My colleague Carla Kelly, Director of the Human Rights Education Office in Salt Lake (who also teaches with me) sent out this letter today:
Dear Friends,
Utah Senator Patrice Arent-D has authored an anti-bullying resolution, which will be introduced in this session!
It is critical that we show our support for this resolution immediately, because the Senate committee hearing could be scheduled any day.
Click here to REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT http://www.mybully.org//?p=8#respond or go to http://www.mybully.org or simply e-mail me your statement of support.
Please also pass this e-mail on to friends of kids!
To the surprise of many, bullying is a serious problem in many Utah schools, and this is an opportunity to address it head on.
Our kids deserve the right to a safe school environment. It is our job to protect the rights of our kids.
The recent surge in research and awareness of bullying (inspired by Columbine) has revealed two very exciting surprises.
1. IT IS POSSIBLE to completely eliminate bullying in any school.
2. When kids feel safe at school, grades go up across the board.
In other words, the elimination of bullying in schools, may well be the number one most effective way to increase academic performance!
FightingCrime.com has recently completed a study showing that eliminating bully will reduce crime.
Bullying begins in kindergarten
Great article from the Washington Post
>American Medical Association Pediatric Research
The good news
IT IS POSSIBLE to completely eliminate bullying in any school. And when kids feel safe at school, grades go up across the board. Properly implemented anti-bullying programs result in a lasting change in the school culture and result in positive learning environment for teacher as well as student.
More Good News
The process of eliminating bullying involves character education in which children are empowered to make positive choices and rewarded for it at the peer level which translates into higher self-esteem, a safe school environment, better grades, and an organic rise in good-kid, democratic, “majority rules” atmosphere both in school and in the community.
While very little research on the subject of bullying was conducted prior to 2000, recently completed and ongoing studies reveal that the effects of bullying on our community are wide-ranging, and dramatic. “While bullying has traditionally been seen as merely a rite of passage, it is a serious
threat that can have long-lasting detrimental effects on the victims, the bullies, and even the bystanders.”
Studies published in our country’s most prestigious scientific journals have found strong and direct colorations between bullying and crime, violence, drug use, and academic performance.
Is bullying really a problem in Utah schools? While Utah specific studies have been done in Utah, according to a number of sources, “The racial composition and setting of the school (e.g., urban, rural) are not predictive of bullying.”
A national study in 2002 by the Families and Work Institute found that in grades five through 12, 32 percent of the sample had been bullied at least once in the month prior to the survey, and 12 percent had been bullied five times or more in the same time period. Twenty-three percent reported that
they had bullied someone else at least once in the past month; 6 percent reported they had been bullied-or-that they had bullied someone five times or more.
(All studies that I have seen show similar statistics)
Quincy Elementary took part in an anti-bullying study designed by the private Menninger Clinic, a nationally known psychiatric and behavioral hospital. Stuart Twemlow, a researcher on Menninger’s Peaceful Schools Project, said that forcing principals to make this kind of choice “oversimplifies” the learning process. “It presumes that if you give a student a competent teacher, they will learn,” he said. “The way you improve intellectual performance is to create a peaceful environment.” Valerie Strauss , Some Schools Take On the Classroom Bully, Washington Post Nov. 4 2003. http://www.fcps.net/sa/support/bully/schools.htm
In fact, 23 states have passed anti-bullying legislation since 2001, and 9 more have bills pending.
For more information, studies, and research, go to http://www.mybully.org
Clifford Lyon
Board Member
http://www.hrecutah.org
cliff@hrecutah.org
home 801.274.0882
HREC 801.521.4283
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 