Community Leaders Help "Bully Busters" At Lawrenceburg School

Students starred in a game show-like competition at Lawrenceburg Primary School on Friday.

Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Stopping bullying in schools is a serious topic, but teaching students how to properly respond to bullying situations can be fun.

Lawrenceburg Primary School took that approach on Friday with its annual Bully Busters program. Classes competed against one another in a game show format, coming up with suitable responses for bullying scenarios that were presented to them.

“Kids get the opportunity to apply and practice all the things of being a good character and preventing bullying. We see that carry over in the school,” said assistant principal Jared Leiker.

The approximately 150 children were divided into seven teams. Each team was assigned a mentor from the community. They included Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens, Indiana Deputy Attorney General Aaron Negangard, Dearborn County Commissioner Shane McHenry, and others.  

 

Students are competing in the Bully Busters game show today at Lawrenceburg Primary School.

A post shared by Eagle Country 99.3 (@eaglecountry993) on Apr 13, 2018 at 6:35am PDT

The groups could call on caregivers or hometown heroes for lifelines to help them with an answer. Lawrenceburg Police Chief Donnie Combs, Greendale Police Chief Dewayne Uhlman, Greendale Mayor Alan Weiss, and Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor’s Office project manager Karen Ernst were among them.

Students’ answers were judged by a panel made up of Leiker and Dearborn County judges Sally McLaughlin and Jonathan Cleary. The judges held up cards giving each group’s answer a score.

Those leaders’ presence is an important part of the program. Dearborn County Jail Chemical Addiction Program director Tisha Linzy started the Bully Busters program at Lawrenceburg Primary School seven years ago.

“It’s good to get the community stakeholders together so that the kids feel supported and it’s not just a school issue. It’s a society issue,” she said.

Leiker added that the kids get super-excited to work with somebody beside their teacher or parents on learned to be a good character.