CLEARFIELD- On October 14, 2010, Clearfield County District Attorney, William A. Shaw, Jr., joined the Centre Elementary School in celebrating its Olweus Bullying Prevention ProgramKick-Off Event. At the event community members, bus drivers, parents, faculty, staff and students joined together to support the school-wide anti-bullying plan.

Shaw congratulated the administration of Centre Elementary School for providing such an important program.  Shaw told the teachers, students, parents, and staff how proud he was of them for their efforts to educate young people on the need to identify, address, and stop bullying.  Shaw told the students how important it was not to bully others and encouraged the students to treat each other the way they wanted to be treated.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), created by the Clemson University Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, is a comprehensive, school-wide program designed and evaluated for use in elementary, middle, or junior high schools. The program’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among school children and to improve peer relations at school. The program has been found to reduce bullying among children, improve the social climate of classrooms, and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy. The Olweus Program has been implemented in more than a dozen countries around the world, and in thousands of schools in the United States. For more information on the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program go to http://www.clemson.edu/olweus.

Also present at the event were the Honorable Judge Paul E. Cherry, State Representative Camille “Bud” George, Officer Mike Morris (Lawrence Twp. Police Department), Shawny Bennett (CASD Transportation Coordinator), and Barbara Mumford (Fullington Bus Company).