August 11, 2003

Contact:
Jennifer Meriam, Director
(954) 262-5355
Mike Laderman, Associate Director
(954) 262-5354
Mara Kiffin, Coordinator
(954) 262-5350

NSU Develops Curriculum To Prevent “Bullying” In Schools
Superb Begins As Pilot Program In Six Broward County Schools

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL- No child should ever be afraid to attend school. Anyone who has witnessed “bullying” is not likely to forget it. According to the School Psychologists Association, 160,000 American youths skip school every day fearing they will be the targets of bullies. Bullying is not “kids being kids,” or “all in good fun,” but one of the most destructive behaviors in our society.

In an effort to redefine how bullying is perceived, Jeremy and Sharon Ring of Boca Raton, partnered with Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences to develop SUPERB (Students United with Parents and Educators to Resolve Bullying). The goal of SUPERB is to teach students to work together to resolve incidents of bullying and interpersonal violence in schools by educating students, teachers and parents that teasing and tormenting peers cannot be tolerated as an acceptable part of the school community.

A team of NSU experts developed the SUPERB pilot program, which will be launched in September 2003 in six Broward County schools that feed into each other and represent areas with diverse financial backgrounds. The six schools participating are: Northside Elementary, Sunrise Middle and Fort Lauderdale High in Fort Lauderdale and Tropical Elementary School, Tequesta Middle and Cypress Bay High in Weston.

The team, who helped develop the SUPERB curriculum in conjunction with Superintendent Frank Till and the Broward County School Board, include: Christopher F. Burnett, Psy.D., Director of Doctoral Programs in Family Therapy in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences (GSHSS), Anne Rambo, Ph.D., Associate professor of Family Therapy and a child and family therapist for over 20 years, Jewell Bexley, doctoral student in Family Therapy at NSU; Hansa Dinenath, doctoral student in NSU’s Conflict Analysis and Resolution program at NSU, and Karen Rais, a master’s student in NSU’s Family Therapy program.

According to Rambo, the ultimate goal of SUPERB is to change attitudes and to achieve national brand recognition similar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD). Both grass-roots organizations were revolutionary in changing the way students, parents, educators and the community thought about the acceptability of drunk driving. Today, students have become more acutely aware that driving drunk is not “cool” and are comfortable policing themselves to lessen the risks. SUPERB seeks to achieve the same with regards to bullying; by teaching students that bullying is unacceptable social behavior.

“We are targeting the bystander -- kids who are just standing by -- who are not doing the tormenting, but they’re not the victims either,” Rambo says. “If anything is going to change, those are the people we need to reach because they are the great majority. Also, they are the ones who have more choices – they have the choice to say or do something to stand up for the victim. And we have a model that teaches them a range of different options that they have.”

The SUPERB Pilot Program

The SUPERB curriculum is a comprehensive program that targets students, parents, educators, and members of the local community to understand the “life-long” consequences of bullying. Graduate students will work in the classrooms before and after school, and will use the SUPERB curriculum to teach positive leadership skills and to teach students to work together, respect each other and applaud one another. Elementary schools will utilize games, music, and art to teach these skills while the middle school will focus on projects which allow students to learn more about one another. Volunteers from the high schools these middle schools feed into will also be used as mentors for the younger children, so that there are interventions at every level.

Additionally, the pilot program will allow the SUPERB team of graduate students (many of whom are certified teachers themselves), to interact with the teachers from targeted schools to fully understand their daily challenges and to provide them with the tools to better manage problems that arise from bullying. There will also be regular correspondence with parents to educate them about SUPERB’s goals and curriculum and to update them on their children’s progress. And in an effort to involve the entire community, SUPERB will leverage the vast resources of Nova Southeastern University, as well as local businesses and media outlets to ensure that children receive rewards for excellence.

SUPERB founder Jeremy Ring, chairman of Convizion, sports marketing and media company based in Fort Lauderdale, says the couple founded SUPERB because bullying is a serious problem that can traumatize children and have long-lasting effects. Indeed, a recent study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) reports that children who bully other children are at risk for engaging in violence-related behaviors, such as frequent fighting and carrying a weapon. The long-term effects of bullying are felt on the victims as well. In an earlier study conducted in 2001, the NICHD concluded that adults who were victims of bullying are more likely to suffer from depression and low self-esteem.

“We wanted to get involved in a project that we really believed in and one that we knew had wide-reaching effects. I know people who have psychological problems today and they were victims or bullying. We founded this program because no kid should be afraid to go to school.,” Ring says.
Sharon Ring, a licensed attorney and former associate with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati in California, echoes her husband’s sentiments. “This is not about getting kids to tattle on each other. If two kids are having a problem – one bullying the other -- then the whole class and the teacher have a problem that needs to be addressed. Bullying is a community problem.”

The couple, who have two small children, say they brought the idea for SUPERB to NSU is because the school has the expertise to develop a curriculum that would address the problem, and the university has the relationship with the Broward County School Board that would allow the program to be introduced to the children and faculty.

The SUPERB pilot program will last for the first six months of the school year, after which the NSU team will evaluate the results. The Rings are hoping the pilot program will prove successful so that additional funding can be obtained to eventually expand the program nationally.

“We need corporations to sponsor the program by ‘adopting’ a school or school district” says Jeremy Ring. “We have a vision of seeing this program expand nationally because children should not fear being tormented or teased in school.”

For more information about SUPERB, visit the website at www.nochildfearschool.org or send email to arambo@nochildfearschool.org. For more information about the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nova Southeastern University, visit the website at http://shss.nova.edu/