New partnership at Troy school targets cyberbullying
TROY, N.Y. » The freshman class at Catholic Central High School learned the importance of preventing and combating cyberbullying Friday thanks to an innovative new program involving students from a local college.
AT&T, the Tyler Clementi Foundation and Siena College teamed up with Assemblyman John McDonald III, D-Cohoes, state Sen. Kathleen Marchione, R-Halfmoon, and Catholic Central to offer the AT&T and Siena Upstander Program, a peer-to-peer cyberbullying prevention program utilizing trained Siena students to help educate students, teachers and school administrators on the growing problem and to provide workshops, tools and resources to combat it. The program also called attention to October being National Bullying Prevention Month.
The program pairs Siena students who have been trained as cyberbullying ambassador facilitators with high school students for peer-to-peer conversations, role-playing exercises and workshops. Friday’s program began with Siena students working with the 57 members of the freshman class for the first part of the school day in a workshop on how to be Upstander Ambassadors. At the end of the day, the Siena facilitators and newly trained Upstander Ambassadors conducted an assembly for the entire seventhand eighth-grade classes to share best practices, build awareness of the dangers of cyberbullying and promote the Upstander culture.
“Cyberbullying is a problem that students, families, teachers and school officials struggle with on a daily basis in our region,” said Catholic Central Principal Christopher Bott. “I have seen firsthand the damage cyberbullying can inflict upon children and adults alike. … It is my hope that the peerto-peer training will be a mutually beneficial experience for both Catholic Central and Siena students.”
Students who participated in Friday’s program said they believe the program is a good idea for their school and that the information they received through presentations, videos and group discussions had an immediate impact.
“It was just very powerful,” said Catholic Central freshman Grace Rogers, “and it brings out a message that you should just stand up to any type of bullying, no matter what the circumstance is, because anyone could be affected by it at any time.”
Officials said the objective of the program is to create an Upstander culture within Catholic Central High School, and other schools where the program is presented. Upstander is a popular phrase used in the anti-bullying space, and also used by AT&T and the Tyler Clementi Foundation, which encourages students to not simply be a bystander when they witness cyberbullying, but rather to speak up, notify an adult and/or interrupt the negative behavior. Students were asked to take the Upstander pledge and promote it throughout the community.
“The impact of cyberbullying on our youth has become pervasive and alarming,” said Marissa Shorenstein, Northeast Region president for AT&T. “We simply can’t allow this crisis to destroy more lives and families. In efforts to curb this negative behavior, AT&T has collaborated with leading organizations within the cyberbullying space to develop programs, including the AT&T and Siena Upstander Program, to give parents, educators and students the tools to combat this epidemic and help facilitate a dialogue that will to lead positive change in our communities.”
The program grew out of the Upstate Cyberbullying Census conducted in late 2016 by the Siena College Research Institute that measured the prevalence of cyberbullying among students, awareness of the problem among parents, and parents’ understanding of their children’s digital behavior. The study revealed one in four students in upstate New York have been a victim of cyberbullying. Those statistics, as well as feedback from schools requesting cyberbullying prevention programs, led to the public education campaign.
“As a parent of three teenagers, I see and feel the challenges all young people face during this crucial time of their life,” McDonald said. “As cyberbullying continues to invade our lives, it is important that we engage our youth and educate them on the best way to address it.”