In January, a bullying intervention program will be implemented in the elementary and middle schools of Manhattan Beach Unified School District.
The school board voted unanimously approved the program, Safe Schools Ambassadors, at its Nov. 2 meeting.
Upon evaluating the success of the program at kindergarten-through-eighth-grade levels, the board will decide whether or not to bring the program to Mira Costa High School. The program has been implemented at Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach schools.
While most programs are adult driven, Safe Schools Ambassadors teaches children to be leaders, said Ellyn Schneider, the district’s executive director of student services.
Thirty-five to 40 students at each school will be chosen as “ambassadors” – they’ll participate in a two-day training session about anti-bullying techniques and conflict resolution. For example, if a group of students were playing four square unfairly, the ambassadors would be trained to intervene. The training will be put on by Community Matters, the program’s parent company.
The ambassadors will be split up into small groups for training purposes, each assigned to a different faculty member mentor.
“It will teach students to be positive in interactions with all children,” Schneider said. “If they see something they deem to be inappropriate, as a bystander, they can take action.”
Each school will decide how to pick the student ambassadors, whether through an application process or having the staff choose students.
Some kindergarten teachers already went through a mock training to simulate how the program would work. “They left there so excited,” said Rhonda Steinberg, principal of Grand View Elementary School. “They were saying, ‘We want to do this, we want to be trainers.’”
The program will cost the district about $37,000 this academic year, $10,000 of which will be covered by the district’s insurance carrier.
