I am putting some information about what is being done about bullying around the country.  There are several conferences going on dealing with different aspects of bullying.  Please add any additional information and opinions about what is being done.

Event Date 1: February 25, 2011 02:30 pm - 04:30 pm

Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, will give the keynote address at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, at the “Solutions to a Crisis: SupportingStudents, Saving Lives” Conference in San Diego. He will address the importance of creating safe, supportive school environments and the harmful impact of bullying and harassment on academic performance of youth.

Hello everybody,

My name is Kerri Thogerson when I was a student in elementary, middle school, and high school I was often teased and called names by other kids in school.

I have a medical condition called epilepsy. Epilepsy is a medical condition that causes recurrent unprovoked seizures what causes the seizures is brain cells firing off at a rapid fire speed. and as a result a person having the seizure can lose consciousness completely and go into full body convulsions those are the worse kind of seizures in other cases a person could blank out for a few seconds to a few minutes then be fine afterwards. I feel kids  a lot of adults discriminate, make fun of, tease, and, bully because they are afraid of what they don't know. Really it is out of ignorance of why kids are bullying other kids and instead educating themselves and learning about others they resort to bullying and being mean. Discrimination, teasing, and bullying need to stop!

We are developing a program for schools called The BEN BRIGADE.  BEN is Bullying Ends Now.  The program is designed to create some data about bullying prevention by taking a survey at the beginning and monthly during the school year.  BEN BRIGADE also incorporates some important prevention ideas. 

1. Making it an ongoing part of the school routine

2. Using students and staff as important members of the program

3.Having bullying prevention be an integral part of the school culture

4. Working to replace bullying with kindness and consideration for others

Recognizing and rewarding acts of kindness and caring. 

As we develop more of the program, we will share it on this blog. 

It has been 10 days since the shooting in Tucson.  Lots of sadness and lots of loss.  Promises stopped, and hearts broken.  What can we learn from this?

If we think about this in the context of bullying, we can learn a lot.  We understand that the action(s)  of this incident were bullying of the most profound, that the aftermath is huge and still spreading.  We may come to understand that the supposed perpetrator of these actions felt bullied-by several sources.  All of this is important, and all if it needs to be attended to.  But, if we just mourn for awhile and then go back to business as usual, the real meaning and the real price that all of the victims have paid and are still paying will not be understood.

In just  a few short days, we will be entering a new year.  Most of us are making our plans for change,  our commitments to do or create something.  Here at Bully-nomore, we want to make sure that we are well on the way to ending bullying as the year progresses.  We hope to be part of a big change and we hope to include all who are interested in and committed to making bullying a "dinosaur".  We are going to be very active, include as many other bullying prevention resources as possible, and we are going to work at being visible in a lot of arenas. 

To do this, we need to look at what we have learned this past year.  In the schools we have been at and in talking to school counselors we have been able to identify some barriers to prevention. They are:

We have a new incident of school violence this week.  A young man in Wisconsin opened fire on fellow students, held hostages, and then shot himself.  Sadly, he died yesterday.  From what has been in the news, he was bright, no apparent problems.  I truly wonder if we will hear in the weeks ahead that he was the victim of on-going bullying-from what has been in the news, he sounds like a potential target of bullying-who could not take it anymore and fought back.  ]

Interviews with neighbors say he was a good and very bright kid.  No reason for him to do something like this.  How sad it will be if he was a bully victim who didn't reach out for help and support-just like so many other victims of bullying do not reach out for help.]

I had an interesting and clarifying experience this week.  Our office manager had been ill and was not feeling well.  As a result of his illness, he was restricted on what he could eat for a few days.  We had some people in the office and food became the discussion.  Just to "tease", I said "Joe would love some carrot cake!"  The next day he asked to talk to me and told me that I had hurt his feelings with that statement.  He said it felt as if I was making fun of him and being disrespectful of what he was going through,  Honestly, that was not my intent at all!!! I apologized and told him that I did understand and I had not considered that his feelings could be hurt.

The Department of Education has sent a “Dear Colllegue” letter to school districts across the country.  This letter is meant to let school districts, schools, teachers, and administrators know that the problem of bullying and harassment is huge and that the consequences of each of these is equally awesome.  When bullying runs into or turns into harassment, there are many consequences that can come into being.  All schools and all personnel of schools need to become aware of these consequences and how to define harassment.  Unless they become aware of these distinctions, they may be held accountable for not dealing with harassment in the appropriate manner.

We are going to start collecting and sharing stories of bullying on this blog.  It is important for as many people as possible to become aware of this huge social problem and all of the ramifications that it takes.  The more attention that can be gathered, the more work can be done.  In addition, we would also like to hear stories of how bullying has been confronted and changed-by a single person or by a group of people.  The more ideas and support of how to deal with this problem, the more successful we will all be.

It is rampant, it is overwhelming, and it costs a lot-money, time, loss of self-esteem, loss of education, loss of connection to others.  What is it-bullying of course.  It seems that everywhere I go and all around me in the news, tales from friends, that bullying is happening more and more.  We have identified the problem and we now need to start addressing and "fixing" the problem.  There are lots of good programs and good ideas to do this,  It is going to take action and a lot of action.  Bully-nomore firmly believes that to change a behavior, we need to offer a new replacement behavior,  Our belief is that the new behavior needs to be kindness and that the collective "US" needs to start practicing kindness and to pass it along to others.