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Manassas Park board proclaims October Bullying Prevention Month; student‑services outline SEL and reporting efforts
Summary
The board adopted a Bullying Prevention Month proclamation and student‑services staff described a divisionwide prevention strategy (RethinkEd lessons, reporting/quadrant tool, Social Emotional Learning Night), noting that reported incidents can spike when students learn bullying vocabulary and offering to provide trend data on requests.
Manassas Park City Schools on Oct. 21 adopted a proclamation recognizing October 2024 as Bullying Prevention Month and heard a presentation from student services about prevention programs, reporting and family outreach across the district.
Kelly Brown, supervisor of student services, told the board the division uses the Virginia Department of Education definition of bullying and a four‑quadrant teaching tool to help students, staff and families distinguish bullying from joking, teasing or a mean moment. “We use this quadrant at all of our schools to teach not only our students but also our staff and also our families,” Brown said.
Counselors from each school described classroom lessons and building practices: at elementary grades counselors use age‑appropriate modules (helpful vs. harmful, ripples of kindness, safe adults), middle and high schools use RethinkEd lessons and target topics like being an upstander and cyberbullying. Bree Griffin, a Cougar Elementary counselor, described monthly lessons, quick teacher check‑ins and a bucket‑filling recognition program; Mackenzie Vissler described positive office referrals and a parent engagement approach at the elementary level.
Brown acknowledged a common pattern: when the district teaches the bullying vocabulary in October, reporting often rises because students begin to identify incidents. “We often see a little spike in bullying reports,” Brown said, and she offered to provide the board with numbers and trend data on reports and investigations.
The presentation also highlighted the division’s Social Emotional Learning Night on Oct. 24 — a community event with booths, partners and family resources — and the use of spreadsheets and centralized tracking so that counselors and central office staff can investigate and follow up promptly.
Board members praised the outreach and asked for longitudinal data on incident reports; Brown agreed to provide multi‑year trend information to show whether prevention lessons are reducing incidents over time. The board did not vote on new policy changes during the presentation; the item was informational and the proclamation (presented earlier in the meeting) was adopted as written.
