LatinaLista — Have kids gotten meaner?
It’s a valid question given the number of incidents of school and cyberbullying these days. State legislators have even recognized the extent of the problem. Currently, there are only nine states that don’t have laws on the books against bullying.
With school due to start soon, educators and parents aren’t the only ones holding their collective breaths to see who will be the newest victims of this deviant behavior. In communities across the country, programs have been created to show children how to recognize and deal with kids who bully. Now, the federal government is weighing in on the issue.
On the bilingual web site Stop Bullying Now: Take a Stand, Lend a Hand, the federal government wants to help both students and parents deal with a situation that can escalate into real harm if not handled quickly.
On the site, kids will find animated webisodes featuring different types of bullying scenarios, answers to common questions about bullying, what it is, how to recognize it and what to do about it and even games that let them act out how to best handle bullying.
There’s even a section for adults. In addition to answering the same questions about bullying, there is in-depth information about cyberbullying, how parents can help, how to start an anti-bullying campaign and a slew of video presentations presented by various organizations ranging from mental health experts and educators to law enforcement and youth organizations about how to handle bullying.
In addition, there are materials that parents can download and print out to help them create community awareness campaigns to fight against this growing epidemic.
Comment(1)
Tyeisha
Hi, thanks for posting the link to the bullying website. I had no idea it existed. My children are in 3rd and 4th grade. And, we had to deal with bullying last year. We have to also empower the child to know that it is okay to speak out. Kids of this generation have a “no snitch†attitude and will often stay subjected to bullying so they won’t be seen as tattle-tellers among their peers.