Girls against Bullying Summit at Frontier
from the Wentzville School District
May 6, 2009
Wentzville School District
At the beginning of the school year, Frontier Middle School Counselor, Amy Asinger-Koeln, asked the seventh graders about their interest in counseling groups.
Over 30% of seventh grade girls were interested in joining a “girl group” that would cover topics such as friendships, bullying and conflict mediation.
The Girls Against Bullying Summit (GABS) was born.
“Middle school girls sometimes struggle with their friendships, and can often experience relational aggression,” explained Asinger-Koeln. “At the middle school level we see this occur on a daily basis in the form of exclusion, ignoring, spreading rumors, text messaging, teasing, verbal insults and girls forming groups and taking sides against each other.”
The summit was attended by almost 40 seventh grade girls, and was broken down into four hour-long sessions, Monday through Thursday after school. All of the staff members involved were seventh grade female teachers or counselors who volunteered hours of their time to create and implement curriculum and activities on their chosen topic.
On Monday, female students who attend Timberland and Holt High Schools came to speak with the girls about their own experiences. On Tuesday and Wednesday, students broke into small groups and the girls rotated between classrooms to attend sessions on friendships, conflict mediation, stress management and self esteem/body image.
“It’s fun, I’ve learned a lot about how to resolve conflict,” said 13-year-old Madison. “Seventh grade has a lot of drama, so it’s nice to know that there are ways to solve your problems.”
On Thursday, GABS met again as a large group to review the week’s activities, and compare notes on how the girls wanted to incorporate what they’ve learned throughout the week into their lives. The students have already started planning next year’s GABS topics, suggestions include healthy boy/girl relationships, how to talk to teachers and adults about bullying issues and perceptions about body types and sizes.
Copyright 2009 Neighbors About Town
