A school in Pennsylvania has had to do serious damage control after the staff there angered parents with an unusual approach to teaching students about bullying.
Students at West Allegheny Middle School taking part in The Kindness Workshop were each made to answer personal questions about themselves leaving them “open to a wave of ridicule from their peers.”
Students were asked to form a circle and, one at a time, each student had to stand in the center and share personal information such as how much money their parents earn, whether their parents are still together, and whether they’ve used drugs or alcohol. Each student was also asked personal questions about their religious beliefs and sexual orientation.
Superintendent Jerri Lynn Lippert said that the workshop, which was held for 285 eight-graders, was “created with good intentions but had unintended consequences.”
The Kindness Workshop was held due to staff’s concerns over bullying amongst eighth-graders and Lippert stated:
“There were significant student issues, some of those were definitely intentional acts of bullying, but there were also many unintentional acts.”
The workshop was intended to combat acts of bullying however parents have criticised the school’s methods and have voiced concerns that the personal information shared by students will only enable further bullying.
One parent Marie-Noelle Briggs objected to the school asking her son to share personal information about their family life and had concerns that the workshop was run by teachers at the school and not trained psychologists.
Briggs stated that the workshop simply caused “more ammunition to bully” and another parent, Lauralee Nuckles, stated that information about her daughter’s bully had been read aloud during a session and the bully had picked up on the connection.
School officials held a meeting for parents in response to the claims but some parents have dismissed this as “damage control.”
Sources say the meeting lasted for over three hours but was mostly comprised of the district attempting to demonstrate the workshop’s techniques rather than allowing parents to ask questions and raise concerns.
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