October is National Anti-Bullying Month - Did you know?

Today while reading over Angela Maiers blog posting, Stop the Cyber Bully - A Conversation with the Experts  It reminded me of the blog post I wrote last year around this same time about bullying and cyberbullying.   Take a look and please join the conversation.  Try to discuss this with your students and your children.  Let them know what a serious issue this is and the many unfortunate results it can have. 

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Bullying - What can we do about it?

According to Inside the School - Bullying by the Numbers - 

In the classroom, so much of the bullying happens covertly and is tough to see -

• According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2007), about one-third of middle and high school students reported that they’d been bullied in the last six months.
• The American Medical Association estimates that two-thirds of students think that schools don’t respond well to bullying. That same study found that 25% of teachers think that bullying is normal behavior and just 4% intervene on behalf of students.
• Bullying victims are sick more often. They suffer from the common cold, from stomach cramps, headaches, sore throats, and sleep problems (Journal of the American Medical Association)
• Bullying victims miss school. According to the National Education Association, 160,000 students stay home every day because they’re too afraid to come to class.
• Students who bully in elementary school keep the bullying pattern throughout their school years. (Scientific American Special Edition)
• Bullies don’t suffer from low self-esteem. They’re usually dominant kids and pretty popular, too. They rise to the top of the social order by picking on others. (Scientific American Special Edition)

Bullying hurts.  Bullying can take many forms.  We all need to do our part to watch for it and stop it at all costs.  This is a very important part of our digital citizenship lessons we teach our students.   Our kids are connected and using technology more than ever.  Children today are now able to bully each other through many online technologies.  Whether it is through a text message, an email, an instant message, a comment on a social networking site or another medium, the ease of cyber bullying is scary.  There are no face to face interactions between the children, so it is so easy to gang up on other students.   It is a lot easier to tease someone or send nasty messages when you do not have to see the other persons reaction.

I encourage you all to please have these conversations with your students, your own children if you have them.  Let them know it is OK to tell an adult, a teacher, or a trusted friend.  It is nothing to be ashamed of.  These children should not have to live with this burden.

Educate them.  Tell the kids in your lives that it is not OK to call people names, send inappropriate messages, forward inappropriate messages, taunt someone, gang up on another child, etc.  There should be serious consequences for these behaviors.

Read this interesting interview with Jodee Blanco who was bullied her entire life and decided after Columbine, she would become an anti-bullying activist. 

We can make a difference - one child at a time.

Watch this powerful public service announcement - found on Teacher Tube about bullying  -