Why do some students treat schoolmates so poorly? I’ve been fortunate to work with student populations where the norm is not to be mean. Having said that, I’ve seen my share of students being mean to one another over my 30+ years in schools. In a school like LCS, that contains Grades 6 thru 12, you see the range of such behaviors. As kids mature bullying and mean behaviors and actions recede, but the social and peer pressure that early adolescents experience can result in a variety of cruel behaviors. It can be very disheartening.
I was, however, struck by the organization that I discovered below. It is an organization established by teens, for teens, and contains testimonials and videos of teenagers who have something to say about bullying and hate crimes. I was inspired by this site. As adults we try hard to intervene and deal with issues when they arise. The power of this site is the power for kids to take a stand together and to know that they are NOT alone in dealing with the tough issues around social pressures and bullying. It is worth looking through this link and checking out the voices of teenagers around this topic.
Here is the link to the We Stop Hate web site
In addition, there was a recent CNN report that had some truly excellent links around the topic. Check out this link to the CNN site.
CNN Special Report on Bullying
This is an important topic and students need to utilize their resources both online, at home, and at school.
Here is another interesting site for students around the topic of bullying. Check out