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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Broome Street Academy Charter School Responds to Bullying With 'Champions'

By Danielle Tcholakian | September 30, 2015 2:51pm
 Broome Street Academy's Champions program has school staff developing
Broome Street Academy's Champions program has school staff developing "authentic relationships" with students.
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Facebook/Broome Street Academy

HUDSON SQUARE — A neighborhood charter school reported the second highest number of bullying incidents in all New York City schools in 2014, significantly more than any other school in the Greenwich Village-SoHo area.

Broome Street Academy Charter High School, which has been frequently praised by Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, reported 65 incidents of bias-based or discriminatory bullying, including complaints as seemingly minor as a student being teased about their shoes.

Head of School Barbara McKeon is not only OK with that reporting — she's encouraging it.

"I'm actually thrilled that someone thinks that making fun of a kid's shoes is bullying," McKeon said. "I think that's a really positive thing."

A DNAinfo interactive map tracking bullying reports at schools citywide used information schools are supposed to provide to two state databases, VADIR and DASA. VADIR catalogs "violent and disruptive" incidents to determine which schools in the state get put on a dangerous schools watchlist. DASA was created out of the Dignity for All Students Act, to address bullying based on discrimination, as well as cyberbullying.

BSA ranked second in the city according to the DASA database, but didn't make the top 10 on VADIR.

The school looks at bullying "in a much broader spectrum than bullying is typically perceived," McKeon said.

"We have an awareness of it, and our kids have an awareness of it," McKeon added. "We talk about it. We take it very seriously."

Many of their kids are homeless or in foster care, a fact that Fariña has cited as one of the reasons BSA is the “kind of charter school that we need more of.” The school is connected to the nonprofit The Door, which provides health services, food and support for homeless youth.

"Our kids are very aware that making fun of someone's shoes can be bullying, so we report that," McKeon said. "Or calling someone a name, even if it's a joke, can be perceived as bullying, and so we report."

The diligent reporting also enables them to collect and analyze their own data to shape programs that are "sustainable."

"A lot of the research says a one-off bullying workshop doesn't have outcomes that are sustainable," McKeon said. "And not just in our community, right? I mean, we're creating the next generation. It needs to be sustainable in the world."

Every staff member, from McKeon to “the IT guy," is a “Champion” to a group of students.

The premise is not that the staffer meets with the students once a week at a certain time to touch base about academics, but that they develop an “authentic relationship,” McKeon said, that enables the student to build trust in the Champion and consequently feel safer and calmer at school.

McKeon said she thinks it's actually the Champion model that has led to the high numbers, by making kids feel safe coming forward and speaking up about bullying they experience.

"The lexicon around here now is, 'Have you spoken to your champion about that? What does your champion think?'" McKeon continued. "Or kids who are feeling a little bit unsettled — 'Can I go see my champion?'"

They're even advocating for each other now — a hurdle that McKeon said was not easy to overcome.

"Our kids come from a street-snitch culture, where the stakes are pretty high [if they come forward]. That's really tough [for them]," McKeon said. "The hardest thing to get past was sort of changing their lens that they are snitching."