Beyond October National Bullying Prevention Month

By Kim Kang, Hindsight Community Fellow, November 1, 2011 at 8:30 am

As we pack away the Halloween costumes, eat the candy, and wait for next October’s National Bullying Prevention Month to roll around, we are left to struggle with an issue that affects our children year round in schools.

We’ve seen a slew of tragic suicides due to bullying with the most recent one being Jamey Rodemeyer, a youth from New York state. While there seems to be broad agreement that bullying is wrong and it should stop, some people have decided that excludes cruelty to kids with specific differences—sexuality, disabilities, color, socio-economic class and more. Conversely, some advocacy groups have taken bullying on as if it is a sole problem just for one group.

Ask any room of adults, “were you bullied as a child?” and almost 90% or more will raise their hands. Nonetheless, we rationalize that bullying is a “rite of passage” in childhood and “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

For some that may be true, but studies now show that children who have been bullied suffer from depression, feelings of isolation, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, and anger. These feelings often lead to suicide and for others linger into adulthood causing even more problems.

With all the continuing talk of closing the achievement gap, it is hard to close any gap if a child is too frightened to focus on learning. Around 7% of eighth graders reported staying at home at least once a month because of bullying and 20% of middle schoolers reported being scared at school. Furthermore, an aggressive behavior such as bullying is hardly a skill  that prepares a child to be successful in a global economy which requires interpersonal skills combined with the ability to work in diverse teams collaboratively.

Between now and next Halloween, let’s focus on preventing bullying in our schools for all children. Next Halloween for National Bullying Prevention Month, I look forward to putting one of those fake, scary tombstones in my yard that simply says “Bullying R.I.P.”

Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education  Classroom Methods  Children's Health  Community Safety