Across the country, the month of October is dedicated to spreading awareness about bullying. This week at Riverside Brookfield High School has been Bullying Prevention Week.

Working with the administration, the school psychologists and support staff have planned many events in order to spread awareness against bullying. Two of the psychologists in charge of the week were Pushpa Winbush and McKenzie Sopoci.

“Activity-wise, we have something at the beginning of the week… we had posters which asked the question of what kindness and inclusion mean. We also have a discussion planned for the end of the week, which AST is facilitating,” Winbush said.

The discussion is open to all students, and it will pose various questions about how prevalent bullying is. 

There were also spirit days planned to coincide with different aspects of anti-bullying. Monday was a pajama day with the idea of putting bullying to sleep. Tuesday’s goal was to team up against bullying with a jersey day while Wednesday was tie-dye day. Thursday was a hats off to kindness day and students were encouraged to wear hats. Friday, students could wear their Halloween costumes which coincided with the Halloween themed day planned by the Students Association.

“We were able to put that [spirit week information] on the flyers though. There were some overlapping days,” Winbush said.

The overall goal of this week is to inform about bullying and how it impacts students. There is also a new focus on spreading awareness of cyberbullying with the rise of social media. 

“We haven’t seen any actual bullying in person but the big thing is that social media has become so apparent now that I think social media is when you see those things and it’s harder for us because we are not on your social media pages,” Sopoci said.

There are currently many different resources available for students who are experiencing bullying including an anonymous bullying report through the RBHS website, social workers and counselors, and a peer mediator program that deals with minor issues that lead to bullying.

“We have about nine to ten trained peer mediators who can help with those situations who might be more relatable to a student because of age,” Winbush said.

Sopoci and Winbush also stressed the importance of talking about bullying for longer than this week to make students more comfortable to speak up about it.

“The more you talk about stuff like that [bullying prevention], the less of a stigma it is, the more students are willing to reach out for help, the more willing students are to speak up and know the people they can speak up to,” Sopoci said.