Advice to district: First, do no harm

Bullying is a bad thing, with sometimes tragic and deadly results. Certainly we can agree on that. And who can argue with a school district trying to eradicate abuse of students by their peers? But what if a school’s effort to do so makes the situation worse?
That’s exactly what has happened in West Allegheny School District, according to some parents.
KDKA-TV reported Tuesday night that parents and other local residents met with school board members and administrators to raise heck about the “kindness” program. Some of them have hired an attorney and are threatening a class-action lawsuit for damage they believe was done to their kids.
Last week, according to the parents, West Allegheny Middle School children were gathered together and then separated into groups depending on their answers to a series of questions.
KDKA said the students were told to “move to the middle of the circle” if:
• You have been affected by drugs or alcohol
• You have been called fat or made fun of
• You or someone close to you identifies as gay, lesbian or transgendered
• You have been affected by mental challenges or learning disabilities
• You or your family has ever worried about not having enough money
• You or someone close to you has been imprisoned
• You have been raised by a single parent
One can imagine the “mean kids” in the school taking all this in and then targeting other youngsters with statements like, “You’re stupid” or “You’re poor” or “Your dad’s a jailbird.” Whether we like to admit it or not, some kids find joy in making others miserable.
“There is now so much damage done to these children, and there is no way to go back and make this better for them,” Diane Kolesar told the TV station.
Another person at the meeting, Pam Brosovic, said the exercise had “given the bullies ammunition.”
Added parent Marie-Noelle Briggs, “I would never expect a middle school to ask kids if their parents have been in jail, if they’re (the) same sex, if they’re having financial issues. How is that going to affect them?”
The district issued a statement through school board President Debbie Mirich, who said after the meeting, “We do stand behind the intentions of our workshop, and we look forward (to) communicating our work with parents to address this very serious issue of bullying and the unintentional acts that continue to marginalize different groups of students.”
As say-nothing responses go, that’s a doozy. As for good intentions, we seem to recall an old saying about the “road to hell” being paved with them.
Mirich said the school board was not directly involved in “facilitating” the middle school workshop. That means teachers and administrators are on the hook for this one.
It’s mind-boggling for us to believe that in the development, preparation and final approval for this workshop, no one raised any red flags and said, “Hey, wait a minute. This could go very wrong.” If they didn’t, it certainly makes one question the leadership of the school district.
They had the ultimate responsibility to make sure the program would be a positive experience for the children or, at the very least, that it did no harm. If the descriptions we’ve heard about this workshop are accurate, then they failed miserably.