schoolwide, classroom, individual, and community components. The program is focused on long-term change that creates a safe and positive school climate. It is designed and evaluated for use in elementary, middle, junior high and high schools (K-12). The program’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among school children and to improve peer relations at school. The program has been found to reduce bullying among students, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy. The Olweus Program has been implemented in more than a dozen countries around the world, and in thousands of schools in the United States.
Clemson University
The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was brought to West Virginia by WV DHHR’s Bureau for Behavioral Health (BBH) using grant funds and is implemented in collaboration with Marshall University’s School Health Technical Assistance Center, Department of Family and Community Health, School of Medicine.
