Hardyston Middle School activates the ‘Peer Support Specialist’ movement
With the help of Hardyston Middle School Student Council President Ethan Barnett, the council came up with this innovative program to combat negative peer pressure.
| 31 May 2022 | 01:08
The poster design team from left to right: Kasey Kervatt (teacher), Ethan Barnett, Christopher Delcalzo, Samuel Tobachnick, Juste Survila, Gabrielle Rubalcava, and Raquel Spooner (teacher).
Negative peer pressure for students can make them feel like they must do something to be socially accepted, even when the action could go against their beliefs and values. With the rise of social media channels, viral social media-driven negative peer pressure is becoming even more challenging to cope with for young students.
Recognizing the need for a good support system from trusted teachers, school council and parents, Ethan Barnett, a seventh-grade student at Hardyston Middle School and now the president of the student council, ran a campaign during the 2022 Student Council election, promising to work on addressing the negative peer pressure issues for the school by working together with teachers and student council members.
Since then, the council came up with a concept called the “Peer Support Specialist” (PSS) movement. The project started with a building awareness campaign, including creating four large distinctive poster designs that were displayed throughout the school’s heavy traffic areas, as well as handing out over 100 PSS badges to wear, along with reinforcing the positive messages during special school assemblies.
The aim of the movement is to offer support for students being negatively pressured by providing avenues with which to handle the situation together for the best outcome. The council believes having the presence of such a support system could help reduce making poor choices otherwise.