'We have seen great success this year': MPS works to end peer-to-peer mistreatment

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MONROE -- Nearly four months into the 2023-24 school year, Monroe Public Schools is seeing success in its efforts to reduce peer-to-peer mistreatment and bullying.

“We have seen great success this year,” Andrew Shaw, MPS superintendent, said. “We have seen a reduction in the number of students who have to come in front of the board of education this year compared to last. We pulled data from one of our elementary buildings and have seen a 33% reduction in suspensions from last year to this year."

MPS, a district with more than 4,450 students, has increased its efforts to curb mean behavior among students since last spring, when a Monroe Middle School student, Gary Ross, died by suicide. His family blamed bullying. Two anti-bullying rallies were staged at the school. At the rallies, students and parents said more was needed to stop mistreatment among peers. Last school year, 34 mean behavior incidents were officially reported in MPS.

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Shaw attended both rallies and vowed to make changes. Efforts included bringing in Marcia McEvoy of Grand Rapids, a licensed psychologist and specialist in preventing teen suicide. Through her work in school districts across the country, McEvoy has come up with strategies that she said are proven to reduce mistreatment.

Last summer, McEvoy shared those strategies with MPS staff. She taught them, for example, how to deescalate mean behavior and encouraged them to squelch small instances of mistreatment before they could escalate into bigger issues.

"The way that we look at, pull data around and talk about peer-to-peer mistreatment has shifted with our work from Dr. McEvoy because of her focus on 'sweating the small stuff," Shaw said. "The rubrics have levels of inappropriate peer-to-peer mistreatment behaviors, so we can intervene quickly for lower-level offenses early to prevent continued patterns of mean behavior."

In the fall, McEvoy worked with students at all MPS buildings, teaching them, for example, how to be hard targets and strong bystanders. The sessions included role playing, guided practice, discussions, videos and real-life stories from McEvoy's work. McEvoy also hosted two information nights for parents.

McEvoy encouraged the district to create consequence rubrics, which call for an increasing severity of consequences based on students' behavior.

“As a result of our collaboration with Dr. McEvoy, the district created peer-to-peer mistreatment rubrics that were rolled out to students, which included strategies shared by Dr. McEvoy," Shaw said. "Students have expressed approval and appreciation of this new initiative, and the results they are seeing and feeling within their classrooms and schools."

In addition to the rubric, MPS also is working this year to encourage and reward positive behavior. One way is the re-invigoration its Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) implementation.

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"With the support of our newly establish PBIS coordinators, each building is working to further celebrate positive interactions among students and each other, adults in their buildings and the whole school community," Shaw said. "PBIS gives buildings and students a common set of expectations and language to reinforce all of the kind and caring behavior that we see our students exhibit every day, while correcting those mean behaviors with a focus on repairing relationships and restorative practices."

The district also is using Kickboard software.

"Kickboard allows staff members to award students' merits for positive contributions to the classroom and school community, which students can then track on their own," Shaw said. "Teachers and other staff use this data to celebrate students’ hard work and positive attitudes, which has been an incredible boost to the culture and climate of the district. Kickboard also gives teachers and administrators quick and effective ways to pull data to make well-informed decisions about student behavior."

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MPS also rolled out the Community of Kindness initiative this fall.

"As part of this work, we are reaching out to local business to share in the messaging of respectful, responsible and safe behavior," Shaw said. "We know that our community partners employ, service and even help care for many of our students and their families. We are inviting them to join us in raising community-wide awareness for kindness, that we hope will reinforce the positive messaging and collective efforts of the district when students are outside of our care. Those who have partnered with us have used their business marquee to display thoughtful messages intended to promote reflection around the concept of respectful, responsible and safe actions."

— Contact reporter Suzanne Nolan Wisler at swisler@monroenews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: 'We have seen great success this year': MPS works to end peer-to-peer mistreatment