News

Family Crisis Center holds a program on bullying for Central School students

By Heather Milbrath

05/28/2013

A program was held this past week at the Bottineau Central School focusing on the issue of bullying.

The sixth grade class presented a puppet show to the kindergarten, first and second-graders called “You’re not the Boss of Me”.

This program was sponsored by the Family Crisis Center, which received a grant to purchase the puppets and the program called, “Kids on the Block”. Shelly Bohl, from the FCC, was at the program and helped to facilitate the show.

Bohl approached Vicki Metcalfe, elementary counselor, about doing this program for the K-2 graders. Metcalfe then thought of the idea to have the sixth-grade students put on the puppet show for the younger students.

Four sixth-grade students were the puppeteers, one was the emcee, and one was the ‘bully’. For this group of students, much time and effort was put into memorizing the lines and learning to work with the puppets. The rest of the sixth-grade students were mentors to the younger students and sat with them during the presentation. At the end of the program, the sixth-graders gave the younger students bracelets that say “BES Stand Up”, to remind them how to handle bullying situations.
Bohl felt this program was well received by both groups of students, and that it was a new way to address bullying. By having the sixth-grade students present, she feels that they could become good examples for the younger students. Bohl also hopes that this could be an annual event.

Metcalfe was also pleased with the outcome, saying that the puppet show was a very good program.

“It starts the students young, and allows both the sixth-graders and the younger students to learn,” Metcalfe said. “I am very proud of the sixth-graders.”

The six students who directed the program felt that it was important to teach the kids not to bully when they are young, before they get older.

The puppeteers especially enjoyed seeing the young students’ faces light up when they put on the show.

The puppeteers were: Hayden Vandal, Riley Olson, Reghan Shriver and Tasha Graber. The Bully was Beau Peterson and the emcee was Greg Saville.