On Nov. 20, the Active Bystander Training event took place in the gymnasium of the Lexington Public School Central Office. Lexington High School students were invited to learn intervention skills for dangerous situations in order to help victims of harassment or bullying.
The Active Bystander Training first began as an event to help kids hone their general leadership skills and learn the meaning of being a leader. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the program shifted its focus.
“Instead of just being a general high school leadership training, we started having it be more [about] learning how to be an active bystander type of leader,” Taylor Dyer, an LHS prevention specialist, said
The program was created through a partnership with Lexington’s Human Rights Committee and was based on preexisting models of active bystander training. Julie Fenn, the program’s founder, compiled various curricula, forming the foundation for the current program.
During the training, students nominated by teachers spend a full day working in small groups, learning how to identify and intervene in different types of bullying. The training is a combination of small group activities led by experienced students and larger group debriefs. The goal is to teach students how to safely respond in difficult situations, which the program does through games and interactive activities rather than lectures.
“The idea is that we get everybody engaged and doing the activities, and we learn through activity and engagement more than lecturing and sitting there and the kids doing worksheets,” Dyer said.
Students who participated in the event were informed about different signs of bullying and harassment, and gained experience to become more comfortable stepping into the role of an active bystander. Yana Tsibere, a junior at LHS, expressed how the training made her more comfortable noticing and intervening when incidents of bullying occur around her.
“Even if you don’t see it after going through the training, you notice it more, and you have more confidence about stepping up and doing something about it,” Tsibere said.
Tsibere also expressed her belief that the training not only improves an individual student’s skills but also contributes to building a safer and kinder school community. Having just a few students trained to be active bystanders helps everyone become better community members.
“If everybody has this training, I think there will be a reduction of bullying and harassment in school, because people will know the impact that bullying [and] harassment has on the person, and they would want to stop,” Tsibere said.
