Plus Program
February 03, 2012
How gut wrenching is it when your child comes home from school devastated by a comment from one of their peers? What as a parent can you do short of going to school with your loved one every day? The symptoms of bullying, drugs, and violence is on the rise in all of our schools nationwide. There are many reasons, including easy access to technology, for the rise in this type of behavior, and you can do a quick web search on “school wide safety” to learn more about this rise. However, Marcum is focused on the solutions to get in front of these behaviors to create the safest environment conducive to learning.
Parents, teachers, coaches, administrators and school psychologists can counsel and talk with our students about these behaviors until we are blue in the face, and while this is certainly encouraged, research shows real change comes from the students themselves. For this reason, Marcum has chosen to adopt the PLUS (Peer Leadership Uniting Students) program, which is growing in popularity nationwide. In fact, the Former Secretary of Education State of California, Dr. Dave Long said, "When it comes to developing a Safe School Climate the PLUS Program is on the frontline as a systematic approach for schools to gather data and build true connections for all students.”
A simple explanation of PLUS is peers taking charge and leading each other in determining the issues important to the social, emotional, and physical safety of their school campus and making a commitment to keep their campus safe from these issues. How does it Work?A team of students, 5th grade and above is trained in the facilitation strategies to implement the activities of the PLUS Program.“The foundation of this training is to utilize activities that “create a culture in kids to take care of kids”. At the center of this activity based approach is a peer-to-peer led forum of discussion, facilitated on campus. These opportunities for young people to engage in dialogue, bond with one another, and identify their critical issues on the campus or in their community have been shown to create positive and safe school climates for all students." Each forum trains 15 new students who then commit to being PLUS members dedicated to create a safe school environment. We are hoping to have a new forum of 15 students each every two to three weeks until every student at Marcum has been trained. Additional forums will be held by the students thereafter to keep the momentum moving forward. For more detailed information, Marcum encourages you to visit the PLUS site at www.plusprogram.org.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs. Claxton, the facilitator of this program, or Mrs. McIntosh.
