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This is funny but real bullying is not

A new study was released that shows how bullying harms kids mental health.  This research provides strong evidence that being bullied can cause children to develop depression and anxiety.  Dr. Louise Arsenault of King's College, London, and her colleagues are the experts behind the study.  Dr. Arsenault found that victims of bullies  have problems that linger long after the bullying incidents stop.  Having such problems early in life increases a person's future risk of depression and anxiety disorders, according to  Dr. Arsenault and her team.

But you don't have to go all the way to London to find out that bullying is very harmful to children.  You can probably look at some of the children in your kids class and see the impact of bullying, up close and personal.  It's very sad but bullying is alive and well in most schools.  I know from personal experience how damaging bullying can be.  My older daughter was the target of some girl bullies in 5th grade.  My daughter is much better, three years later.  But the awful bullying she was subjected to, without mercy, by some very "nice" kids from "nice families" was a nightmare.  The affects of that year will stay with my daughter for years to come.  If you would have told me, before my daughter's 5th grade experience, that this would happen to her and to our family, I would have had a hard time believing you.   The severe and negative impact that year had on my daughter was unbelieveable.  As I said, she has come a long way since that dark year but the experience made a dent in her confidence and self-esteem that it will take years to recover from.    It is because of our family's experience with bullying that I start to rant when I see more studies and more research about the harm bullying has on kids.  I am going to write more on this subject in the next few weeks but here are some general tips about bullying that could be helpful.

Prevention is the Best Cure for Bullying
Make sure that your child's school has a clear and concrete bully prevention program.  It is a fact that schools that HAVE very clear bully prention programs in place have less problems with bullies.  It sound simple but it's not.  Too many times the schools have a vauge statement about bullying and "being kind to others" but there is often no prevention plan in place.  There are many organizations and experts to help schools decrease bullying and create a safe and respectful learning climate.  Schools must have a proactive, systemic approach for schools to deal with bullying.  Once there is an incident where a child is singled out as a target for bullies, it is too late.  Schools with no bullying plan end up having a "She Said-He Said" situation, where it is the word of the victim versus the word of the bully. 

It Doesn't Take a Village but You've Got to Rally the School Community
The entire school community must rally—students, staff, teachers, and parents—against bullying.   The whole school community needs to be involved so that the policy is consistently carried out.  

The school environment is a major part of the preventing bullying from happening.  There are things we can do as parents to ensure that we place our kids in schools that have safety nets in place so that bullies don't get out of hand.  There are also steps that parents can take at home to prepare and hopefully prevent children from being targets of bullies.  I wil go over some of these steps in my post on Monday.

Fight Crime-Invest in Kids   
This site has a downloadable report "Bullying Prevention is Crime Prevention"    

Committee for Children

Owning Up
An excellent program developed by Rosalind Wiseman.