Write a commentOn March 21st, the Oswego County Anti-Bullying Coalition will be hosting a student forum at the CITI/BOCES campus from 12p-2:30p.
The coalition formed a year ago with the purpose and mission of formulating a more effective and standardized process for students and staff in the school districts, as well as the parents of students involved and agencies of the counties, to identify and deal with bullying issues among other school related issues from the onset of a reported incident, to increase effective communication between all entities involved and to enforce an overall better resolve for all persons involved.
The coalition is comprised of the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police, Oswego County Probation, Oswego County Attorney’s Office, Oswego County District Attorney’s Office, ARISE, Oswego County Prevention Coalition, Services to Aid Families, Department of Social Services, Parents of Special Children, New Justice Conflict Resolution Services, Oswego County Youth Bureau, CITI/BOCES, Integrative Counseling Services, Catholic Charities, Oswego County E9-1-1 and members of the school districts across the county.
The team continues to further communications and efforts on a monthly meeting basis to work toward an effective resolve for all. The purpose of the forum is to speak with a broad selection of students from across all nine districts in the county, who have volunteered to have conversations surrounding some of the issues they can identify and to further derive answers from the students surrounding some of the underlying problems identified by the committee. For confidentiality purposes, the students names will not be submitted on any of the paperwork utilized during the forum, consisting of a questionnaire and feedback forms.
Some of the topics for discussion will include the Dignity for All Students Act (D.A.S.A) reporting, confidentiality of incidents, involvement level of the school districts as well as outside agencies, effectiveness of the reporting system and issues surrounding the same. Upon conclusion of the forum, the results will be reviewed by the committee, which will reconvene for the next scheduled monthly meeting in April, to compare the students answers and identify areas of concern with the D.A.S.A reports, as well as continue to move forward focusing on improving communications and formulating a better process for the students, school staff, parents and outside agencies that will lead to more successful resolves of these incidents.
The coalition is also planning to host a community forum in the near future, which will be centrally located at a venue within the county, to allow students, parents, school staff and agencies to be provided with information the committee has ascertained and formulated as well as allow for questions and feedback from community members.
