This notification is in response to a recent post in the Skokie Patch. The article, as written is both inaccurate and misleading. The inaccurate posting states, "Bullying at Lincoln Junior High." The event described in the posting happened in front of the home of one of our students. It did not happen at Lincoln Junior High as indicated in the article. This is contained in the police report which was filed by one of our students' parents and has been verified internally. While the rest of the description of the incident is accurate, the headline is what calls attention to our school and insinuates bullying problems at our school.

Student intimidation is a reality in school, out of school, and especially on the internet. Our teachers, administrators, social workers, and school resource officer realize this and contend with it on a proactive and reactive basis when it arises. This happens on a daily basis in formal ways through specific classroom instruction to informal ways through relationships that have been created with teachers and students.

Formally, Lincoln uses a wide variety of methods to inform and tackle this issue.

1. Advisory – Our advisory program was set up with the intention of building relationships with students and staff. The format allows for teachers and students to discuss social issues, team building, and character education.
2. Peer Mediation – This program is facilitated by students with the supervision of our school resource officer and another sponsoring teacher. Our students are trained by the staff and students at Niles West, where they operate a mirror program. The intent here is to diffuse a situation between two/three students before it becomes an even larger one.
3. Health Classes – Our students cycle through health class during all years at Lincoln. In each of these classrooms, the students will touch on issues such as bullying and social intimidation. Our physical education teachers facilitate this along with outside community groups when possible.
4. School Resource Officer – We are fortunate to have a full time officer who is dedicated to Lincoln. In this capacity, Officer Ronderos works with teachers and administration in a proactive manner whenever possible. This includes visiting classrooms to talk to students about bullying, internet safety, and the legal ramifications of such activity. On the other end, her role is also inclusive of issuing tickets when warranted for any misconduct that rises to an appropriate level.
5. Social Workers – Lincoln has two social workers who work with students formally as their needs dictate as well as working with all students when the need arises. This area is one where the social emotional needs are met and often times can lead to disclosing of peer issues whereby the administration gets involved along with the students and parents of those involved.

Lastly, the incident described in the posting did not happen at Lincoln Junior High, but because it impacted our students and families, we did immediately get involved. All of the students involved and their parents were brought to school where a meeting was held with administration, and school resource officer.

As always, if any students feel that they are being bullied we encourage them to engage any of the adults at school. We take incidents of bullying very seriously and work proactively to resolve problems.

Quintin Shepherd, Ph.D.
Superintendent

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FRIDAY AFTERNOON BACKPACKS were packed up and delivered by Michael Silver & Company CPAs to Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69 over the Veterans Day Weekend. According to Susan Waterloo, Tax Manager, who served as primary organizer of this community-spirited initiative, “Due to the amazing generosity of MSCO partners and employees, we had enough donations to contribute again! A special thanks to everyone who shopped, and hauled, and organized, and packed. We could not have accomplished this without everyone’s contributions and help. Also, special kudos go to our colleague, Audit Manager, Pauline Perrone, for suggesting this great idea!” At a recent local community event, District 69 School Superintendent Quintin Shepherd enthusiastically reaffirmed his appreciation for the backpacks and the joy they bring to the school children. We’ve posted some new photos here that capture some of the fun and excitement of the BackPack assembly line! Enjoy!

Following on the success of “Hunger Awareness Day” in April, in support of the Niles Township Food Pantry, the staff of Michael Silver & Company CPAs continued its community-focused enthusiasm by supporting children within Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69. According to District Superintendent Dr. Quintin Shepherd, there is a group of children that leave school on Friday afternoons and face the reality of having little or no food until they return to the classroom on Monday morning. In response to this, Michael Silver & Company eagerly got to work with the School District to coordinate the Friday Afternoon Backpacks (FABs) initiative that everyone hoped would help curb this weekend hunger challenge. This was the first time that such an undertaking took place between the school district and businesses in the area. While the school provided the backpacks, Michael Silver & Company did the rest!

Beryl Reid, Partner and sponsor of Michael Silver & Company’s community and charitable activities, stated, “Not only did we have several people take the time to consider the best variety of foods that the children and their families would enjoy, many actually headed out to the stores to purchase the food and drinks.  We also raised additional cash contributions, which resulted in participation in excess of $1,000! Additionally, Produce World in Skokie contributed fruit to the abundance of food items that we collected.”

Beryl continued, “Our first contribution of 30 backpacks, overflowing with healthy food and drinks, were delivered to the School District the Friday before the Labor Day weekend. That same afternoon, we were thrilled to receive an emailed video thank you from Dr. Shepherd, noting: “[The backpacks were] a tremendous success…everything went exactly as we had planned and designed, and I could see the looks on the faces of the kids -- they were excited to get the backpacks! By every single measure, this was a phenomenal success – thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart, on behalf the board of education, on behalf of the students, and on behalf of the school district, thank you…you guys have done an amazing thing, and I am greatly appreciative of your efforts.” We are targeting to fill backpacks for the students again in the late Fall.

For additional information on Michael Silver and Co. please visit their website at http://www.msco.net/. Click on their "Community" link for updates to this article and other ways they are supporting the community. 

Thank You!

The District 69 Community

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