10/07/2002 New Middle School Bullying Program 

(Easton, PA) Along with adjusting to a new school, new teachers and harder classes, today’s middle school students also face significant social issues including peer pressure, intimidation, being left out and striving to fit in.

On Monday, October 7, sixth graders at Nazareth Middle School will explore strategies for dealing with social cruelty and intimidation when they participate in Mean Streets of Middle School, a new interactive character education program developed by the Weller Health Education Center.

During the 45-minute assembly, students will discuss the various forms of social cruelty and the effects of peer influences in middle school. Students will also learn the consequences of intimidation, the importance of respecting differences in others and strategies to help improve self-esteem.

“The bullying that takes place in elementary school is primarily physical in nature. In middle school, bullying often takes a completely different form including verbal abuse, social exclusion and intimidation. This type of aggression can have long-term effects on a child and can also significantly distract students from their academic responsibilities,” said Renee McFarland, Weller Center health educator.

“Teachers and administrators recognize the seriousness of this intimidation and many schools are making it a priority to provide this type of character education program for all age groups,” she added.

Mean Streets of Middle School features movie clips from popular teen movies including Legally Blonde, Clueless and Bring It On, which illustrate the pervasiveness of social cruelty in teens’ entertainment. Students also participate in a Survivor role-play game where a “tribal council” judges the way different “tribes” of students handle common examples of middle school intimidation and violence.

Mean Streets of Middle School is the third in a series of seven K-12 character education programs developed by the Weller Center to help prevent violence and social cruelty among students. The Weller Center developed the program after receiving numerous requests from middle school teachers and administrators.

Mean Streets of Middle School is available to all schools in the Weller Center’s service area and is presented as a 45-minute school assembly.

One of only 33 nonprofit health education centers in the nation, the Weller Center offers more than 30 programs for students grades K-12 in character education, drug abuse prevention, general health, growth and development and nutrition. The Center has been offering high-impact curricula-based health education for 20 years and serves more than 60,000 kids each year in 205 school districts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

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