By Matthew Smith - Eagle Staff Writer
FCHS has many clubs, but there is a new one many people have questions about -Teens Against Bullying. What is it? What do they do, and how can students join? New club members shared some answers.
At the end of last spring, Teens Against Bullying (TABS for short) began after being
approved in 2019 but then delayed because of the pandemic. “The process was delayed a little because of the Covid pandemic and not being able to implement any new clubs/organizations on campus,” explained Allyson Lynch, Ramsey Hall administrator.
Club leaders say TABS is for anyone concerned about bullying on campus, regardless of whether they've actually experienced it firsthand. McKenna Roderick, senior, said, “I think that everybody has experienced bullying even if they weren’t the one being bullied… I don’t think that [bullying happens] on a very large scale at this school but I think we should mitigate any that we do have.”
Junior Kyaria Harper agreed with Rodrick. “I’ve watched a lot of bullying happening...and I feel like there’s a special place in my heart for people who have been bullied and experienced it.”
What is special about Teens Against Bullying is that it uses peer mediation to address the problem of bullying. Peer mediation is when a trained peer mediator sits down with both parties to help them resolve the conflict before it gets out of hand. “It’s kind of a first step before bigger things are taking place,” Harper expanded.
Students who experience bullying or have witnessed it can get a Conflict Incident Report Form from the office and drop it in a TABS drop box located in the office. "It just reports any incident that students see or are involved in and brings it to the attention of adults and to our TABS students,” Lopez said. Team members and appropriate school staff then reach out to the parties involved to begin the mediation process.
Marsha Lopez, teacher and sponsor of Teens Against Bullying said there is already a list of students eager to be trained as TABS mediators. “We {will] have approximately eight to ten TABS, but we already have a lot of applications from students who want to be TABS [mediators].”
To join Teens Against Bullying and become a TABS mediator, students should stop by Room 165 Tech B to pick up an application. There is an interview and selection process for applicants who can be trained and admitted as full-fledged TABS members.
Lopez is proud of the work the team has already done in bringing this service to the campus community. “I want to commend [TABS] and tell them thank you for actually getting this program off the ground.”