Gov. Phil Bredesen has proclaimed November 14-20 “Bullying Awareness Week” in Tennessee joining Students Taking A Right Stand (STARS) in heightening awareness and offering steps to combat this tough issue.
According to Gov. Bredesen’s proclamation, “bullying is considered aggressive behavior involving unwanted, negative actions, repeated behavior over time and involves an imbalance of strength. Nearly one in five students in an average classroom is experiencing bullying in some way with the rest of the students as affected bystanders. Students Taking A Right Stand (STARS) has been working over a quarter of a century helping students overcome tough social and emotional barriers to learning in order to equip students to deal effectively with this problem without taking drastic measures.”
A workshop on bullying prevention, entitled Bullying Exposed: Harassment, Bullying or Criminal Behavior?, will be conducted by STARS for parents as well as middle school and high school teens on Wednesday, November 10 at 6:45 p.m. at Bethlehem United Methodist Church, 2419 Bethlehem Loop Road, in Franklin.
Open to the public and free of charge, the hands-on workshop will be divided into two separate sessions, one for parents and one for teens running concurrently, with an in depth look at bullying including prevention and protection steps. The workshop will be conducted by Rodger Dinwiddie, STARS executive director and a national Olweus Technical Assistance Consultant with Eric Johnson, associate executive director of STARS and Bethany Bratcher, STARS specialist. Dinwiddie said the workshop seeks to help define what is bullying behavior while offering parents and teens important safety precautions and empowerment techniques so bystanders can help eliminate bullying. Take a look at some of the steps to protect yourself from cyber-bullying and don’t be a bystander to bullying. Give STARS a call today if you need help – 615-279-0058.
STARS Ten Steps To Stopping Cyber Bullying
1. Keep computers in common access areas of the home.
2. Teach children to Not give out any private information.
3. Discuss cyber bullying and internet safety with your children.
4. Teach children to not respond to bullies or to say stop.
5. Watch for signs that your child may be the victim of cyber bullying.
6. Teach your kids to tell adults if they are bullied.
7. Save all evidence of cyber bullying. (messages, emails, chat sessions and download and save any blog or website material.)
8. File a complaint with your internet service and phone provider. Try to identify the bully through email tracing and the police if appropriate.
9. Schools should invite law enforcement officials to talk with students about the issue.
10. Every school must have an anti-bullying program.
