Elkhart Community Schools will hold an anti-bullying assembly for parents and students next month. The meeting comes after the death of a Northside Middle School student led to calls for the district to do more to prevent bullying.
Twelve-year-old Rio Allred died by suicide in March. Her family has said that the seventh grader was repeatedly bullied after developing alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss.
Her death led to a student walkout and calls for the school district to improve its process for reporting and investigating student bullying.
Two weeks from now, district officials will hold an assembly for parents and students to brainstorm on those improvements.
School board president Dacey Davis said there will also be presentations from the district’s student services division and family services organizations like CAPS and Triple P.
“It’s a way for you to get to know the resources that we have in our community and get to know the programs that we use to support our students and families,” Davis said at an informational event Thursday.
Davis said attendees will listen to presentations in the first half of the assembly and split into small discussion groups in the second half.
The anti-bullying assembly will be held at 6 p.m. May 12th at the Elkhart High School Freshman Division. Translators will be available at the meeting.
Elkhart Community Schools is the licensee of WVPE.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @gemma_dicarlo.
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