Students at Bethany Christian Middle School are committed to be honest and trustworthy, accepting, respectful, and encouraging. Students, together with faculty, agreed that these characteristics should help define who a Bethany student is. Students and faculty are focusing on relationships this year as part of a new Ophelia Project initiative to help middle school youth build respectful and compassionate relationships.

Bethany assistant principal Hank Willems says, "Middle school years can be a difficult time for youth as they form new relationships and try to figure out who they are and how they fit in with their peers. While Bethany already has a safe environment, the school is committed to providing faculty and students with the tools that can further foster positive student relationships."

In spring 2007 consultants from the Ophelia Project conducted a needs assessment for creating a safe social climate. While the intent was not to find what Bethany does well, the consultants were very positive about ways in which Bethany already fosters healthy relationships and were very excited about Bethany's existing structures such as Bible classes, discussions groups, and chapel in which to integrate their suggestions. They specifically affirmed Bethany's practice of periodically re-assigning seats during lunch as a way for students to broaden relationships and to lessen the fear of deciding with whom to sit.

The intent of the assessment was to find opportunities for improvement-regardless of how well or poorly the school was fostering healthy relationships. The consultants also suggested to focus energy on improving one opportunity, rather than trying to work at everything suggested. After analyzing the needs assessment, school officials decided to begin by following the recommendation to create clear, concise schoolwide expectations.

The characteristics that define a Bethany student do not replace specific classroom rules but serve as expectations of how a Bethany student should behave in hallways, classrooms, athletic practices, or when communicating online. Willems says, "Our hope is that students will incorporate these characteristics into all areas of their life, in school and beyond."The characteristics are posted throughout the school to reinforce expected behavior. When students do misbehave, they will be held accountable. Teachers, rather than simply telling misbehaving kids to stop inappropriate behavior, can use these situations as learning opportunities by identifying how behaviors are not in line with these characteristics and how students might adjust their behavior to demonstrate the characteristics.

In the future Bethany plans to have Ophelia Project personnel conduct workshops on issues such as peer aggression, bullying, or relationship building and expects to open these to other schools, churches, and the community.