For nearly a decade, PLD has implemented a program called Green Dot. It trains students to identify negative, “red dot” behaviors and take positive, “green dot” actions to combat them. The club was established at Dunbar in 2018 by Mrs. Wendy Turner and Mrs. Amber Faris, who said they wanted to find a way to help students stand up for themselves and for others.
Dr. Dorothy Edwards created the Green Dot Program in 2006. She had been working as the University of Kentucky’s Violence Intervention and Prevention director, where she said that she learned that witnesses of sexual assault didn’t know how to respond. This concerned her, so she said she decided to take action to educate people. By the time she left the University of Kentucky, Dr. Edwards had trained over 3,500 students. This program has since been used by universities, schools, and even the military.
Green Dot’s focus is bystander training, which helps students learn how to safely help people in vulnerable situations. For example, students might find themselves pressured at parties or other gatherings where others might be using drugs or drinking alcohol. Green Dot gives students tools to use to remove themselves from those situations.
“Peer pressure can be very hard to avoid. It’s important to educate students, so they know how to properly stand their ground,” senior Andy Liao said.
On Oct. 8, during homeroom, Dunbar students learned about Green Dot while 10th-12th graders filled out a safety survey. They were asked to label each part of the school: green for a safe area, red for unsafe, yellow for in-between, or gray if they do not go there. This information will be used by Green Dot members and administration to determine where red dot behaviors are occurring, so that the school can take preventative action against negative conduct.
“I just hope the information from our surveys will help stop those behaviors. Many places across the school go unnoticed, and it is hard to express it, but the information in the survey might be the solution,” junior Vidya Sethuraman said.
Meanwhile, in the gymnasium, Mrs. Faris taught freshmen how to properly report red dot behaviors and security concerns.
“Don’t be afraid to say or do something, especially in this day and age when we need to make sure we report all threats and violence,” Mrs. Faris said.
Mrs.Turner broke down the specifics.
“We teach the three D’s,” Mrs. Turner said. “Direct, distract, and delegate. These are the three ways to approach any situation.” A student who is being pressured to drink could be direct by saying, “No, I don’t want to.” If they aren’t comfortable with that, they could use the other techniques, like distraction or delegation. “A distraction could be anything from making a joke to redirecting the conversation,” Mrs. Turner said. “Delegation would be telling a trusted adult, or anyone who is equipped to handle the situation.”
“It’s nice to know that I don’t always have to handle things directly. The three D’s can be really helpful,” freshman Emerson Easley said.
Outside of homeroom, the Green Dot club holds meetings to raise awareness, invite public speakers, and push to educate the student population about how to be “better” bystanders. Currently, students are rarely interacting with the program, but Carpenter aims to change that.
“I am working on actually getting the message of Green Dot to the student population more this year, because students really only get one training during their freshman year and take the safety survey every year,” she said.
