Living Education Magazine: Discusses Bullying

Rochelle Wilson of Washington, DC Public Schools, Colleen Eisenbeiser of Anne Arundel Community College, and Dr. Marilyn Irving of Howard University talks to Living Education Magazine host Carmen Johnson about bullying and the affects it has on the victims, families and learning environment. The panel will also discuss ways how parents can help their child when they are bullied. Brenda High of Bully Police USA discuss her son's Jared and her family's experience with bullying and how parents can help their child when she/he is bullied.

Bullying Prevention : A Discussion With Dr. Marlene Snyder

The Journey Begins Internet Radio for the engaged parent and dedicated educator presents a timely discussion about bullying with Dr. Marlene Snyder.

Marlene Snyder is the Director of Development for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in the United States, as well as an OBPP Program Director. She is the national point of contact for Olweus program information, and is a research associate professor at the Institute of Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University.

Dr. Snyder consults regularly with a wide variety of professional and community organizations on a range of topics related to bullying prevention and intervention. She is the founding president of the International Bullying Prevention Association. Dr. Snyder has served as a national and international conference speaker, trainer, and technical assistance consultant for educational, mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice agencies, as well as parent education organizations.

In addition to co-authoring the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program Schoolwide and Teacher Guides (and accompanying CD-ROMs and DVDs), and the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program Class Meetings and Individual Interventions: A How-To Guide and DVDs, Dr. Snyder authored a book entitled ADHD & Driving: A Guide for Parents of Teens with ADHD.

An Exclusive Interview with Brenda High: Founder of Bullying Police USA

Brenda High discusses the issue of bullying and its impact on children and families in an interview with Michael Robinson host of Educational Gateway, which is heard on The Journey Begins, radio for the engaged parent and dedicated educator.

Brenda has now become a passionate crusader, a mom on a mission to stop school bullying and peer abuse. It is not uncommon to see Brenda doing email or on the phone talking about bullying as well as advising parents, students, teachers, state and federal lawmakers, media and community members about the emotional and physical dangers of bullying, which can lead to bullycide, (a suicide attributed to bullying).

Producers from The Oprah Show, FOX News, Good Morning America, CNN, The John Walsh Show, The Larry Elders Show, Video Production Companies, Inside Edition, Jenny Jones Show, Black Entertainment Television, NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation and News Documentaries, to name a few, have constulted and/or interviewed Brenda concerning bullying, depression, suicide, bullycide and how to heal from life changing traumas.

Jared's story

Jared High was 12 years old when older students bullied him in his middle school. The bullying came to a head when a well known bully assaulted Jared inside his middle school gym. Because of the bullying and the assault, Jared began to show signs of depression, which included lack of sleep and emotional outbursts.

On the morning of September 29, 1998, just six days after his 13th birthday, Jared called his father at work to say good-bye. While on the phone with him, Jared shot himself, dying instantly.

As a healing project, Brenda began to write Jared's story, which is now published as www.jaredstory.com. Since 1999, JaredStory.com has attracted over two million visitors looking for information on bullying, depression, suicide and needing healing from the loss of a loved one.

Ronald J. Iannotti and Jing Wang Discuss Their Research On Bullying with The Journey Begins: Radio For the Engaged Parent and Dedicated Educator

Ronald J. Iannotti, Ph.D., joined the Prevention Research Branch in August 2001, as a senior research fellow and was appointed a staff scientist in April 2005. He earned a master's degree from Hollins College and received his doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Iannotti assists the OD in a variety of administrative areas. His research interests are in the development and maintenance of health behaviors, children's management of acute and chronic illness, and the influence of families and peers on these processes.

Jing Wang, Ph.D., joined the Prevention Research Branch in November 2007 as a post-doctoral fellow. She received her Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. Her research focuses on the integration of advanced quantitative methods (e.g., structural equation, multi-level, and item response modeling) to the examination of psychological, social, and developmental processes, particularly within the study of prevention research.

To hear the exclusive interview with Dr. Ronald J. Iannotti and Dr. Jing Wang, log onto The Journey Begins

Has Your Child Been The Victim Of Bullying?

Bullying is when someone deliberately hurts someone else. The hurt doesn't have to be physical – you don't have to be injured to be a victim of bullying.

Please take our survey at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3cOgeaZM3yeY1stUp2c5Sw_3d_3d

Katie Couric Talks About Cyber Bullying

According to CBS News "Bullying through electronic media has surfaced as a serious issue. Katie Couric offers her perspective, as she says that parents need to have a talk with their children about this growing problem" (CBS News, 2007).

BULLYING

Written by:

Michael A. Robinson

Recently, I was informed that a young man in my neighborhood had missed an enormous amount of school this past year. When I curried to find out why, I was informed he did not like attending the school because he was bullied and picked on by a group of students. The concern in the voice of his parent conjured up a few painful memories of my own regarding bullying.

I could relate to a great extent with what the young man was feeling. I also am able to empathize with the parent, as my own child has been bullied at school. However, working with school officials and other parents, we have been able to reduce a lot of the bullying. The rest lies with my child to ensure she is presenting herself respectfully and appropriately at all times (an ongoing issue for pre-teens).

As for the young man, it appears the bullying continued which resulted in an excessive amount of time out of school. What are parents to do? The issue of bullying is not a new phenomenon. Bullying today has reached a level never before imaged by many parents. When you factor in the technology, group bullying, Internet harassment, bullies have gained tremendous power.

If you recalled in a recent blog posting I discussed cyber-bullying and its impact on students. I also offered a few suggestions to parents on how to combat the issue, but the fact is cyber-bullying while increasing in nature, remains far less frequent when compared to the traditional forms of bullying.

Salome Thomas-El, principal of the Russell Byers Charter School located in Philadelphia offered an array of suggestions and comments on this subject in his interview with Upscale magazine. During his interview Mr. Thomas-EL proclaimed (and I agree) “The prevention of bullying is more effective than intervention” (Upscale, 2009). Mr. Thomas-El also stated it is his opinion that open communication between home and school, meaning parents, teachers and school administrators are talking honestly will help establish an environment where students feel comfortable and are free to express who they are.

To address the issue of bullying, parents should set the tone, model the behavior they expect from their children. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Discuss bullying at home
2. Define what bullying is and how it impacts students
3. if your child is being bullied contact school officials
4. Become an engaged parent and open lines of communication between home and school
5. Reduce the amount of TV viewing, especially programs where bullying and cliches forms of behavior are viewed as positive attributes

Together we can fight the issue of bullying.

Bullying Goes High Tech

The issue of bullying is an ever increasing problem. Today, the act of bullying is no longer confined to the hallways and playgrounds of schools. Students have moved their bullying, teasing and harassing to the internet, otherwise known as cyberspace. The use of text messaging, social networking and instant messaging has made the ability to bully a technological nightmare for many students and parents.

Cyber-bullying as defined by the National Crime Prevention Council's is “the use of Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." When the sender or receiver of the messages is a minor, this constitutes cyber-bullying, if the sender or receiver is an adult, this becomes an issue of cyber-stalking or cyber-harassment. The phenomenon of cyber-bullying has been on the rise since the earlier 2000s, when a study suggested that as many as 10% of middle schools students admitted to being cyber-bullied. By the year 2006, a new study suggested as many as 43% of teens indicated they have been cyber-bullied (Harris Interactive, 2006). The Harris Interactive study also indicated that 23% of middle school students reveled they have been cyber-bullied via email, another 35% indicated their bullying took place in chat rooms and 41% stated they had been bullied via of text messages (Harris Interactive). It gets worse, additionally, 41% of the students professed they were unable to identify who was responsible.

While the majority of bullying does not occur in the virtual world, there are some real issues inherited only to internet bullying. First, the bully has the ability to remain anonymous. Secondly, with the ever increasing technological advances cyber-bullies are less fearful of being discovered and therefore may increase the intensity of their attacks. Thirdly, cyber-bullies are for the most part unsupervised. Lastly, cyber-bullies are very knowledgeable of technology and in some cases more tech savvy than many of their parents and as a result it decreases the possibility they will be discovered.

The impact of cyber-bullying on students is vast. It has been suggested that cyber-bullying has led to students running away from home, leaving school, becoming withdrawn, increase negative behavior, poor grades, and suicide. Suicides linked to teasing have been on the increase and the number of youth who have taken their own lives due to cyber-bullying is rising. Expectations among experts propose the number of cases regarding cyber-bullying will increase due to the use of technology. Everyday, new words are introduced to the American lexicon which is linked to the way youth are using technology. This is best evident by the new phase of Sexting. Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit pictures via cell phone. This is primarily done by teenagers. Many of whom have no idea the extent to which these pictures can effect their lives. Sexting is another way by which cyber-bullies can harass, tease and bully.

To combat cyber-bullying, students, parents, teachers, school administrators and community members are ask to do the following:

• Report the first case of cyber-bullying to a school official or local law enforcement authority
• Parents serve as role models and should not tolerate bullying of any kind from your child
• Parents monitor your child’s activity on the internet
• Whenever possible personal notebook and desktop computers should NOT be used in a child’s bedroom
• Treat the computer as you would the world outside your home
• There should be certain sites your child and teen should NOT be allowed to visit