Wednesday, February 21, 2001
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Wednesday, February 21, 2001 |
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Educators say Second Step is reducing violence Two years after implementing Second Step, a violence prevention curriculum for grades K-9, teachers throughout the Fayette County School System have noticed changes in the way their students treat others and handle difficult situations. The United States Department of Education of Safe and Drug Free Schools has given the national program, coordinated through the Children's Trust Fund Commission, its exemplary rating. Fayette has about 50 percent of its schools participating in Second Step. According to Carole Steele, program director of the Children's Trust Fund Commission, Fayette is one of the only school districts in Georgia to take the program system wide. "Fayette is clearly inventive and creative in its implementation of the program," said Steele. "Second Step is integrated into the entire school day from classroom participation and discipline techniques to the cafeteria and riding home on the bus," she added. Shortly after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, Karen Spangler, a social worker for the Fayette School System, applied to the Children's Trust Fund Commission to begin implementation of the Second Step program in seven of Fayette's elementary schools. Fayetteville primary and intermediate schools were the first two to jump on board before Columbine occurred. The other schools included in the first implementation group were Braelinn, Brooks, Kedron, Peachtree City, Peeples and Tyrone elementaries. Two years later, teachers are reporting that they are seeing positive changes in the behavior of students. Students are now thinking about the consequences of their actions before committing them and showing empathy to fellow classmates, teachers say. "Teachers have heard children on the playground counting to 10 to control anger and using the term 'I feel' when talking to others about situations that are bothering them," said Spangler. Beginning this year, the school system is tracking the number of disciplinary problems to see if there has been a drop since the program was implemented in the first seven schools. Spangler said it's too early to tell if the program is reducing the overall number of discipline referrals, but she believes it is having a positive impact on students. This year, four other elementary schools and one middle school began implementing the program: Oak Grove, Huddleston, Burch and North Fayette elementaries and Fayette Middle. In fact, Fayette Middle made history by becoming the first middle school in the system to adopt the program. East Fayette Elementary has just completed its application to offer the program next year. Second Step, which is taught as character education curriculum in the elementary schools, is 75 percent funded by the Children's Trust. "Buy in for Second Step has been wonderful," said Spangler. "It is my hope that more middle schools will hop on board because this is a wonderful program. If we can diminish discipline problems in the classroom, we will have more time for academics."
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