Project AWARE helpful resource for bullying prevention at LPS

Kids seem busy these days.

With school in session, not only are they doing classwork, they also are participating in extracurricular activities and may even have a part-time job.

But also with the new year, there’s always another stressful and terrible thing that blackens their day: bullying. The action can have negative repercussions for both the bully and the victim in more ways than one.

Project AWARE is a grant given to Lawton Public Schools to provide mental health services to students. AWARE stands for Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education.

“We have interventions in place for classroom management for services that deal with mental health,” Danna Bross, Project AWARE Coordinator of Lawton Public Schools, said. “If students need counseling, group counseling, outside referral to multi county or Taliafero, we can do all that. We have Licensed Mental Health Professionals (LMHPs) in all of our schools, they have pods that they go to. Two of them are social workers and two of them are Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs).”

Bross said students need to tell a teacher or adult who they feel comfortable with to talk about their situation.

“If there’s a problem, then the principal can refer them to us and then one of our counselors will go get consent from a parent and then speak to those students and decide on what’s the proper course to be taken,” Bross said. “We will do our best to keep it anonymous.”

There are plenty of resources that families and students can use to bring awareness to or prevent bullying.

“Your school counselor can provide them,” Bross said. “The principal can provide them, we can provide them. But they differ case by case. Once we develop that relationship and see what’s best for that student, we don’t want to overwhelm the family. Not every student is the same, it’s different from person to person.”

Last year, they did a screener with 800 participants to see who participated in Project AWARE. They had 12,000, since last talking with them.

“Whether they participate or not, that gives us answers as is,” Victoria Zelbst, Interconnected Systems Framework Specialist for Project AWARE said. “We want to make awareness and bring some support to sites that might not be having that type of support that’s needed.”

They also have a SPARCS (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress) group that offers counseling for middle school and high school.

“They complete a series of meetings,” Bross said. “We monitor attendance and try to figure out why they’re not coming to school.”

“There’s a lot of coping skills and kids that don’t recognize they need help,” Zelbst said. “It gives them the ability to advocate for themselves and ask for help or look out for others.”

Are the kids happy with the results?

“I think they’re satisfied,” Bross said. “I think it’s much needed and I’m thankful that our district does put mental health as a priority for our students. I say that all the time, but it’s the truth. Not all districts do this.”