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Sioux City District First in Nation with Bullying Prevention Program for Adults
Partners with Workplace Bullying Institute
Schools and student bullying are a September tradition. However, this year, there is a new twist. The Sioux City (Iowa) Community School District (SCCSD) is boldly taking steps to prevent bullying among teachers, staff and administrators. They are first district in the nation to launch an anti-bullying program for adult employees.
The Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) is consultant to the District with its nearly 2,000 employees and 28 schools. Through its consulting firm, Work Doctor, Inc., the WBI founders adapted their Blueprint for Workplace Bullying Prevention designed for corporate use to fit the public school district as employer. Work Doctor was the first consulting firm in the U.S. to directly design organizational solutions for workplace bullying.
Last October, with WBI’s help, a group of employees wrote the first-in-the-U.S. district bullying policy for adults. Bullying is defined in the policy as conduct that a reasonable person would find hostile, intimidating, offensive, humiliating or an abuse of authority. Accordingly, the alleged bullying must lead to negative consequences that affect an employee’s ability to perform his/her job.
SCCSD Human Resources Director Steve Crary said that the vision he and Superintendent Dr. Paul Gausman share is “to ensure our district is free of all forms of bullying and to create a respectful climate in our workplace.”
The policy writing group also created a team of current and former district employees, the Bullying Prevention Advocates (BPA), to serve as peer experts on workplace bullying. They will also educate staff and sustain the program in a variety of ways. The BPA group is likely more important than the policy alone because the group is central to creating a school culture intolerant of bullying among adults.
School board member John Meyers told the Sioux City Journal that "the initiative will generate positive role models for our students ... if we're asking students to do something we wouldn't do ourselves, we're not being honorable."
WBI founders and consultants, accompanied by teacher expert Carrie Clark, lead 3 days of intensive training for the BPA team in Sioux City on Sept. 15-17.
New York-based documentary filmmakers Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen are featuring the WBI project in their forthcoming film, “The Bullying Project” that explores bullying's impact across the lifespan from childhood through adulthood. Hirsch's previous film, "Amandla!," won awards at Sundance and an Emmy Award.
Dr. Alan Heisterkamp of the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention is the liaison for this and other violence reduction-prevention programs at SCCSD. WIVP also partnered in 2007 with WBI to conduct the first scientific survey of all adult Americans regarding workplace bullying. WIVP and its president, Cindy Waitt, were responsible for this national project to serve as the prototype of how school districts can foster a bullying-free environment for adults as well as students.
"Schools are workplaces, too,” said Dr, Ruth Namie, WBI co-founder and project consultant. “Success here in Sioux City could launch a national movement to rid schools of bullying for adults as well as children."
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