October is National Bullying Prevention Month, an issue that has and can affect students across Santa Clarita’s school districts.

National Bullying Prevention Month is held annually in October in order to educate about the consequences of bullying and raise awareness about bullying prevention, according to officials.

While William S. Hart Union School District campuses offer a number of resources for addressing bullying after the fact, they have higher aspirations in terms of how the district combats bullying.

“Our goal is always to, one, provide an atmosphere on our campuses that prevent anything from happening in the first place,” said Kathy Hunter, the director of Student Services for the Hart School District, in a previous story. “We try to put as much as we can into all of those different kinds of climate and culture-building things on each campus so we prevent problems in the first place.”

Related: Saugus Union School Officials Eye Student Bullying In District Schools

In pursuit of the goal of bullying prevention, the district opened two new wellness centers on the Canyon High School and West Ranch High School campuses this fall.

The centers host a variety of events to promote student wellness including yoga, mindfulness meditation, guest speakers, dog therapy and more.

The “Caring for Cowboys – Canyon Wellness Center” at Canyon High School is also scheduled to host a wellness talk on October 29 titled “Silence Hurts,” a discussion of the impact of bullying and how individuals can reach out and help when they witness it.

Related: Stevenson Ranch Elementary School Introducing Bully Prevention Program With ‘Tigerman’

Both the Canyon and West Ranch facilities present an opportunity to serve as the testing grounds for future expansion of the wellness center program to the district’s other campuses.

Each of the centers’ directors is expected to collaborate on a three-year plan to expand the program, a comprehensive guide on how to start a wellness center, collect data on what works and what doesn’t and surveying students on if their needs are being met, according to Hutner.

“Our valley, we have very safe schools. They’re rated extremely high for academic performance, but also if you look at the amount of discipline we have compared to any other high school district, it is minimal,” Hunter said. “We have good kids here, good families, and so a lot of it is our emphasis on putting those things in place so kids don’t want to make poor choices.”

For more information about National Bullying Prevention Month, visit the event’s official website here.

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