Delta Middle School is a county school around central Indiana, and the only middle school in the Delaware Community School Corp. Regardless of whether or not you attend, please sign this petition-

Delta Middle School students are desperately in need of a change before something bad happens to a student. A child I know went there for two years, and their experience was so bad that they almost ended their life during 6th grade. Because they wish to remain anonymous, I'd like to share their story in an effort to change DMS.

They knew 10 children who attended who wanted to kill themselves, tried to kill themselves, or committed self-harm, to say nothing of the countless other students they never met. There are absolutely no 988 suicide prevention signs in the school, and, in response to suicidal thoughts or actions, the staff are intimidating and don't make the child feel safe to open up.

The school also doesn't seem to value academics over physical activities. If you want to get into the gifted program, they give you a pattern recognition and critical thinking test; Your current or past metrics don't matter, and they give you the test at random, so the circumstances of that particular day can entirely ruin your chances of getting into the gifted program. In my opinion, this needs to change because it doesn't truly look at the full capabilities of a student, and can leave them intellectually neglected.

Additionally, the bullying at DMS needs to be changed. The child I know is of Asian decent and is homosexual, and they've been bullied for both. Now, I understand that bullying occurs at every school, but the school needs to take further steps to discourage bullying, and I believe the staff should input a restorative justice system to teach the children how to solve problems without harming themselves or others. In terms of discouraging bullying altogether, they need to make the punishment for bullying more extreme. On multiple occasions, the child I know was called "ching-chong" by a student, and the problem wasn't fixed even after she told the administrative staff multiple times, despite the fact that the bully was allegedly punished. In my opinion, this shows that the bully wasn't being punished hard enough.

Due to all of these factors, I've decided to step up and try to change DMS in the following ways:

-Make the students aware of 988 and keep signs of it around school grounds.

-Shift the school's focus more towards academics.

-Introduce restorative justice to the children.

If you believe DMS should be changed as well, please sign this petition, and I will take steps to ensure that the changes occur as long as this gets enough signatures.

Thank you to anyone that signed, you're making Indiana a better place.