When you think about bullying what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Being shoved in a locker? Rumors being spread around the hall by the popular girl resulting in epic stare downs in the hall? Snide comments from the popular girl?
When kids think of bullying today they think cyber messages with never ending threats, getting spit on in front of peers, or being pushed and beaten up for the whole student body to see. Sometimes, even the scariest of thoughts cross the victims mind: death.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people. Kids who are bullied are anywhere from two to nine times more likely to attempt suicide. According to Jaylen’s Challenge, each year 3 million kids stay home from school because of bullying. That’s 160,000 per day. Each month 282,000 Middle School students are bullied each day, that’s 9,400 per day.
It’s time to drop the ideology that bullying is “part of being a kid.” Attempted suicide and suicide rates have risen. It’s no longer, “meet me outside” it’s anonymous never-ending messages through e-mail, phones, social media, on top of physical taunting.
Bullying can take a mental as well as life-threatening toll on kids today. It’s time to reach out and do something. Speak with your kid to find out if he/she are subject to bullying, only 1 in 4 kids report it today, usually because of fear of embarrassment or further ridicule.
If you believe your child is victim to bullying, Entity recommends these five anti-bullying organizations that can provide both you and your child support:
Stopbullying.gov, allows community members to get involved and put an end to bullying. Stopbullying.gov grants training courses that teaches people how to approach a bullying situation and put it to an end. The course uses long-term, community-wide prevention strategies. They even have kid friendly videos to help kids understand bullying and all it is followed by a quiz to gage your childs understanding on the subject.
Pacer’s National Prevention Program takes a personal, real approach to bullying by sharing stories on their homepage from victims and witnesses. The stories can help you and your child (who may not have experienced bullying) truly understand the toll it can take on a person. Hopefully the stories shared could inspire your child to stand up for themselves or someone else being bullied. For the children and teens that do get inspired to put an end to the issue can join the We Will Generation which is dedicated to:
Life Play Productions allows for roll play in bully situations for both parents and kids. Life Play Productions focuses in emotional intelligence, restorative practices and arts & play. LPP also has the ‘GirlPower’ bullying program addresses relation aggression that can arise between girls and the ‘Superman Project’ that is designed to empower boys against the physical violence that bullies often use.
Stomp Out Bullying allows your teen to become a Stomp Out Teen Ambassador. The ambassador program ranges from ages 18-14 that establishes student activists in both bullying and cyberbullying prevention.
Stand for the Silent may be for those who need statistics and stories to truly understand the dangers of bullying. Before each presentation student leaders read biographies from those who have lost their to suicide. It’s unsettling but necessary to truly understand the tragedy that can occur in this world wide matter.
Bullying is not meant to be taken lightly. Not all cases are spoken about, many are kept hidden to only the victims knowing. It’s time to take a stand, be aware and eventually put an end to bullying. Children aren’t meant to be statistics.
