A group of 10 Leadership students, led by senior Akash Kar, has decided to monitor, minimize and eliminate bullying by having interactive discussions during classes.
Kar also runs a non-profit organization, Crisis Education and Support, that focuses on suicide protection.
Working together, the Leadership students and Crisis Education and Support are taking steps to combat bullying at school.
“We are working on discussions to educate [students] on bullying and to teach people that bullying is really not OK,” Kar said.
He said these discussions will not be based on lecture, but on student input and responses. The presentations will not only speak about the perpetrators of bullying, but also how to behave as victims or bystanders.
“We’ll also talk about what to do if you’re a victim of bullying or a bystander of bullying, [such as] seeing it online,” Kar said. “[We want to] discuss how to approach bullying, and what to do about it.”
Kar felt compelled to start this effort based on what he sees as an increase in bullying among students, a problem he says requires immediate attention.
“Sophomore quad day was one of the biggest reasons we brought it to Saratoga High because it made it painfully clear that bullying has become more and more prevalent in ways that they are not traditional,” Kar said. “The main trigger was seeing, in a public setting, the entire school becoming somewhat of a bully itself.”
Junior Deborah Soung, a Leadership student who has joined the anti-bullying effort, believes that additional emphasis on bullying prevention by peers is needed to improve the situation.
“This past year, there have been presentations and programs inside and outside the school for the sophomores. We’ve had administrators talk to their parents and the kids, but nothing has really helped,” Soung said.
Motivated by the hope of reducing student harassment at school, the Leadership students meet with
Kar every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch and have begun working on the discussions that will occur in classes. (Kar declined to give details of the class discussions).
“We are currently working on implementation right now, and we will be implementing [the program] this year with more information coming later,” Kar said.
With bullying seeming to be a bigger problem these days because of sites like Tumblr and Facebook, Kar feels as though spreading awareness is needed.
“There is no more waiting on this,” Kar said. “We have to act.”