How to resolve AdBlock issue? UPPER LAKE, Calif. – In a time when school bullying is leading to increased concerns for school and student safety, one local school is seeing good outcomes from a new program that seeks to put the emphasis on kindness and connection.
In September, Elwira Salata, director of student services for the Upper Lake Unified School District – who also is filling in as interim Upper Lake Middle School principal – received the administration’s blessing to roll out the “Start with Hello” program.
The video posted above, produced by Lake County News, follows the school’s efforts to implement the program.
The Start with Hello program is based on a simple but impactful premise: Students are encouraged to be inclusive and compassionate in their interactions with each other.
Salata said it comes from the Sandy Hook Promise, and is meant to create an inclusive environment that teaches children how to be tolerant and civil to each other.
During the week of Sept. 24 to 28, Upper Lake Middle School students and staff participated in the program, which is part of a larger effort, the National Violence Prevention Program.
Salata said Start with Hello is a prevention program that teaches children and teens how to be more socially inclusive and connected to each other. It asks students, educators, parents and other community leaders who interact with children to take steps in class, the lunchroom and at other times in their day to create relationships.
Salata said fostering inclusion and community is an important life skill and it requires practice. “There are no age limit to reaching out and helping others.”
Upper Lake Middle School has 190 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, with students ranging in age from 11 to 14, Salata said. It’s a challenging time for children who are learning to maneuver their social and academic lives.
During lunchtime on one of the days, a Lake County News reporter visited with students and asked them their thoughts about the program.
In explaining why kindness is important, one of the students acknowledged that it’s a vulnerable time in their lives. Another talked about bullying and said she was a victim of it.
Salata shows a chart created by a student showing her goals – making people smile, giving them a hug and doing other things to help others feel valued.
District Superintendent Dr. Giovanni Annous said building relationships with students is essential, as it’s necessary to their advancement.
The antidote to bullying is being kind, welcoming, respectful and safe, he said, adding that kindness is a key element to the school’s method of positive behavioral interventions and support, or PBIS.
“There’s nothing more important than building character into the kids,” who are facing an ever-changing world, he said.
When a community of students understands kindness, it can diminish challenges of the behaviors that aren’t welcome on campus, he said.
Salata said she found another surprising outgrowth of the program in, of all places, the girls’ bathroom. There, she said the students took kindness to a new level by writing and posting positive notes of affirmation on the mirror to encourage each other.
“It’s amazing, it took me by surprise,” she said.
The bathroom’s large mirror was covered with dozens of notes of different colors, with positive messages. Some of the notes were shaped into a heart.
It wasn’t an assignment, and students weren’t sure who was responsible for starting it.
Salata acknowledged that the program is a very simple idea, and everybody wanted to be a part of spreading the message of kindness. “That’s what we do in education. We educate the minds but we also educate the souls and the hearts.”
Upper Lake is a small community and Upper Lake Middle School is a small school. “Everybody participating a little bit makes a huge difference,” she said.
And the students played key roles overall in creating organizing running the events associated with the program, said Salata, who added that in addition to help from students she had enormous support from staff and the community.
The ripple of kindness
After the week of activities and the intervening weeks of observing the results, there appears to be a ripple effect, with the program’s positive impact continuing.
“We consider it a huge success,” said Salata. “This is still happening.”
She said they are seeing children approaching each other to compliment them and continuing to try to get to know each other.
“We are absolutely going to continue with this,” she said.
Salata said they would like to create more opportunities to focus on the Start with Hello message.
Along with encouraging children to interact more positively, the program has put additional focus on building stronger ties between staff and students.
“We do so many things, sometimes we forget it’s all about the relationship,” she said.
The program has given the school’s staff the opportunity to look at how they are building those relationships with children, she said.
She said for staff as well it has started with saying hello to the children each day, and giving them that important acknowledgment.
Even in a short time, Salata said there has definitely been a change of culture that’s having broad impacts.
There’s been something else significant administration has noticed, although Salata said she’s not yet sure she can link it to the Start with Hello activities week.
She said the school district has been participating in the countywide Attendance Challenge, the first week of which was Oct. 15 to 19. On Oct. 17, she said they had incredible turnout – 188 of 190 students were at school. “That is unheard of.”
Looking ahead, Salata said the school wants to plug in a kindness focus every month.
Upper Lake Middle School was the first school in the district to try the program, and Salata said other schools – particularly Upper Lake Elementary – appear prepared to join them. During the Start with Hello week, elementary school staff showed up to hang out with the Upper Lake Middle School students at lunch time.
Looking ahead, Salata said she hopes it also will become more of a community effort, with the involvement of parents, the community and businesses.
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