The West Hartford school has already had a ‘No to Bullying’ Campaign in place for several years. 

Submitted by Andrea Austin-Thompson

Unfortunately, across the nation bullying has become the new norm for many school administrators in both the public and private school sectors. Long before the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Saint Brigid School has had an anti-bullying campaign in place for several years.

To add to those efforts, Saint Brigid School is pleased to announce that their seventh-grade teacher Melissa Seidl has been designated by the American School Counseling Association University (ASCA), as a certified Bullying Prevention Specialist, trained to educate, prevent and/or intervene when bullying occurs. In addition to Seidl’s teaching responsibilities, she developed an anti-violence curriculum that has been taught at other schools and will be implemented this fall at Saint Brigid School.

Seidl compassionately expressed, “Bullying has become one of the fastest rising public health problems in our country today.  Yes, that’s right according to the CDC bullying is considered a public health problem. Just like any other health problem we need to be focused on teaching students exactly what it is and how to prevent and combat it.”

“All of our middle school students will go through a violence prevention curriculum which includes the various aspects of peer to peer, physical and emotional abuse, cyber bullying, conflict resolution and more,” continued Seidl.

“Many of our parents have sought out Saint Brigid School as a safe and secure academic environment for their children. Ms. Seidl’s expertise in the fields of anti-violence and bullying have been well received by the Saint Brigid School community of faculty, parents and students, as well as by her colleagues at other academic institutions of learning. She is an outstanding asset and we are proud to have Ms. Seidl on our team,” commented Principal Shevon Hickey.

Saint Brigid School is proud to celebrate over 50 years of strong academics, Catholic values and enriched cultural diversity. SBS is a full-time faith based educational program committed to educating the needs of students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. St. Brigid is located at 100 Mayflower Street in West Hartford, Connecticut.

For more information or to arrange a tour call: (860) 561-2130, ext. 104, or visit us on Facebook or at www.saintbrigidschool.org.