District News

Beginning this school year, Butts County School System will work to better support students who may be struggling or in crisis by building upon our current practices while incorporating Sandy Hook Promise and other best practices in violence prevention, bullying prevention, and suicide prevention.

 

We will take a three-pronged approach:

First, prevention. We want our students to understand that kindness matters, while also making sure, they understand what bullying is and the consequences associated with it.

Second, reporting. We want every student to be able to answer one simple question: Who is your trusted adult in this building? If something is wrong—whether it involves them or someone else—we want them to know exactly who they can go to.

Third, coping. We have to continue working to give our students better tools for dealing with adversity, conflict, disappointment, and the challenges they will inevitably face.

We will also build upon our partnership with parents by holding school-level town halls. These conversations will address not only prevention, reporting, and coping, but also what parents should be aware of at home—cyberbullying, issues associated with online gaming, negative online influences, and other concerns affecting our children.

Most importantly, we want our parents to know how to utilize the school system and law enforcement as resources when they recognize an issue and need help.

We cannot prevent every difficult circumstance our students will face. However, we can continue to work together—as educators, parents, students, law enforcement, and a community—to make sure our students know that there are adults who care about them, adults who will listen to them, and adults who will act when they need help.

 

Will Rustin
Interim-Superintendent
Butts County School System