Posts tagged bullying in school

Educating Children’s Hearts and Minds

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12 years
by in building self-esteem in girls

Bullying Runs Deep: Breaking the Code of Silence That Protects Bullies via HuffPost

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12 years
by in bullying

HuffingtonPost writer, Michelle Baker, has shared this amazingly honest and deeply touching piece about bullying…by children, by adults, by those most trusted and most able to wound.  I was struck by each and every paragraph of her article, but particularly by these words, which I know firsthand to be true from having worked as a therapist with traumatized children and adolescents:

I am always amazed when I hear anyone say that teenagers act out simply “to get attention.” Of course, they do. Children act out because they do need attention: positive, proactive, compassionate, responsive and responsible attention. I am astonished by how many adults don’t do anything because they don’t know what to do or ignore the situation because they don’t want to acknowledge that they might have to change. For a child in crisis whose parents and adult community have not shown the ability to appropriately respond in times of need, radical acts are often the only measures a child has in order to get someone to pay attention and take action.

 

Please check out: Bullying Runs Deep: Breaking the Code of Silence That Protects Bullies

 

Team Up to Stop Bullying

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12 years
by in bullying

In fun professional news, I was asked to join Sears’ brand new campaign–the first major anti-bullying portal site designed to connect children, students, families, educators and communities with hundreds of bullying solutions.

Please visit sears.com/teamup to take the Power Pledge and show your support for Team Up to Stop Bullying.  The full web site will have hundreds of bullying solutions and will officially launch the first week of August.

Enter to Win a Free Copy of Friendship & Other Weapons

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13 years
by in assertiveness, Being a Mom, building self-esteem in girls, bullying, Friendship & Other Weapons, How to Be Angry

Enter to win a free, signed copy of Friendship & Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Cope With Bullying.  Click here or on the link below to visit Mom Does Reviews for drawing rules and your chance to win.  While you’re there, check out all of the nice things this reviewer had to say about my book 🙂

http://momdoesreviews.com/2012/06/03/friendship-and-other-weapons-help-girls-cope-with-bullying-review-and-giveaway-ends-615/

 

If you are interested in receiving a review copy of Friendship & Other Weapons or How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens, please email me at Signe@signewhitson.com

 

 

 

When it Comes to Bullying, Real Change Happens Person to Person & Heart to Heart

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13 years
by in building self-esteem in girls, bullying
This is a great story about how small, simple, structured programs in schools can make a HUGE differences in the lives of kids.  I love this one especially because it demonstrates that the lives of the “buddies” are bettered just as much as the lives of the special needs kids they are partnered with.
 
We don’t need complicated, costly ways to stop bullying…the best programs are the ones that encourage change person to person & heart to heart.
 

Highlights from an Interview with Trudy Ludwig

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13 years
by in building self-esteem in girls, bullying, cyberbullying

Check out these great excerpts from a recent interview about bullying with bestselling children’s author, Trudy Ludwig.  She is the author of My Secret Bully, which I recommend most highly and center one of my chapters around in Friendship & Other Weapons.

http://www.naturallyeducational.com/2012/05/my-secret-bully/

 

I especially love the definitions of rude vs. mean vs. bullying and her highlighting of issues such as the power of allies and the importance of restorative justice.

What Parents Can Do About Cyberbullying

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13 years
by in assertiveness, Being a Mom, building self-esteem in girls, bullying, cyberbullying, online, Parenting

A good friend just let me know that last week, this article that I wrote for the Huffington Post was featured on AOL’s home page–very exciting!  I hope it provides some helpful tips and strategies for parents, as they help a very tech-savvy generation become bully-savvy as well.  Here’s an excerpt:

 

At not-quite-nine, I am still amazed everyday at how natural and intuitive technology usage is to my daughter and to all of her peers who have grown up with computers, cell phones, tablets and texting as part of their everyday lives. I am also aware, however, that things like Internet Safety, Cyberbullying and “Netiquette” may not register on her radar the same way they do on mine.

When she was very young, I worried about the unknown: online predators who could try to trick her into revealing personal information so that they could cause her physical harm. Now, in her tween years, I know that “stranger danger” is still a threat, but I spend more of my time worrying about the known: frenemies from her daily life who may use taunting texts, humiliating social media posts and viral videos to cause her emotional harm. It’s no wonder that when she begs me (at least once daily) for a cell phone, I feel chills run up and down my spine.

No matter how tech-savvy my daughter becomes, I am constantly aware that she is young and that it is up to me to monitor her safety and well-being with technology in the same consistent, diligent way that I ensure her well-being on a playground. These basic rules are our first line of defense in minimizing (I’m too wise to think that “preventing” is realistic) cyberbullying and using technology in safe, respectful ways:

 

To read about the six strategies I suggest to parents, please visit the HuffingtonPost or click this link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/signe-whitson/cyberbullying_b_1462459.html

Stop Bullying Workshops and Book Signing at Barnes & Noble

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13 years
by in bullying
Had a lot of fun posing as a bestselling author yesterday! Special thanks to the parents and awesome kids who stopped by to participate in my Stop Bullying Workshops and book signing!
 

Yes, We Are Talking About Bullying More! That’s the Good News.

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13 years
by in anger, assertiveness, Being a Mom, bullying, media messages, Parenting

In both my scheduled workshops and my casual conversations on the topic of bullying, professionals and parents often ask me, “Is bullying really worse today than it was when we were kids?”

My answer to that question is an emphatic, “Yes.”

The 24/7 availability of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mails and social networking sites have intensified the impact of bullying, giving young people private ways to humiliate each other under-the-radar of adults and public ways to spread rumors and gossip to large-scale audiences.

To read the rest of this story, please visit the HuffingtonPost or click the link below.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/signe-whitson/bullying_b_1433675.html

Broken: A Raw Account of Depression, Bullying, and the Helping Profession

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13 years
by in Being a Mom, Parenting

The author of this piece, below, is a therapist, writer, and classmate of mine from graduate school. In this piece, he is raw and real and powerful, pulling back the curtain on one young girl’s desperation. This piece is about depression. It is about bullying. It is about hopelessness. And about hope too. Thanks, Roy DeWinkeleer, for being on the helping side!

As one reader reminded me when I shared this article on Facebook: you might need tissues for this read.  As parents, we all share this deepest, most petrifying fear that this may one day be our child.

http://rad-ventures.com/2012/04/12/broken-8/

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Signe Whitson is an author and educator on bullying, crisis intervention, and child and adolescent emotional and behavioral health. In her articles, books, and training workshops, Signe provides down-to-earth, practical advice for professionals and parents on navigating the daily challenges of living and working with children, tweens and teens.

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