A Bigger Change

A Bigger Change.

       Here at Davis High we have a range of teachers still attending school and achieving success in their everyday lives while also being a role model during their job. They work to create a school that offers a free, safe, and accepting environment that can be accommodated to each student’s interests and needs. And with that is the constant fight against those who choose to bully and take advantage of those freedoms. Though we continue to grow, some teachers have come together to create programs that can include all students to help in the fight.

“Suicide prevention is actually where we started but suicide prevention is actually something that isn’t in the FACS curriculum that we normally focus on it’s something that can be an adult roll or something as a minor topic but we decided to focus on bullying in order to reduce suicide rates,” Davis High FACS Teacher and USU Student, Michelle Clouse said.

As a project towards receiving a master’s degree, Clouse and several other USU students went forward and began to develop a program that allows bullying to be stopped before it can continue in further schooling. And its origins begin from a study of what budget cuts would best benefit the school system and the student’s study.

“Students who are bullied can be five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and so we wanted to see if we can medicate some of that before they even get to suicide or even suicidal thoughts,” Clouse said.

It’s this understand that has allowed them to create a program that can be implemented into already existing programs around the school. Their studies lead them to an understanding of where bullying needed to be stopped, and that being the beginning stages of schooling that follow the later years of a students education.

“High percentages of students and people with low mental health needs don’t have access to some sort of care or some sort of treatment. And so as a school we’re trying to treat as much of that as possible. So we have started treating that through the Hope Squad and that’s why we are creating the bullying program for future school years,” Clouse said.

This lack of help begins to take a toll on the students and faculty that work diligently to create a open source to these individuals that are in need of help. These teachers wanted to create a symbol of some kind to be able to represent support and understanding for those individuals seeking help.

“We were going to get orange bracelets because orange is the anti-bullying color and we were going to get bracelets that students could wear and if they caught someone doing something good or something nice and standing up for someone like online or in person they would get an orange bracelet and It would be a symbol of ‘I can stand up for what’s right in the school’,” Clouse said.

It is unknown if this program will reach any other stages then just being a plan. But with the success that it could bring to future years of schooling, there is a large possibility that it could become a program that creates a safer and happier environment for students to come.