The story
This bullying problem seems to be a real issue. Our solution? Kelso’s Choices.
Quick rewind
You remember that bullying task force, right? It consists of teachers, administrators, community members, and Noel Desmarais, a senior at BHS. How’d he land that one? Mr. Jozokos asked him, which seems a heck of a lot like favoritism. However, the committee’s first order of business was reading and taking notes on a huge packet of material. Our theory is that Mr. Jozokos actually really hates Noel.
Is this legit?
We had our doubts too, but Noel thinks that the committee has a real potential to be effective. And we trust Noel. He’s our student rep. We think that’s how it works. But, no matter what, we need something. Bullying was a common complaint in parents’ feedback to the board. Specifically–twin day. One parent felt that students who don’t have twins on this spirit day would feel bad about themselves, and left out. Now that’s original thinking. Let’s just say that neither we, nor anyone else, have ever thought of that.
So, this task force…
The committee is reevaluating the law and school policies to get a full and distinct definition of bullying. Noel disclosed two things to us: the main form of bullying at BHS is cyberbullying, and one of the task force’s biggest concerns is trying to get more students to report bullying. For the first, Noel said that there are bullying curriculums for different age levels to reduce all forms of bullying. Our translation: we need Kelso the Frog for every school, because how else will you know if it’s a big problem or a little problem?!?
And the reporting?
Last year, there were only three bullying instances reported at BHS for the entire year, and six for the year before that. However, for that same 2016-2017 school year, 332 students answered that they had been bullied that year in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This means that either no one is reporting when they are being bullied, or students are unaware of the true definition of bullying. Or, maybe, students just put down the answer for fun.
And the winner is…
All three of them. The first two fall under the jurisdiction of the task force; they are trying to increase the number of reporting for bullying, and make a more clear cut definition. When we spoke with Cindy Chagnon a few weeks ago, she had quite a few doubts about the data from the survey. She felt like 322 was way too high, both because the question did not clearly define bullying, and students did not answer truthfully. We’ve got to agree; there is no way that every single one of those 332 students were answering honestly. 332 means about one whole grade feels bullied. But…there was that freshmen lice incident that year…
The Runaway
The bullying task force wraps up in one more meeting and presents their findings to the school board on November 13th. Let’s hope they come out with a clear direction for where to take Kelso’s Choices. Mr. Fournier, we have quite a few ideas.
What to say…
When you’re so done with your mom living your life for you…
I need a new outlet. Lucky for you, this year, the school is implementing Life of a Bulldog. It took us a long time to figure out what the heck it even is, but it’s actually pretty self-explanatory — we kindly ask that you do not judge our intelligence. The program is based off of NHIAA’s Life of an Athlete. So, for the first time, BHS is being inclusive to all extracurriculars, not just those who can run fast. But, don’t let our snark fool you — it’s actually a good thing. They’re trying to make a closer-knit community, where students can talk about how to reduce stress, implement healthy eating, support clubs/sports, etc. They want it to be student run, with students bringing up issues, and solving them, rather than adults driving it. So let’s hope this doesn’t crash and burn within two seconds. Their next meeting is this Wednesday during first advisory in the theater – freshmen, don’t clog up the halls.
When it’s getting too cold to stand outside for fall sports…
Don’t worry, winter is coming. Or watch volleyball. That’s all we’ve got, though. Football, soccer, and volleyball are all in playoffs. And we’re here so that you’re not embarrassingly out of the loop.
Football
We’ve said quite a few times that our biggest game of the regular season was going to be Merrimack, as they were the only team that could potentially make it a good one. Thankfully, we said “potentially”, because the score on Friday was 56-14. But keeping us interested during this long, opponent-crushing season? The fierce competition for best ginger quarterback. BHS QB Thomas Morgan has had a 9-0 season, while NFL QB Andy Dalton has had a 5-3 season so far. Yesterday, Dalton only had two passing touchdowns, no rushing. In the Merrimack game, Morgan had three rushing, and two passing TDs. To sum it up: suck it, Andy Dalton! Thomas Morgan: 1; Andy Dalton: 0. This Saturday, we will kick Goffstown’s ass in the quarters. Go, if you feel any particular school spirit, but trust us, we already know the outcome of that game. We’re not even going to knock on wood.
Boys Soccer
The boys are seeded number one for playoffs, and got a bye for the first round. We beat Portsmouth yesterday 4-0 in the quarters. The team will play Concord on Halloween in semis, which seems like good luck. Don’t know why, but we feel like it’s a good thing. (Boooo, Concord). We already beat Concord 5-0 in the regular season so it seems like our good luck theory is correct. We will most likely play Central in the championship game, who we’ve also already beaten. Should they give us the trophy now?
Girls Soccer
Not as much fun to talk about, but we still have some hope. We beat BG last Thursday, thanks to Mackenzie MacEachern. And don’t think we’re kidding. MacEachern scored two out of the four goals, and assisted for the other two. And weirdly she’s committed to UNH for lacrosse. We don’t get it either. We also beat Concord yesterday 2-1 in the quarters, and will play Londonderry on Thursday in the semis. We don’t want to even tell you how badly Londonderry beat us during the regular season. If we beat them (please note the “if”), then who the heck knows what will happen. Can we say underdogs?
Volleyball
Last Saturday, we beat BG in the quarters in four close matches. As always, beating BG is great, especially when they beat us 3-0 in the regular season. (@BG, how you like dem apples?) We’re playing Nashua South on Wednesday in the semis, who crushed us 3-0 in the regular season. But it’s not completely hopeless. At least, we refuse to believe so. Once again, can we say underdogs?
Things to Know
What We’ve Been Waiting For
Here is our final touchdown tracker for the regular season. We know, it’s quite the moment. To be honest, we are pretty dang proud of that piece of work. We can’t even begin to describe how many articles and twitter feeds we’ve labored through to figure out who scored what in each game. You’d be so surprised how crappy the reporting on football in NH actually is. There are two touchdowns in the BG game that we still have no clue who they belong to. But it’s fine. We can just assume they’re Ryan Toscano’s.
Remember…
Intersession sign ups for juniors this week. Make sure you’re ready at 8 pm tomorrow so you can get the last few spots of the best ones.
Just for the Mems, or the Moms
Yearbooks are $65 right now, which is UBER cheap compared to the normal $75. Right?
Deadline!
Winter sport sign ups are due Wednesday. Just an FYI, if you plan on participating. Though, we know that everyone is going to turn it in on Wednesday anyway. But, hey, we tried.