Portland Public School Department News

Seventh-graders from Lyman Moore Middle School won the exemplary portfolio award at the third annual Project Citizen Maine State Showcase in Augusta for their project about shaken baby syndrome. They will represent Maine at the National Project Citizen Showcase in August in Nashville, Tennessee.

Project Citizen is a federally-funded, middle school civic education program. The national showcase will take place at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Siena Butterfield, Amanda Masse, Stephanie Rogers and Caitlin Very presented their portfolio about shaken baby syndrome and engaged in oral hearings before a group of Maine policymakers at the state showcase. The students’ research found that parents’ frustration with their inability to calm their babies led to shaken baby syndrome. They also discovered a lack of awareness that those feelings are normal and that many people didn’t understand the medical and legal consequences.

They recommended raising awareness by teaching lessons about shaken baby syndrome in babysitting courses, schools and courses for soon-to-be parents. They also recommend creating brochures for doctors’ offices and public service announcements for television.

The students intend to approach the Portland City Council, the Portland School Committee and local hospitals to fund and support their work. KIDS (Kids Involved Doing Service) Consortium, Lincoln Financial Group, L.L. Bean and the Portland Education Partnership funded the state and local Project Citizen program.