Bullying Prevention
Your voice matters
What's bullying?
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. This behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullies and who bully others may have serious lasting problems. Bullying includes making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically/verbally, excluding someone from a group on purpose, etc. It is also one of the main cause of depression and suicide among teens and preteens.
How does one recognize bullying
Signs/Recognition
- unexplainable injuries
- frequent head/Stomach aches
- feeling sick or faking illness
- difficulty sleeping
- decline of grades
- sudden loss of friends
- feeling of helplessness
- self-destructive behaviors such as running away, harming themselves, or talking about suicide
The statistics are upsetting.
Bully affects nearly one in three kids in grades 6-10. Statitics show that girls are slightly more affected then boys in this topic and because of the new ways to contact others, (Facebook, Twitter, Texting, etc.), the bullying rate has increased dramatically. But stemming away from cyber bullying, most of the acts of bullying are found in schools. Almost 160,000 kids miss school because of bullying each day and out of every 10 students, 1 will drop out of school due to bullying. The majority of students currently enroled in school believe that bullying is poorly responded too. But because of the 64% of kids who don't report it, bullying will remain a problem unless more voices are heard.
How YOU can help.
Just letting the person who is bullied know that someone on their side can create a huge impact. A beneficial thing to do is talk to an adult in the environment where the bullying takes place. Another tactic that can be useful is to not act intimidated by the bully. Let the bullied person know that if they use humor or they walk away and straight up ignore them, the bully may get discouraged and stop his or her actions. It is common that a person being bullied isn't able to stand up for themselves, in which case, you should stand up for them. Making sure, of course, that your actions are reasonable and calm so that you don't become a target as well.
For additional information and extra help please see...
http://kidshealth.org/teen/expert/friends/expert_bullying.html
http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://stopcyberbullying.org/
To report a bully: 1-800-78-CRIME
The bullying hotline: 1-800-231-1127
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester
http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://stopcyberbullying.org/
To report a bully: 1-800-78-CRIME
The bullying hotline: 1-800-231-1127
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester