School Bullying Council

Dan Henderson and the PLUS Program partner to fight Bullying in schools.

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America is full of wannabees. But there’s only room for one dork in this country, not two dorks. Sorry, kids who are bullied, you think you’re a dork but you’re NOT. Geesh. Hey bully, you need to bully the real THANG!!!! Ooh yeah!! Now here’s your test: Say “urinate” REALLY loud. Now scream “defecate”. Now you SEE?!?! You can’t do it coz you’re no dork. You make me weep, bully. You do, you make me cry rivers of umm ah……..yo make me weep. I’m like the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio………com

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Sunday’s Life 3.0 which is a follow-up to this post:

Last month, I confronted my grade-school bully. And by confronted, I mean I reached out to her on Facebook to ask if she remembered what motivated her, or if she could recall the catalyst for her behavior. I wrote and rewrote the note, and was sure to use non-threatening terms like “appreciate,” “understand” and “curious.”

Because, really, that’s what I was.

This wasn’t a bad breakup or an unexpected firing that needed closure. Instead, I’d come to the conclusion bullying had shaped me as an adult, and I wanted “Carrie” to know what she’d done had actually helped me.

When someone writes a blog post (or three) suggesting I should be injured, that is a form of bullying. When people write on Facebook they’re going to “meet me in the parking lot” after work, that’s bullying. When they threaten to “tell my boss” something, that’s bullying.

But I ignore the posts, notify the police about threats and give the boss’s name, email address, phone number and hours to those who say they want to talk to my supervisor.

While stopping bullying, or saying we should have zero tolerance may be nice in theory, it is not realistic. Many are mean, others are nasty, millions are insecure. All of this causes them to act the way they do, and it’s not always preventable.

Rather than trying to get parents or guidance counselors to intervene, there’s value in teaching children how to handle bullying, arming them with the tools that will carry them into adulthood.

Learning to cope with it certainly helped me. And that’s why I wrote to Carrie.

That, and I was curious about what happened to the sturdy brunette with the strong words who had made school less-than-enjoyable.

There were two girls on the bus who harassed my sister and me on a daily basis, threatening to stick our heads in the toilet or shove us in the locker, but Carrie was the ringleader. She didn’t like my clothes, and thought I was too prissy (true). She’d hover over us on the bus, older and intimidating. I’d cry, but not till I got home. She and her friend made the bus ride horrible.

School wasn’t any better. I had hair so curly it looked like a blonde Brillo pad was sprouting from my scalp. My glasses were large and my lenses thick. I had braces — twice — and I was naive.

How naive?

There was a petition passed around in seventh grade asking anyone who thought I was clueless to sign below. This started when I asked someone I thought was a friend what “BJ” meant.

My grades slipped, and I was sad.

Really sad.

I alienated my real friends and tried way too hard to get in with the group that wanted little-to-nothing to do with me. They were, in fact, the group behind the petition. I bought the same clothes they had, tried to wear my hair in a similar fashion and pretended to be them, not me.

Life didn’t improve. It got worse.

Today, people ask what my parents said. The answer is nothing, because I didn’t tell them. I was embarrassed, and believed the nastiness and insults from Carrie and her friends. If the entire grade seemed to dislike me, they must be onto something, right?

High school was slightly less tumultuous, but the emphasis is on “slightly.”

I was still weird, and awkward.

Cindy was now cool, and I was the embarrassment. People teased her, saying her sister was a lesbian. The threatening continued (those girls were still on my bus), and I’d dart from one classroom to another between bells, hoping to avoid the hallway pummeling I’d been promised.

Then, graduation. A chance to be free of high school and start from the beginning. I was shy and quiet, intimidated and afraid, worried grade school would repeat itself.

And it did, to a degree.

My freshman year at SUNY Oswego I was kicked out of a frat party for declining to drink and was alienated by the girls on my floor because they pledged a sorority and I opted out.

They whispered and played pranks. It was all part of the pledging, they promised.

That year changed me. I left Oswego down, and possibly depressed (this is before that diagnosis was so prevalent), but entered Ithaca College bright and confident. Age and time caused me to realize those years of harassment made things a little tougher for me, and that was a good thing.

Not only did I know adversity existed, but I experienced it. I learned that when you not only act like you don’t care, but truly stop obsessing over what others think, that tightness in your chest dissipates.

I learned that being mean isn’t effective, but being strong, confident and self-assured — and sometimes a little tough — is.

I realized I had several somethings going for me, including the fact that I would never be remembered as the “mean girl.” I never picked on, threatened, harassed or teased a classmate. I knew too well how it felt.

And I told Carrie as much in my note.

It took her a few days, but she responded. She said she was surprised by my message. My words caused her to take a step back, she said, and she apologized.

She didn’t elaborate, but said she believes strongly in karma, and that she had “received what I have given out, or dished out, in different ways. I am against bullying and all that comes with it.”

She’s a mom. She has a career. She is grown up now.

“I do know I was awful growing up, very rebellious,” she started. “And I have gone through a lot during the years that has made me the woman I am today,” she wrote.

That makes two of us.

http://blog.timesunion.com/kristi/i-confront-my-high-school-bully/49831/

Bullying affects every community in our nation. Children are faced with cruel text messages, whispers in hallways, and even physical violence on a daily basis. As martial arts instructors we have a special opportunity to be a positive influence on the lives of these children and help them take a stand and end bullying in their communities through the life skills of confidence, honor, respect, integrity, and honesty. Stand with us as we work to change our communities and end bullying. Share your

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A bully named Drew drives a young teenager to suicide, in the YouTube short “Drew”.

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You can’t help what you don’t know. Increase communication with students and increase school and student safety with the CyberBully Hotline. Meet students where they are and communicate with them on their terms-texting on their cell phones. The CyberBully Hotline is so much more than a phone number. It’s a comprehensive, anti-bullying program consisting of an anonymous, two-way reporting system that students can call or text, school-level and student-level reinforcement materials, and a bully pr

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You can’t help what you don’t know. Increase communication with students and increase school and student safety with the CyberBully Hotline. Meet students where they are and communicate with them on their terms-texting on their cell phones. The CyberBully Hotline is so much more than a phone number. It’s a comprehensive, anti-bullying program consisting of an anonymous, two-way reporting system that students can call or text, school-level and student-level reinforcement materials, and a bully pr

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‘Cyberbullying’ was developed by John Ogilvie High School and was awarded a special commendation in the performance category of the 2010 Anti-bullying Week competition.

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Viewers hear from their peers about diverse forms of harassment that are all-too-common on many school campuses. Real teens discuss their experiences with bullying, intimidation, exclusion from a social group, verbal abuse, name-calling, sexual harassment, hazing and Internet harassment also known as cyberbullying. The program’s peer-to-peer format provides compelling personal stories that viewers will recognize—whether they have been the target of harassment themselves, or if

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Lisa Freeman, CEO Abuse Bites, educates parents, kids, teens, staff, and community on bullying awareness, safety, prevention and healing.

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Robbing Them of Who They Are: Intimidation, Harassment and Violence Against Michigan’s LGBTQ Youth Forty-seven states have anti-bullying protections for their students. Michigan is not one of them. For years, anti-bullying bills have stalled in the state’s legislature because of the issue of enumeration – the listing of protected classes. Many say that the bills have been stopped by those who do not wish “sexual orientation” or “gender identity and expression” to be included. Who They Are Studen

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At Orange High School in Pepper Pike, Ohio, students are mapping their school to locate the spaces where bullying takes place. After identifying the “bully hotspots,” including the cafeteria, media lab, and locker rooms, students created a flash freeze demonstration to raise awareness about bullying, and opened the conversation about how to create a safer school. Narrated by Yul Kwon. To learn more about standing up to bullying visit Related links Orange High School: www.

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Many people may be bullies and not even know it. This program challenges students to think about their own behavior with a series of seven questions about physical, verbal, and exclusionary bullying. Questions include: Have you ever punched, shoved, or hit another boy or girl? Do you ever make fun of or tease other students or call them mean names? Do you often make fun of others because they are “different” from you or your friends? Have you purposely not invited someone to han

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Glenn Olson shares his 25+ years of teaching these programs with you, the instructor. In this segment he explains the versatility of the safetyNETkids program and covers setting the mood and tone for the class. The Instructor’s guide steps you through teaching the Safety Program (abduction and abuse prevention), Bully Program (how to avoid and deal with bullies and being bullied), Confidence Program (including posture, eye contact and standing tall) and Internet Safety (Cyber Bullying, Online in

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Coach Ty gives television viewing audience tips and incite into the world of Cyberbullying.

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just a video i made to show people the effects bullying can have.

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Anti-bullying PSA. Over 6M American schoolchildren have been bullied in the past six months. Whether you cheer on the bully, or silently watch, you are supporting the bully. The effects upon the victim can be devastating, and the effects can last a lifetime. o something besides watching. Try to diffuse the situation. Tell a teacher, or a principal. If you can, stand up to the bully and let them know that it’s not okay. Support the victim. Let them know you care and you don’t think what happened

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– EFT can help you to overcome bullying. Try out our free EFT anti-bullying Script.

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A PSA video I made for my school, discussing bullying.

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Kelly Karius describes the No Such Thing as a Bully Program. This innovative, inexpensive and self-implemented program provides lesson plans for adults and handouts for students to strengthen communication skills in order to bullyproof our children. Moving away from using labels, the program addresses bully actions and victim responses, and provides a new definition for diagnosing bullying.

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