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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCASSP Newsletter September 2014“I am beauttful no maiter what you say, words can’t bring me down.” These powerful lyrics were wriiten by pop singer Christtna Aguilera in the song “Beauttful.” Imagine the enttre Lebanon Middle School populatton singing the song in unison at a school-wide bullying awareness assembly presented by the Blue Hands Group. The Blue Hands Group is a student-centered group whose main focus is spreading an antt-bullying message. Five years ago, an eighth grade stu- dent wrote a leiter to her school coun- selor, Renee Lamoureux. The counselor read the leiter that discussed the com- pleted suicide of the student’s cousin’s friend who aitended a different school district. Renee then contacted the student to discuss the leiter. The outcome of the meettng was an innovattve idea to start an antt-bullying group. Around the same ttme, two other students contacted the seventh grade counselor, Corey Wenger, who wanted to help victtms of bullying by being mentors to them. The two coun- selors brought the three students together and worked to form the Blue Hands Group. The stu- dents and counselors did some research and learned that HighMark was educattng students, parents, and schools on ways to handle bullying. The symbol for this inittattve was a blue hand, which is why the students at the middle school chose a blue hand. The group promotes posittve self-esteem by encouraging students not only to stand up to bullying but also not be afraid to be themselves. The mission of the Blue Hands Group is expressed in an acrosttc: B e Posittve L isten to Others U nderstanding E ffects of bullying need to be under- stood H elping Others A void negattve situattons N ever Bully D o what is right S peak Up The group’s moito is: “Make a Choice, Be the Voice!” The members all have blue bracelets with the moito on it. The blue bracelets help to identtfy group members so other students will know who to go to if they need to report bullying incident. Students can earn a bracelet by reporttng bullying or stopping bullying. Students can also report bullying anonymously by using the Bullying Box located in the school li- brary, or talking to a teacher, counselor, or administrator. The Blue Hands Group meets twice a month for updates and to plan for upcom- ing events. Events planned by the Blue Hands Group include: • Annual Nattonal Bullying Month in October • Mix-It-Up at lunch encouraging stu- dents to sit with new friends • “Blue Out Day” to help sup- port victtms of bullying • Assembly that featured a danc- ing tash mob • Assembly that featured a singing tash mob • No-Name Calling Week in Jan- uary • Unity Day, “Make it Orange & Make it End” • World Peace Day in November. All students were encouraged to wear white to support peace. • Multtcultural Parade PA CASSPPA CASSPNewsletterNewsletter Pennsylvania Child and Adolescent Service System Program A comprehensive system of care for children, adolescents and their families Volume 23, Number 3 September 2014 The Blue Hands Group Combats Bullying By Renee Lamoureux, Robin Lerch, Kathryn Grove, and Paula Doney conttnued on page 7 Photo courtesy of the Blue Hands Group at Lebanon Middle School page 2 September 2014 September 2014 Volume 23, Number 3 Tom Corbeti Governor Beverly Mackareth Secretary of Public Welfare Carolyn Dumaresq Acttng Secretary of Educatton Michael Wolf Secretary of Health Julie K. Hearthway Secretary of Labor and Industry James E. Anderson Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission Children’s Commitiee of the Office of Men- tal Health and Substance Abuse Services Advisory Commitiee Co-chairs Connell O’Brien Gloria McDonald Dennis Marion Deputy Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Stan Mrozowski Director, Bureau of Children’s Behavioral Health Services Harriet S. Bicksler Newsletier Editor Department of Public Welfare Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Bureau of Children’s Behavioral Health Services DGS Annex Complex Beechmont Building, 2nd floor P. O. Box 2675 Harrisburg, PA 17105 Telephone: (717) 772-7984 Fax: (717) 705-8268 E-mail: c-hbicksle@pa.gov Website: www.dpw.state.pa.us Subscriptton informatton: The PA CASSP Newsletier is distributed exclu- sively in electronic format and online. Subscribe to the CASSP News listserv to receive email nott- ficatton when a new editton is available at hitp://listserv.dpw.state.pa.us/cassp-newslet- ters.html. Access back issues since 2002 by click- ing on the “2011” link. For issues before 2002, contact the editor. Please feel free to print, copy and distribute the newsleiter freely. Bullying Preventton Reprised When I asked Kayla to write about bullying preventton from a youth per- specttve for this editton of the newsleiter, I didn’t expect the story I received. Since I know that Kayla is a caring young woman who is interested in issues of social jus- ttce, which bullying preventton certainly is, I expected her to write about her ef- forts in her high school to prevent bully- ing. I expected that she might include examples of bullying she has witnessed. What I didn’t expect was that she would confess to bullying others in the past, to herself being one of the “mean girls.” Kayla is a success story. Even when the school didn’t inittally respond as ef- fecttvely as it might have to reports from other students that she was being a bully, her parents confronted her, and Kayla changed her behavior. Not only did she change her own behavior; she became best friends with the girl she was bully- ing, and she developed strategies for what needs to happen to prevent others from engaging in the same behavior she did. Her experience can help others. (You can read Kayla’s story on page 8.) This is the second ttme in five years that the newsleiter has addressed bully- ing preventton. On the one hand, we know that there has been significant progress in Pennsylvania schools and communittes to raise awareness about the problem of bullying and to imple- ment effecttve programs that will combat it. On the other hand, in our nattonal context children, youth and adults are being exposed daily to mean-spirited- ness, name-calling, and even physical at- tacks on people who are not like us. This makes the task of preventtng young peo- ple from engaging in similar bullying be- haviors an ongoing challenge. Fortunately, in Pennsylvania we have legislatton requiring schools to imple- ment antt-bullying programs, and there are lots of good resources available. Here’s a sampling: Bullying Preventton in Posittve Behavior Support, by Scoit Ross, Robert Horner, and Bruce Sttller. Handbook focusing on giving students the tools to reduce bully- ing behavior through the blending of school-wide posittve behavior support, explicit instructton, and a redefinitton of the bullying construct. hitp://ttny.cc/w7kamx Center for Safe Schools (a program of the Pennsylvania Department of Educatton): www.safeschools.info/bullying-preven- tton/bullying-preventton-resources It Gets Betier Project: The It Gets Beiter Project's invites people to take the pledge: “Everyone deserves to be re- spected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other bullied teens by letting them know that it gets beiter.” Website: www.itgets- betier.org/ Office of Special Educatton Programs Technical Assistance Center on Posittve Behavioral Interventtons and Supports: www.pbis.org/school/bully_preventton.as px. Pennsylvania Training and Technical As- sistance Network (PaTTAN),“Bullying Preventton in Posittve Behavior Interven- ttons and Supports”: htip://ttny.cc/i0kamx Pennsylvania Youth Suicide Preventton Inittattve: Bullying and suicide: htip://payspi.org/resources/youth/bully- ing-and-suicide/ StopBullying.gov:This website, spon- sored by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, provides in- formatton from various goverment agen- cies on bullying, cyberbulling, who is at risk and how you can prevent and re- spond to bullying. Suicide Preventton Resource Center (SPRC): Search for bullying preventton re- sources.www.sprc.org. Harriet S. Bicksler, editor page 3 September 2014 Pennsylvania Bullying Preventton Resources Pennsylvania Bullying Preventton Partnership The creatton of this new partnership addresses the first recommendatton of the Pennsylvania Bullying Preventton Sup- port Plan: “Demonstrate collaborattve ef- forts to expand and sustain bullying preventton educatton and efforts to sup- port safe and secure learning environ- ments.” The Bullying Preventton Support Plan was developed under the guidance of the Ofce for Safe Schools to advance bullying preventton efforts across the state. The mission of this statewide al- liance is to provide informatton and re- sources to schools, families and communittes to help ad- vance efforts to create, transform and sustain safe and supporttve learning en- vironments. The Bullying Preventton Partnership will also exam- ine the remaining five rec- ommendattons of Support Plan and develop strategies to address them: • Build on the foundatton of over a decade of re- search-based bullying pre- ventton efforts; • Increase capacity of the PA Bullying Preventton Network (Net- work) to serve Pennsylvania’s schools; • Conttnue to expand bullying preventton educatton for schools, communittes and future educators. • Use data to identtfy and address bully- ing preventton needs. • Integrate bullying preventton efforts with school climate inittattves. The Pennsylvania Bullying Preventton ConsultLine was piloted during the 2013- 14 school year to provide parents with support, resources and guidance on how to resolve bullying-related incidents in the schools. The outcomes of this project are being examined and recommendattons will be made on how to conttnue this sup- port service. Grant Opportunittes School Resource Ofcer/School Police Ofcer compettttve targeted grants and Safe Schools Inittattve compettttve grants will be available to local educatton agen- cies (LEAs) for the 2014-15 school year. This year’s announcement will be similar to last year’s; however non-public schools will be eligible to apply only for the School Police Ofcer targeted grant only. Com- pettttve Targeted Grant applicants can re- quest funding to support evidence-based bullying preventton efforts. More informa- tton is available at htip://ttny.cc/i242lx School Climate Surveys School Climate Surveys will soon be made available to LEAs at no cost. These surveys for staff, students, parents and community members will help LEAs ob- tain valuable data for moving forward with school climate improvement efforts. For more informatton about state re- sources for bullying preventton, contact Mary Dolan at c-mdolan@pa.gov Bullying Preventton Online Learn- ing Series During the 2014-2015 school year, the Center for Safe Schools is sponsoring a live online learning series on bullying pre- ventton. These webinars are held every third Thursday of the month, beginning on October 16, 2014, from 3:00-4:15 p.m. Dates and topics: October 16: Aitenttve on the Journey: En- gaging Parents in Children’s Learning, De- velopment and Bullying Preventton November 20: Victtmizatton and Trauma December 18: SEL Rubric January 15: The Role of Physicians in Bullying Pre- ventton, Interventton & Re- covery February 19: Dattng Violence March 19 and April 16: to be announced May 21: Bullying in Sports The webinars are supported with funding from the High- mark Foundatton. Act 48 professional development credit is available for teach- ers and administrators who aitend the enttre session. More informatton and recordings of past webinars are available at www.safeschools.info/bullying-pre- ventton/professional-development Throughout the 2013-14 school year; Erie County youth empowered antt-bully- ing coalittons, known as “Lean on Lead and Seed” group; they also created and planned new ways to help reduce bullying in Erie County, PA. They did this by using a logic model and putting together actton plans. Most of these projects were rein- vented ideas, but all were designed to re- ducing bullying in schools. Students planned in the 2013-14 year so they could turn their ideas into actton during the 2014-15 school year. Vibrant sunsets on the shores of Lake Erie aren’t the only events shining bright in Erie County, PA. A grant from the Center for Safe Schools through the Highmark Foundattonhelped us establish a county- wide antt-bullying coalitton. The overall goal of the Erie County Bullying Preventton Coalitton is to help reduce bullying throughout the county. The coalitton wanted youth involve- ment and so they funded a youth Lead and Seed overnighter conference for kids in grades 6-10. The conference was a “lock-in” held at Kingsley United Methodist Church in Erie. The focus was on how middle and high school youth coalittons could help reduce bullying at school and in communittes throughout Erie County. The youth aitending the overnight conference from several school districts across the county were identtfied by their school personnel as champions for change. Although some efforts for bullying had been tried in the past, the youth ad- vocates knew there had to be more long- term “populatton-level” changes in the school, community and business environ- ments that had allowed bullying to prevail in the past. Youth began the night with a liitle ed- ucatton on bullying and then were asked to explain what their schools had done to help reduce bullying in the past. They talked about various programs, assemblies on bullying, antt-bullying poster cam- paigns, and daily school announcements. The next step at the conference was figur- ing out new ideas to help reduce bullying. There was a lot of support for mentoring younger students in an effort to combat bullying. During the brainstorming session, youth came up with their favorite idea – to sponsor buddy benches at elementary schools. In elementary schools one the biggest places bullying happens is on the play- ground. One way that is being combated is with “Buddy Benches” or “Friendship Benches” as they are also known. The idea of the bench is to help ensure that all kids have someone to play with at recess. Even though many kids say that bullying hap- pens on the playground, most of what they report is not by definitton bullying. Many ttmes kids confuse feeling leffifl out or lonely as bullying. Most youth don’t know how to let other children know they need a friend or want to be included. So the “Buddy Bench” is one way for a child to in- dicate that he or she wants someone to play with or just to talk to. All they need to do is sit on the bench. With their goals established for the 2014-2015 school year, the Lean on Lead and Seed groups started to plan for the buddy benches. They decided that middle and high school youth could raise money through fundraisers to buy the benches and then partner with elementary schools to host assemblies, make announcements, and poster campaigns to promote the benches. North East Middle School in North East, PA raised $200 to buy two wooden benches for their elementary school. Home Depot in Erie offered to supply the paint and brushes to paint the benches. Youth from seven school districts offered to help paint the benches during a strate- gic planning retreat on the beaches of Presque Isle in Erie County. The first fin- ished benches are being unveiled during September at the North East Elementary School. Addittonal plans to address bullying at the middle and high schools for the 2014- 15 school year include: •Lead and Seed Mediators:with adult guidance, Lead and Seed members act as the liaison between students and teachers to interface on bullying issues. •Bully Boxes:boxes are placed in many common areas at school for reporttng bullying. •Run Bullying Out of Erie County:a Walk/5K run. page 4 September 2014 Lead and Seed Bullying Preventton in Erie County by Davina Knight page 5 September 2014 •The Say, “Hi!” Campaign:at schools everyone parttcipates to ensure stu- dents have someone who says, “Hi, how are you today?” •Lock-ins:for affifler-school acttvittes that focus on preventton of bullying. •Buddy Bench:placing benches at the elementary playgrounds to help com- bat youth being leffifl out during re- cess. All acttvittes are best practtce strategies from the Center for Substance Abuse Pre- ventton. The youth leadership team will en- hance their strategic plans, such as re- viewing student handbooks for policies related to bullying and its consequences, involving parent groups, and partnering with businesses in their efforts. Youth leaders will conttnue to bring passion to power and reframe bullying preventton, “making waves on their journey, shelling out new ideas, fishing for new supporters and sailing into tomorrow” with the cohe- sive support of the Erie County Bullying Preventton Coalitton. For more informatton on the Erie County Bullying Preventton Coalitton projects, contact Davina Knight at dknight@coali- ttonpathways.com. For informatton on the Lead & Seed program, visit www.leadand- seed.com, or, contact the Nattonal Pro- gram Manager, Nora Drexler, directly at ndrexler@aluttiq.com. Photos courtesy of Erie County Bullying Preventton Coalitton Download the KnowBullying App! The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administratton has created a new mobile app for parents and caregivers called KnowBullying. The new app encourages dialogue between parents and caregivers and their children and helps start a con- versatton. It includes: • Conversatton Starters: Start a meaningful discussion with children • Tips: Learn ways to prevent bullying • Warning Signs: Know if children are affected by bullying • Reminders: Find the right ttme to connect with children • Social Media: Share tacttcs and useful advice • Sectton for Educators: Prevent bullying in the classroom The KnowBullying app is available for Android™ and iPhone®. It is a free resource for mobile devices provided by SAMHSA, in con- junctton with the StopBullying.gov Federal partnership. Put the power to prevent bullying in your hand. page 6 September 2014 Bullying Preventton Through Gay-Straight Alliances by Vanessa Davis and Dan Kliber “Being in the halls of Carrick on the Day of Silence was single-handedly one of the most inspirattonal days of my enttre career.” So said Lenny Orbovich, the fac- ulty advisor of the newly-formed Piits- burgh Carrick High School Gay Straight Alliance. This is just one example of the posittve outcomes from Gay-Straight Al- liances in public schools. This past school year, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Educatton Network of Piitsburgh (GLSEN) took advantage of a Center for Safe Schools grant to partner with Piitsburgh Brashear High School in the Piitsburgh Public School Dis- trict. Within the partnership, GLSEN and Brashear wanted to create a model for other schools in Western Pennsylvania for guid- ance and support in creattng Gay- Straight Alliances in their buildings. The partnership also trains students to be leaders on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans- gender (LGBT) issues, trains school staff members, and helps to make the Day of Silence (a GLSEN nattonal day of actton) a much larger event throughout western Pennsylvania. A number of new Gay-Straight Al- liances have been formed throughout Piitsburgh Public Schools. Students at Brashear trained their enttre staff of roughly 100 teachers about LGBT and bul- lying issues, and the Day of Silence be- came a district-supported event that was publicly acknowledged by district and union leaders. It was the first year that the Day of Silence was promoted and im- plemented in all grade levels from K-12 for the district. Thousands of students and staff across the district took a vow of si- lence to represent the students who are bullied or lose their lives due to sexual ori- entatton and gender identtty or expres- sion. GLSEN Piitsburgh was also able to host a number of onsite trainings for stu- dents in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Washington counttes so they could deter- mine for themselves what needs to hap- pen in their school buildings to make them safer places for all students. Stu- dents built networking relattonships with other Gay-Straight Alliances and conttnue to strengthen those networks through so- cial media and site-based meettngs. These alliances problem-solve issues they face and celebrate their successes with one an- other. In the spring, GLSEN Piitsburgh held its annual Safe Prom For All through a partnership with the Andy Warhol Mu- seum and the Gay, Lesbian Community Center. The prom this year was the most successful and best-aitended prom ever, mostly due to the impressive amount of work the GLSEN interns did getting out into the schools and meettng the needs of the students at those schools. With more than 225 students in aitendance at the prom, GLSEN clearly laid the foundatton for amazing change to take place in schools. LGBT students at Brashear High School are now feeling much safer walking the school halls because of the collabora- tton with GLSEN Piitsburgh. They are be- ginning to think about their lives outside of school. Since one of the most impor- tant areas is home, they are exploring how they can educate parents about sup- porttng their LGBT students. Nattonally, 40 percent of homeless youth identtfy as LGBT, so it is especially important for youth to seek support not only at school but also at home. GLSEN Piitsburgh met with a commit- tee of teachers, staff and administratton at the end of the school year to see how they can conttnue to move forward with the partnership. They decided that the next step is to create a stronger policy to support the transgender and gender-ex- pansive students of the building. They want to create a model for an ideal school that is a safe place to learn for all students regardless of their sexual orienta- tton, gender identtty or expression. The school has formed a point team to be the leaders in this work. Future trainings for the be- ginning of the school year include a district-wide training for all phys- ical educatton teachers and coaches to discuss how they can support transgender students in class and on the athlettc fields. Also Piitsburgh Brashear staff will go through a series of trainings on transgender awareness issues and detailed instructton on the cre- atton of gender-inclusive curriculum from a program that has been designed by GLSEN Piitsburgh and San Francisco-based Gender Spectrum, an organizatton that provides educatton, training and support to help create a gender sensittve and in- clusive environment for all children and teens. The partnership between GLSEN Piitsburgh and Piitsburgh Brashear High School was inittally formed because of a grant from the Center for Safe Schools, which allowed them to lay the foundatton for the important work that lies ahead. Now that they have been able to create posittve partnerships with parents, local community government members and local business owners, they are looking forward to the challenges and successes of the upcoming school year. Vanessa Davis is director of the Pitisburgh chapter of GLSEN and a board member. Dan Kliber is an English teacher at Bras- hear High School. • Arttcle wriiten by the Blue Hands for the monthly school newsleiter to promote bullying awareness When a Safe Schools grant became available, a coalitton on bullying preven- tton was established which included com- munity members, parents, and staff from Lebanon Middle School. They decided to apply for the grant, and were awarded $3,000. The counselors contacted parents and administrators from Lebanon Middle School, and community members who work with youth. The coalitton met monthly to create a logic model and actton plan for the coali- tton, as required by the grant. The coali- tton conducted a parent/community survey and used the informatton to iden- ttfy what resources would best serve the school and community. The coalitton bought resources to enhance the school counseling guidance curriculum for bully- ing and to create a resource sectton in the school library that is available in English and Spanish. Christtna Aguilera sums up the antt- bullying movement when she sings, “…and wherever you go, the sun will al- ways shine.” We are excited for the up- coming events the Blue Hands Group will be creattng for the new school year! For more informatton on how to es- tablish an antt-bullying group or on plan- ning acttvittes, contact Paula Doney at doney@comcast.net. Renee Lamoureux, Robin Lerch, and Kathryn Grove are counselors at Lebanon Middle School Counselors, Lebanon, PA, and Paula Doney is community mobilizer for Community Health Council of Lebanon County. page 7 September 2014 conttnued from page 1 Macedonia Family and Community Enrichment Center, Inc. (FACE), located in the Hill District of Piitsburgh, is a faith- based nonprofit social service agency. Its mission is to encourage the development of healthy families. The staff carries out the agency’s mission by addressing dispar- ittes that impact the African-American community and other underserved popu- lattons. Recognizing that bullying is a form of peer aggression and offiflen a precursor to other forms of violence, Macedonia FACE began offering a community-based bullying preventton program, including free workshops, to all school students, parents and community stakeholders. The Executtve Director of Macedonia FACE, a nattonally certtfied Olweus Bullying Pre- ventton Consultant and Trainer, envi- sioned a program geared directly toward the community that would emphasize cul- tural constructs that promote behavioral change. As a result, Macedonia FACE began fostering a relattonship with three nearby public schools: A. Leo Weil Ele- mentary School and Miller African Cen- tered Academy, both serving students PreK to Grade 5; and University Prepara- tory at Milliones School serving Grades 6 through 12. Macedonia FACE began developing rapport with the three schools when we began aitending monthly educattonal ad- vocacy meettngs hosted by the Hill District Educattonal Council. At the same ttme, the principal of Miller Academy invited us to become a community partner and work together on implementtng climate change. As a result of the invitatton and gen- erous funding from McAuley Ministries, a named in honor of the founder of the Sis- ters of Mercy, workshops began with the fiffiflh graders at Miller Academy. When we received posittve responses from the prin- cipal, staff and students, we began offer- ing weekly workshops in every grade level. The students discuss antt-bullying messages, sing songs and watch age ap- propriate videos. Incenttves are offered to students for posittve behavior and appro- priate conduct throughout the workshop. This relattonship between a public school and a community organizatton, which began in the fall of 2011, has had posittve rewards. During the 2013-2014 school year, Miller School and Macedonia FACE were awarded a mini grant funded by Highmark and administered through the Center for Safe Schools. The funding enabled FACE to assign a staff member to Miller School to help develop a logic model to organize and empow parental involvement in bullying preventton acttvi- ttes. Miller received support for facilitat- ing its parent program, “Mocha Mondays.” The brainchild of Miller School’s principa, Mocha Mondays bring parents together once a month to share coffee and Danish with school staff as a way of staying involved with their child(ren)’s educatton. Macedonia FACE was invited to provide bullying preventton informatton to parents and caretakers. To- gether the school and community-based organizatton staff encouraged parents to volunteer their ttme and talents to Miller School and help strategically combat bul- lying. The partnership will conttnue during the 2014-2015 school year. Miller School is developing “The Whole Child” through literacy and student and family assistance programs. The collaboratton with Mace- donia FACE is an asset to everyone in our school community and is contributtng to the social-emottonal development of our students. Trisha Gadsen, M.S. is executtve director of Macedonia FACE, Margaret Starkes- Ross, Ed.D. is principal of the Miller African-Center Academy, and Rosemary Wingfield, B.S. is lead preventton coordi- nator for Macedonia FACE in Pitisburgh. Community Partnerships for Bullying Preventton by Trisha M. Gadson, Margaret Starkes-Ross and Rosemary Wingfield page 8 September 2014 PA CASSP Newsletier published by Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Bureau of Children’s Behavioral Health Services When it comes to bullying, we’d all like to pretend that we’ve never been part of the problem. I’d love to tell you a story about my heroism, about how I stood up for the social outcast against a whole crowd of popular kids, but that’s not the truth. The truth is that I was given an ad- ministrattve detentton for bullying in mid- dle school, and my parents were contacted by the parents of a girl at my lunch table because I made her life a living hell. I can’t remember the things I said to the people I bullied in sixth grade. I can’t remember how they reacted. What I can remember is why I did it. I did it because it made me feel beiter. As sick and twisted as it is, being a bully made me cool. It made me a ring leader—someone to be revered and respected. People laughed at the horri- ble things I said, and so I said more of them. I needed an identtty, and if I could find my identtty in being a mean girl that was good enough for me. I didn’t realize that my words had real life consequences, and I didn’t realize that what I thought was a good ttme was ruining someone else’s life. At some point in the year, when I fi- nally got in trouble for what I was doing by my parents, I stopped. They made me apologize, and I did. I had ttme to think about what I had done, and watched what I said. Eventually, I made friends with one of the girls I had bullied. Today, she is one of my best friends. When we talk, when we hang out, when we’re at lunch to- gether in a big crowd I can see the lasttng effect my words had on her. I can see the anger and the insecurittes she developed from listening to me and people like me making fun of her every day for years. The words I said to my friend are no one’s fault but my own. I take complete responsibility for the things that came out of my mouth when I was 12 years old. But my experience with bullying really high- lighted one of the biggest problems we have in our public school systems: teach- ers offiflen do not take bullying seriously. Twice, the girl I was bullying went to the assistant principal and told him what was going on, and twice he came to our lunch table, asked if something was going on, and when we all said no he leffifl. When I fi- nally did get a detentton for bullying it was clear they had no clue what was going on, and the whole experience leffifl me feeling like there had just been some big misunderstanding. The people who fi- nally confronted me were my parents rather than the school. It is of the utmost importance that schools take bullying seriously. How do we educate teachers and administrators on this topic? There was a documentary called “Bully” released in 2012 that any adult who is going to work at a school should see. It shows the harm that can be done when we are too passive and don’t take bullying to be a serious issue. Kids need to share their stories with teachers and administrators. Having big assemblies to tell kids to stop bullying may stop a few, but if there are no real conse- quences for the acttons that students take, they’re not going to stop. Finally, we all need to take a close look at ourselves. Words hurt. Words can end lives. Each of us needs to take a closer look at ourselves and to think before we speak. Bullying is a prob- lem that will always exist, but together we can minimize the damage. Kayla is a high school senior in Cumber- land County. Look for more informatton about the film “Bully” at www.thebul- lyproject.com/ The Other Side of the Story by Kayla