Laker Nation Unites to Stand Strong
Three years ago Eastlake Middle School parents, teachers, students, and administrators formed the
first Positive Behavior Intervention Support Team. We adopted a theme of “Unity” and rolled out a campaign to inspire our students and staff to work together as members of a small, but mighty, “Laker Nation.”
The teachers decided they would model that unity by wearing “Laker Nation” apparel each week. The
teachers also decided to continue the tradition of nominating students to be recognized as “Laker Lifesavers” for performing random acts of kindness and especially for intervening and/or reporting bullying. Students are recognized each week on the public address system and called to the main office to be rewarded.
Mr. Chokshi and Mr. Vuyancih analyzed data on where disciplinary infractions were occurring in our
building, as well as the nature of those occurrences. We educated our teachers and students on the PBIS
“cone-shaped” model and collaborated with all our stakeholders to devise a plan to reduce those occurrences by at least 10% each year.
We decided to increase overall security in common areas of the building by adding cameras that
would both prevent bullying and violence, as well as aid our efforts to accurately and fairly modify bullying
behavior. Mr. Thompson graciously approved our camera requests, and our efforts here have led to an
amazing 60% reduction in students being suspended out of school and/or being assigned to Saturday
School for bullying/violence. “The eye in the sky does not lie!”
The data also revealed that a large number of girls were being consequenced for failing to dress for
gym. We invited Mr. Ramming, Phys. Ed. Department Chair, to brainstorm with us on ways we could motivate girls to dress and participate more. The data now shows that girls are dressing much more regularly
and making impressive gains on their fitness tests as well. Consequences for non-dress have been mostly
eradicated.0
This year we have enlisted members of our Student Council onto our PBIS team, and they volunteered to conduct a survey asking the student body to tell us what type of new PBIS rewards they would
like to have. In the past we have used donut parties and quarterly dances. The teachers and administration
offered suggestions, but the student-members of the team will take responsibility for creating the questions, issuing the survey, and presenting us with their results at our next meeting in late October. We will
roll out a new menu of rewards to our student body in early December, ask parent members of our team
to assist us in issuing the rewards, and continue to bind the “Laker Nation” together for the new year!