Culture of Safety

We Are a School With a Culture of Safety

As part of our comprehensive safety plan at Lake Oswego Middle School, we work as a school community to support our students and their safety.

Instruction is provided to students through required trimester health courses in grades 6, 7 and 8, as well as social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and instruction offered weekly during advisory lessons. Lessons are largely gathered from curriculum including Character Strong, Naviance, and Common Sense Media.

“Successful Sailor Traits” are also taught and reinforced throughout the building, with themes including empathy, self-advocacy, growth mindset, integrity, and resilience. At LOMS, we believe that successful sailors are safe, respectful, and responsible, and we are committed to directly teaching students about these lifelong values.

Through our SEL instruction, we help students build skills to keep themselves safe, including how to reach out for help when needed. 

Visit LOSD safety and security for additional links and information

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, with the intention of harming others. The technology used includes e-mail, message boards, blogs, instant messaging, cell phone, text messaging, defamatory personal Web sites and/or online personal polling Web sites. Frequently, media such as sounds, text, video, altered graphics, and photos are incorporated into the piece to add to the attacks.

Children seem to view the real world and the virtual or online world as co-existent extensions. Conversations with friends may begin at school and continue on a child’s computer after dinner. Unfortunately, this is also true of bullying behaviors. What begins as a flame war in Instant Messaging could carry over to school the next day and include many of the same group members who participated in the electronic conversation the night before. Cyberbullies are not bound by time or space, and the audience can be much, much bigger, even worldwide.

What You Can Do if Your Child is Cyberbullied?

• Stay calm. Maintain open communication with your child. If he/she is being bullied, explain that cyber-retaliation doesn’t solve the problem and could make the situation worse.
• Show trust and support for him/her.
• Work with trusted adults at school including: principal, assistant principal, dean, and counselor.
• Call the Police whenever you need help.
• Help your child keep all cyber records as evidence for future use
• Inform the perpetrator’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) or cell phone service provider of the abuse.
  • chat transcripts
  • photos
  • website pages
  • emails (including full headers)
• Consider communicating with the perpetrators and their parents.
  • Work together so that they understand what their children are doing is cyberbullying.
  • You will report to the authorities if it continues.
• Some kids may not recognize what they are doing is bullying and may believe that it is innocent play. Using the word “bullying” serves as a wakeup call.

Develop Safe Internet Habits

• Build a relationship with your children that fosters communication and trust
• Don’t overreact when they tell you what they have seen or heard
• Share the online experience
• Ask as if you don’t know
• Communicate trust and emphasize “defensive driving”
• Supervise when your child is online
• Put computer in easily viewable location and monitor
• Provide structure and rules about being online:
  • Only after homework is complete
  • On the average, for no more than 1 hour per day
• Set the Rule: All websites must be parent-approved before visiting.

Report any suspicious activity to authorities