Just finished watching a bullying video by J’Rose called Mean Kids. I really like the message in the video and for a 9 year old to sing it to her peers takes a lot of courage.
I hope that classrooms everywhere can use this video as a way to engage their students on school bullying. This will be a great way to start a coversation about the subject. Students will not bring up the subject even though it’s the elephant in the room but if an adult can facilitate the conversation, student will open up about it.
Schools need to be more proactive in keeping children safe at school and since bullying is such an epidemic, it’s going to take a lot of reminding and reassuring that school is a safe place to be.
Without a doubt, schools are a safe place and they offer your children a place to socialize with other students and school remains to be a place where young leaders are nurtured to become leaders of tomorrow. With that said every school around the world deals with bullying.
The truth is that students pick on each other at school and outside of school. There is no telling how a student is affected by their environment when they are away from school. There is a good chance that a school bully doesn’t get in trouble at home for hitting and making fun of siblings. Most parents take action when their child is misbehaving, but how many times have kids gotten away with hitting another person or calling somebody a bad name or used bad language.
Parents need to know that students get bullied at school every day and that’s why it’s vital to have open discussions with their children. Parents keep in mind that getting picked on is embarrassing for the student and rarely do they start the conversation about it. Parents should ask their student if they have ever been bullied or if they are currently being bullied. If the answer is no, the next question to ask is if anybody in the class is a bully. Students love to talk about other students and this would be a good way to get information about other students. As a parent, you could be used to help stop other kids from being picked on by presenting the information you gather to school administrators.
When parents drop off their students at school they assume that all is well with their child. Parents know their children better than anyone else so they should be the first to pick up on something being wrong. If a student doesn’t want to talk about their situation, give them a little space and try again at a later time.
No matter what school a student attends, he/she should be able to be productive in a safe learning environment.
The first week in October every year is known as bullying prevention week in America and around the world. Communities and schools are teaming up to raise awareness about bullying. The National Center for Bullying Prevention organization is setting October 20, 2012 as a date in which schools can address bullying on campuses worldwide. It’s also being known as “Unity Day” and students are being asked to unite against bullying.
Fabian Ramirez is a youth speaker that speaks to students about school bullying. He can bring an awareness to any middle or high school campus. Consider booking him at your next school assembly. There are different ways in which a person is bullied
The most known behavior is school bullying. For one that is when students are the most vulnerable because they are away from their parents and even though they are with teachers and school administrators, they are too busy to keep an eye on every child. Research shows that teachers catch bullying activity 1 out of 25 times and this is because the average time for bullying is 37 seconds. Not only that but bullying is not daily like many people think, it’s 2-3 times a month.
Another form of bullying that is becoming popular among teens is cyberbullying. Students are turning to the internet where there is almost no supervision and picking on other students through social media networks such as Facebook , Myspace and Twitter. It gets really difficult to stop cyber bullying because adults have to be friends with students in order to see their messages. A tip for students is to have them print out any vulgar text that they feel violate their human rights and show an adult.
Text messaging is becoming a way in which students spread false rumors about another person. This is an indirect method of bullying but it is still a form of bullying.
Many adults want to get the students in a room and try to resolve differences as if it is conflict. This doesn’t work because bullying is abuse, not conflict so that’s why this method tends to only progress the behavior.
Laws in some states have been put in place to protect students from further bullying. A child can now attend schools outside of their school zone if the school district approves a parents request to do so.
The best way to stop school bullies is to adopt a zero tolerance rule on campus and bring awareness to your school. Put a buddy system in place where students can look out for each other and report all bullies immediately before their behavior gets out of hand. Students become less of a target when students stay in groups of two or more when bullies are around.
Also a student must have opportunities to anonymously tell a teacher when they are being bullied either through a letter or a counselor on site without being reprimanded.
Middle and High Schools are encouraged to hire a youth speaker to act as a neutral person to address school bullying and tell students about the consequences that come with bullying. Contact a speaker today and book them during the month of October and do your part in preventing bullying.
Recently, I was able to speak to a group of kids about bullying. Since the new Karate Kid movie was released over the weekend I used the characters in the movie to explain bullying. The group was made up of school age kids from first grade to fifth grade.
It was the first day of summer camp at the recreation center in Fort Worth, TX and the kids were fired up. Some of the kids were excited that I was there to speak to them and lay down the ground rules for the camp and staff. When it comes to young kids you never know if they fully understand the points that you are trying to get across.
After the presentation I had a small child come up to me and ask me a question about bullying and ask why people get scared of bullies. He obviously asked in a way where he was scared that he would one day be bullied by a kid. I told him not to worry but if somebody hits you and don’t like the way you are being treated, I told him to report it to an adult. He smiled and went about his business.
I asked the children in attendence that day who saw the Karate Kid over the weekend about half of them did. This was good because in the movie, the character Dre was getting picked on by some Chinese kids, one in particular bullied him everywhere he went. Since bullying messes with a person’s psyche, Dre did some things that regular kids wouldn’t want to do, like learn kung fu. Turns out the reason why he wanted to learn was so that he can use it to defend himself against the school bullies in the movie.
That day I told the children that in reality, Dre should’ve told his mom or an adult at school. In fact there was a scene where Dre was about to tell a school official but decided not to tell. When it comes to the safety of the children, adults must create an environment where children always feel safe. School is supposed to be a place where learning occurs and when that is not happening, there must be change.
