What To Do About Bullying: Tips For Parents

1. Encourage your child to report bullying incidents to you:
• Validate your child's feelings by letting him/her know that it is normal to feel hurt, sad, scared, angy, etc.
• Let your child know that she/he has made the right choice by reporting the incident(s) to you and assure your child that she/he is not to blame.
• Help your child be specific in describing bullying incidents: who, what, where, when. (Look for patterns or evidence of repeated bullying behaviors.)

2. Ask your child how she/he has tried to stop the bullying:

3. Coach your child in possible alternatives:
• Avoidance is often the best strategy.
• Play in a different place.
• Stay near a supervising adult when bullying is likely to occur.
• Look for ways to find new friends.
• Support your child by encouraging him/her to extend invitations for friends to play at your home or to attend activities.
• Involve your child in social activities outside of school.

4. Treat the school as your ally:
• Share your child's concerns and specific information about bullying incidents with appropriate school personnel.
• Work with school staff to protect your child from possible retaliation.
• Establish a plan with the school and your child for dealing with future bullying incidents.

5. Encourage your child to seek help and to report bullying incidents to someone she/he feels safe with at the school:
• Adult in charge of a specific activity or area (such as the playground, lunchroom, field trips, bus lines, gym, classroom).
• Teacher.
• Counselor.
• Principal.

6. Encourage your child to continue to talk with you about all bullying incidents:
• Do not ignore your child's report.
• Do not advise your child to physically fight back. (Bullying lasts longer and becomes more severe when children fight back. Physical injuries often result.)
• Do not confront the child who bullies.
• Do not confront the family of the child who bullies.

"GO KILL YOURSELF"

By Dylan Raven

I've never understood how anyone could tell someone to "Go Kill Yourself". Why don't the people who say it actually take into consideration, who ever they say it to might actually go do it. How could anyone hate someone so much that they would want them to take their own life?

Chances are you don't even know what this person has been through or what they're going through, chances are you don't know much about them at all. Even if you say it jokingly, it's not much of a joke, even if they are simply just words, sometimes they're taken seriously.

So before you say "Go Kill Yourself" Just think about it, think that they might actually go do it, and honestly, how would you feel if you did push them over the edge?

How would you feel if someone told your mother, father, sister, brother, niece, nephew, your best friend or simply someone else close to you, and they did it?

You don't know if you're taking someone's life into your own hands when you say it, you don't know how people take things, you don't know a lot. 

So before you say it... THINK ABOUT IT!

RONAN'S ESCAPE is an intense Australian short movie that deals with the topic of School Bullying. It was shown in theaters around Australia and also world wide from Summer 2009 into 2010. This is one of those movies that ALL school's in Australia should show their students - #SayNoToBullying

Trailer - 'Ronan's Escape'.

'Ronan's Escape' - Full short film.