and a third of
american school
children between the ages of 1 and 18 report being bullied in school. the problem has become so severe that, mover teenagers are even committing suicide to escape the painful encounters. now there is some help for schools trying to address the problem. the
robert f. kennedy
have for justice and
human rights
developed an
online course
on bullying. joining me is
kerry kennedy
, daughter of the late
robert f. kennedy
and acres and advocate
gloria reuben
. thank you both so very much. first to you,
kerry
. what are you trying to accomplish? because this is a new venture for the
kennedy center
.
right. well, this is part of our larger speak truth to power
human rights education
and training course. and it’s really a preventive measure. we try to get the students and the teachers and everybody at the
school to work
together as a community to address bullying. and to put an end to it.
and you’re trying to do it in now 40 states.
gloria reuben
, i met you over the weekend. it’s so good to see you.
great to see you.
what is your interest? what drives you to be engaged with the center?
i’ve been engaged now for a number of years. initially as part of the gala that’s held every year and i participated in excerpts from the play speak truth to power. and since then, i’ve traveled with
kerry
a number of different places around the globe to perform this play and to help kind of you know,
raise awareness
and raise support for this extraordinary organization that ballots
human rights abuses
around the globe. when you first start getting involved and you start learning more and more what is actually happening on the grounds, you can’t help but want to support and do what you can.
kerry
‘s great fun to travel with.
and the two of you are a powerful combo. the fact is the
robert f. kennedy
human rights
center has done so much over the years, over the decades for
human rights
activism. we just were talking about the powerful case of
chen guangcheng
. but here you’re talking about bullying. and you’re seeing this is a human right for
young people
.
absolutely. in any case of massive
human rights violations
, we see four different types of people. we see the perpetrator, we see the victim, we see the bystanders and we see the
human rights defenders
. those who are willing to stand up. so in the case in china, you see mr. chen who is not a bystander. he’s a
human rights defender
. and he’s against just a bigger bully. but really, what we’retudents is that bu llying is a very serious violation of
human rights
and it’s a place where it starts.
and in support of that too, to obviously run this organization globally, and to have the message and do what’s on the ground you know, as that saying goes it, starts at home. and so clearly, that’s one of the extraordinary things that
kerry
does.
it’s such an important message. we should draw attention to the fact that you have the
online auction
. we hope everyone participates and go online because this is a really important money-raising component for what you’re doing with speak truth to power, the book, the play. and now the
online auction
, as well. thank you so much.
absolutely, thank you.
good to see you both.
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