(Oneida, NY – Oct. 2013) As we near October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every single day in order to avoid being bullied, and one in 10 students drop out of school due to repeated bullying. This is a representative population of the 3.2 million students (and counting) that experience bullying each year.
Although not every student may be a victim of bullying, over 50 percent of students report witnessing bullying every single day and 71 percent of students believe bullying is a major issue in their school. Bullying negatively affects all parties involved; this includes the bully, the victim, and the bystanders (Sources: www.pacer.org, www.dosomething.org, and www.stopbullying.gov).
How can we help spread awareness of the harms and prevention of bullying? The sources listed above may help to provide education on bullying behaviors, signs that your child is being bullied, and prevention/intervention plans. There are several ways to become active in the movement; a few options are to join any anti-bullying clubs at school or in the community, signing petitions such as “The End of Bullying Begins With Me” at www.pacer.org, joining the Stand for the Silent Pledge at www.standforthesilent.org, and joining www.dosomething.org/bullytext to spread bullying awareness while entering to win a $3,000 scholarship.
The students of Madison County are spreading awareness through clubs such as S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions), and by celebrating Unity Day on Oct. 9.
Unity Day is sponsored by the National Bullying Prevention Center and is suggesting that all students, teachers, and individuals in the community band together and wear orange on Oct. 9 to show their support for the prevention of bullying within their schools. A representative from BRiDGES will be at Oneida High School on Oct. 9 during their lunch periods handing out flyers that hold statistics about bullying, orange ribbons for the students and faculty to wear, and gaining information on what the students do or have done to stop bullying in their school.
Join us in spreading the awareness and prevention of bullying by visiting the websites above, taking action in your community, and wearing orange on Oct. 9.
Bullying has been longest problem that is encountered by parents and specially students that is being bullied. The worst thing could happen is for a child to have it experience in his school. What if your child would be a victim of this situation? This could be the problem if your not there to take care for her, you can’t always protect your child to this kind of threatening situation. It’s a good thing that schools are now doing their part to this kind of issue, and also parents should always take action on their child’s safety, avoiding this kind of situation helps to prevent your child from harm, I also recommend a safety application that I had looked into, the best part of this app is their safety profile feature, which you could input vital information on your child’s medical needs and health issues, and also in just a click of a panic button it could create a conference call to a 24/7 call center, a safety network and could escalate a call to a nearest 911 if it’s a real emergency, it is best for parents who are unable to manage their time, check this site out for more information http://safekidzone.com/#!/page_home. Hope this will help us a lot.