St. Brigid School creates video and wears Blue on Monday, Oct. 6, to support October’s national ‘Bullying Prevention Awareness’ campaign.

Submitted by Andrea Austin-Thompson, Advancement Director, Saint Brigid School

L-R: Principal Shevon Hickey, Dylan Errico, Alexandra M Guerrero, Mishi Froman, Tejandro Bolton, and Shirley Love. Submitted photo.

Even though many schools will be closed across the country on Monday, Oct. 6, in honor of Columbus Day, Saint Brigid School’s (SBS) students in West Hartford, CT, will be dressed in blue. Why? In a show of support for October 6 National Bullying Prevention Awareness Day, Saint Brigid School’s faculty and students will post pictures of themselves on Facebook wearing blue on their day-off from school.

Also, in a challenge to other schools, on Friday, Oct. 3, SBS’ students will create an anti-bullying video message which they will post on their school’s Facebook page.

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 Newton’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, West Hartford’s Saint Brigid School had an anti-bullying campaign in place for several years.

To further enhance 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.”

Starting in October, all of Saint Brigid School’s 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. This curriculum will also be adapted for the SBS’ lower grades.

“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, CT.

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