Every October, schools, organizations, and communities rally together nationally to shed light on the issue of bullying.
National Bullying Prevention Month, an annual campaign which began in 2006, strives to promote awareness and education to enhance safer learning spaces in schools.
Bullying is defined as unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a power imbalance. Bullying takes on many forms, some of these actions include: verbal slurs, physical altercations, threatening, causing mental harm, and attacking an individual’s character or well-being.
Along with bullying, cyberbullying has grown more prominent in recent years with social media being the main proponent of offense. Electronic technology such as social media, text messages, e-mails, chat rooms, and web sites, are the main vehicles of transit to purposefully degrade an individual.
With the help of DoSomething.org, here are some facts to get you thinking about the effects of bullying:
- Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year.
- Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.
- 17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month or more a semester.
- 1 in 10 students drop out of school because of repeated bullying.
Keenan has partnered with our school district clients to provide resources for teachers, staff and administrators to work with students to stop bullying. Together we are making a difference every day.
Keenan SafeSchools offers the following courses on bullying and cyberbullying prevention:
- Bullying Recognition and Response
- Making School Safe for LGBT Students
- Online Safety: Cyberbullying
- Online Safety Overview
Additionally, here is a great video, from our friends at WatchWellCast that offers a four step approach to show you (or anyone being bullied) how to boost your confidence, protect yourself from harm, and find help.
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.”
– Harvey Fierstein
Lastly, use the hashtags #StopBullying365 and #STOMPOutBullying all month long to see how others are taking a stand against bullying nation-wide.
Resources
Dosomething.org
Stompoutbullying.org
Stopbullying.gov
Cyberbullying.org
About Kathy Espinoza
Kathy is Keenan's ergonomist and conference speaker, authoring numerous articles on ergonomics, injury prevention and management issues that have an impact on Keenan clients.