Bullying Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Hope And Healing Documentary To Premiere On April 23, 2024

“Hope and Healing: A Discussion with West Virginia Youth” is a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute (WVDII). Youth from West Virginia gathered for the project to talk about issues they face on topics including substance use disorder, bullying, social media, and mental health. The project will be screened on Tuesday, April 23, at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Charleston’s Geary Auditorium. The screening is free and open to the public.

An eye-opening documentary illuminating teen struggles presented by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute

Charleston, WV – (April 1, 2024) – A video project with West Virginia youth talking about issues they face, ranging from social media to substance use disorder, will premiere at a public screening in April at the University of Charleston.

The project will broadcast statewide on WVPB Television on Monday, April 29, at 9 p.m. and will be available on all WVPB’s streaming platforms, including the PBS App, YouTube, and at wvpublic.org.

“These teens had very open and honest conversations about their struggles and of those around them to educate other teenagers and adults better,” said Heather McDaniel, WVDII’s vice president.

Filmed at the University of Charleston’s new downtown innovation center, the project underscores the importance of listening to youth voices and understanding their perspectives. It features candid discussions with middle and high school students in West Virginia. The youths express what they wish adults knew about navigating life in today’s world, from discussing their encounters in schools to offering advice on effective communication and prevention strategies. The participants engage in a thought-provoking roundtable discussion aimed at fostering empathy and awareness.

“We believe ‘Hope and Healing’ has the power to spark important conversations and drive positive change in our communities,” said Maggie Holley, WVPB’s director of Education.

The WVPB Education Department and the WVDII encourage guidance counselors in school systems throughout the state to use this video and accompanying activities as a resource.

Those interested in attending the screening at the University of Charleston on April 23 should RSVP to rhiannon@wvdii.org.

For more information about the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute, contact President Susan Bissett at susan@wvdii.org or Vice President Heather McDaniel at heather@wvdii.org.

For more information about West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s education programs, contact education@wvpublic.org.

Watch the promotional trailer for Hope and Healing using this link or click below.

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About the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute

Located in Charleston, West Virginia, the mission of the Drug Intervention Institute is to reduce opioid and drug-related deaths in Appalachia and the nation by (a) preventing substance use through education (b) reducing overdose through training and distribution related to naloxone and other opioid reversal agents, and (c) supporting harm reduction and other drug-response efforts.

About West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia Public Broadcasting is dedicated to Telling West Virginia’s Story through its state radio and television network and online platforms. WVPB’s mission is to educate, inform and inspire the people of West Virginia. WVPB is the Mountain State’s only source for national NPR and PBS programming.

Legislators Learn About Updated Federal Forms, Bullying By The Numbers

A federal college financial aid form is being simplified, but the timeline is causing concern and the state education department has new bullying statistics.

A federal college financial aid form is being simplified, but the timeline is causing concern.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA, unlocks both federal and state financial aid for students.

The 10-page document can be daunting for both students and parents.

Sarah Armstrong Tucker, chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission, told the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability Sunday the form asked for information that was difficult to find, more so for students in non-traditional situations such as foster care, guardianships or homelessness.

“Lots of people felt that the FAFSA was so complicated that it made a lot of students opt out from going to college,” she said. ”There were a lot of kids who just didn’t have access to the information that they needed in order to fill out that FAFSA so that they could get the federal financial aid and then indeed get some of that state aid.“

Tucker told the commission that for the past three years, the U.S. Department of Education has been working to simplify the form. One of the expected changes will allow applicants to automatically connect their tax documents to the FAFSA.

“I don’t have to, as a parent, go to my IRS form, find all those numbers, put those numbers in the right boxes,” Tucker said. “It makes sure everything’s correct, which will be wonderful and great and will absolutely simplify the process, right? But that’s been a challenge, trying to get those systems that have never talked to each other before linked together. That has been really, really difficult.”

She said the changes are welcome, but the new form has yet to be released and that is causing delays for college applicants.

“Typically we would have had October the first of 2023 through now for our high school seniors who have been filling out that document. They have not been,” Tucker said. “Moreover, this is a new FAFSA. So we haven’t seen it.”

Tucker says the new form is expected to be released December 31, and she warned legislators to expect communication from their constituents.

“Once this rolls out in January, there’s going to be some concern from folks about what this looks like and deadlines for our own financial aid programs,” she said.

Tucker flagged one final potential complication regarding a calculation of the expected family contribution to higher education expenses.

“That tells us how much money a family should be able to contribute to a student loan to college,” she said. “Those tables include things like inflationary rates. Those tables haven’t been updated since 2020. So the recent inflationary rates that we’ve had are not included in those tables. And we don’t believe they’re going to be included probably until next year.”

The lowest income students are still expected to receive maximum Pell grants, but Tucker said students from higher income families may be leaving money on the table. Ultimately she said her office will not know until the new form is published, but the HEPC is trying to be proactive and anticipate changes in the interim.

Harassment and Intimidation

Jeff Kelley, officer of accountability and assessment for the West Virginia Department of Education presented a harassment, intimidation and bullying report for the 2022-23 school year to the meeting. The report showed that referrals for harassment, intimidation, or bullying behaviors accounted for 2.1 percent of all student disciplinary referrals across the state.

“I think it’s about 18 and a half incidents per day across the state,” Kelley said.

Kelley said middle school aged students accounted for the vast majority of harassment, intimidation, or bullying referrals, seven out of every 10 originating from sixth through ninth grades.

Male students were the majority of referrals at 74 percent. The data also showed discrepancies based on race.

“White students represented in discipline data at a slightly lower rate than their representation in the specific population, that’s 82 versus 88 percent,” Kelley said. “Black students and multiracial students were present at a higher rate than their respective population representations.”

Black students account for 4 percent of the state’s student population, but represented 10 percent of referrals for harassment, intimidation, or bullying. Multiracial students account for 7 percent of the state’s student population, but also represented 10 percent of referrals for harassment, intimidation, or bullying.

“A risk ratio calculation indicates the black students to be about 2.25 times more likely to experience those referrals,” Kelley said. “With multiracial students, that number is 1.5 times.”

Students with disabilities, or who were eligible for special education services accounted for one third of all referrals for harassment, intimidation, or bullying.

“Students with disabilities were about two times more likely to be referred,” Kelley said.

Committee Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, asked if Kelley thought interventions were proving effective in stopping students from repeating the offenses. Kelley said he believed the data supported that notion.

“What we’re seeing, as I think schools and counties are taking proactive approaches, they’re educating students, staff and parents about ‘What is bullying? What’s it look like? What are the signs?’ and when we see these things, what is the appropriate way to respond?” he said.

Bullying Awareness Week on West Virginia LearningMedia

West Virginia LearningMedia brings important lessons into the classroom. http://wv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/midlit11-soc-splbully/bullying/ In this self-paced literacy lesson, students watch documentary videos about bullying and read informational text about how bullying may affect the function of a democratic society. Students develop literacy skills as they explore a social studies focus on the role of personal freedom, particularly freedom of speech, and how bullying limits such personal freedom. During this process, students read informational texts, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities. When finished, students select and complete a writing assignment offline. This resource is part of the Inspiring Middle School Literacy Collection.

Bullying in Schools to Be a Topic of Discussion in 2015 Legislative Session

Bullying and harassment in schools was the topic of discussion during the Joint Standing Committee on Education yesterday.

In the House Chamber, legislators met to discuss bullying in schools. Andy Whisman, the assistant director of research from the West Virginia Department of Education, discussed a study involving the definition of bullying versus the definition of harassment within West Virginia schools.

Whisman says many schools use the terms interchangeably or in some cases, one over the other, which can make dealing with the problem more difficult.

The study found less than 2 percent total discipline referrals last year were for harassment or bullying, and 50% of those referrals were from middle schools. Many of the students who were written up for bullying may have also been written up for things like truancy or disruptiveness.

Incoming House Education Chair, Delegate Amanda Pasdon says the definition of bullying will be discussed further in the coming Legislative session.

“I think our principals are trying to be as on the job as they possibly can,” said Pasdon, “I think we’ll look at maybe bringing those definitions a little closer and kind of understanding, you know, but we allowing…our principals the most latitude to address the problems, the latitude that they need in to address the problems within their schools.”

Last year, over 5000 hours were spent dealing with county schools and parents to resolve bullying issues, Whisman says.

Lack of infrastructure challenges W.Va. filmmakers

Miracle Boy, a film about a young boy who is injured in a farming accident and then bullied by other boys, took home Best Short film at the West Virginia Filmmaker’s Festival this past weekend. Producer Jason Brown said he will always be a West Virginia filmmaker despite his Georgia address. The movie was shot in Greenbrier County.

Dialogue is limited in the short film Miracle Boy, filled instead with sounds of West Virginia mountain country.

The movie was featured at Concord University last week. Concord student Cassandra Molchanoff said it brought her new appreciation for film.

“It definitely made me feel at home when I was watching it,” she said.

The storyline follows a young boy who is injured in a farming accident and then bullied by other boys. But more than that, producer Jason Brown said it’s about doing the right thing.

“The story was about a young boy taking accountability for his actions,” he said. “I think at the end of the day what we were trying to get across is the humanity in that one young boy and seeing his mistake and making up for it.”

Bullying has made national headlines in recent years after pushing some children to commit suicide and West Virginia is not immune. Although it wasn’t Brown’s intention, Miracle Boy has been used by counselors and anti-bullying advocates across the country.

Molchanoff plans to show it to other students at Concord.

“I am so passionate about anti-bullying because I see it here at Concord’s campus,” she said. “The fact that it goes from that age and it just continues to build even into college; this film is a definite example that you can use to show that it’s not what you want to do.”

“Bullying is so hard and it really puts a damper on someone’s life so I’m definitely going to use this film as an RA to do anti-bullying.”

Miracle Boy premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2012 and won the Top Grit prize for best overall film at the 2013 Indie Grits Film Festival.

Brown is a native West Virginian and Concord graduate. He currently teaches communication courses at Valdosta State University in Georgia, but stays true to his roots by encouraging West Virginians to see past and beyond the mountainous borders.

“We often don’t fulfill our own sort of possibility because here in Southern West Virginia a lot of times we get sort of stuck in the mountains,” Brown said. “We don’t’ see what’s really possible and you have to believe in what’s there. You have to see it and then believe yourself. And then the other half of that really I believe is create your own opportunities.”

States across the country offer different levels and types of tax incentives to filmmakers. While states like North Carolina are debating whether to continue giving tax breaks and how big they should be, West Virginia’s program is relatively underused.

The director of the West Virginia Film Office, Pam Haynes, said just last year Governor Earl Ray Tomblin spearheaded an effort to reduce the amount of money offered through the Film Industry Investment Act- which was originally $10-million.

“Our program had yet to surpass $5-million in any of the tax years since it was implemented,” Haynes said, “than it made sense to have that reduced to $5-million.”

The program offers about a 30 percent tax credit to filmmakers based on the cost of a film, with a minimum spending requirement of $25,000. The filmmaker can also file for a four percent bump by hiring 10 or more West Virginia residents.

Jason Brown is familiar with filmmaker tax credits in several states and said West Virginia’s is one of the most competitive.

“This is a good thing,” he said, “but it tends to be like everything else; why would we put this much aside if not enough people are actually using it.”

“We need to be using it. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a great resource. I’m not thinking we’re going to have the Walking Dead show up in Buchannan or anything but it could. Why not?”

Brown hopes more people will realize the opportunity for filmmaking in the mountains of West Virginia.

“The two best things we have going for us with “Miracle Boy” it’s pretty and the sound is amazing,” he said. “But I’ll tell ya what, it was real easy. All we had to do is just point the camera because so much of Greenbrier County is beautiful you just had to point the camera in the right direction and turn the microphone on.”

Still Brown suspects the biggest challenge or barrier for filmmakers in the state, is the same as it is for him … infrastructure.

“So much of the industry anymore you don’t have to be in Hollywood,” he said, “but if we don’t have the internet, we don’t have the air flights.”

“If there is the investment here I will stay. I will come running back.”

“We have a lot of people who can do things from here and touch the world. They all want to come back and make movies but what they need is investors, they need support. Gosh just in general we need West Virginians to support West Virginia, more and more.”

Bringing broadband to the mountain state is a work in progress. The West Virginia Broadband Deployment Council exists and now has a website meant to help bring affordable broadband to unserved areas of the state.

The festival run of Miracle Boy is expected to end after two more screening. The short film will show in California on Sunday. An announcement for the location of the final showing has not been made yet.

Miracle Boy was based on the short story by writer Pinkney Benedict. Jake Mahaffy was the director.