160,000. That’s the size of a small city. It’s a lot of kids skipping school because of the emotional and physical risks of bullying.
I got that figure from the video embedded here.
This is one of a great many videos on bullying on Youtube. Did you know that YouTube is now the second-largest search engine (after Google, which owns YouTube). There’s a good reason. If you’re interested in the topic of bullying I suggest going to YouTube and searching under “cyber bullying”. Screen what you see before showing it to children (the one I linked above is certified kid-safe). Some of these would be great for showing at parent meetings.
Bullying takes many forms. This morning I had a call from a principal who is concerned because several fights among students in the past few school days have been provoked by text messages sent from their cell phones. They are using cyber-bullying, cyber name-calling, and cyber-gossip to create a general atmosphere of intimidation. We’ll start working with that school this week…but, as I told the principal, don’t expect any quick fixes. This is likely going to take some time. I’m very interested to see how it goes.
Filed under: Restorative Practices in Schools Tagged: | Bullying
Very interested to hear more about the work with this school.
Bullying affects everyone in every form. It certainly is a community and societal issue that has gone on for too long.