In her regular column at the Huffington Post, Marlo Thomas writes of the free to be program and the long long road ahead as children in the US continue to opt for suicide as an escape from bullying.
Thomas notes:
According to current statistics, one out of every four teenagers across America is bullied in their neighborhoods and schools; 160,000 students stay home from school every day because of their fear of being bullied; and each month, nearly 300,000 students are physically attacked inside their secondary schools.
Online, things are even worse: 43 percent of kids are cyber-bullied, while 53 percent admit to having said something mean and hurtful to another kid online.
Then came that tragic September — 2010 — when over a period of just three weeks, nine gay or questioning youths — all male, average age 15 — were “bullied to death,” committing suicide, no longer able to endure the never-ending harassment from their peers.
For those who are not familiar with other resources on this important topic, statistics can be found at http://www.stompoutbullying.org/aboutbullying_theissue.php.
Now, I don’t live in the US so many of these numbers are off . . . but the Ministry of Education here in Taiwan has found that bullying is a serious issue and certainly suicide is an important issue as children continue to opt for suicide not only due to bullying but because of academic pressure as well as family and peer pressure to perform well in school.
Some warning signs that Thomas notes for parents to watch out for:
Kevin Jennings, the assistant deputy secretary at the Department of Education, told me that most parents of bullied children have no idea about the anguish their sons and daughters are enduring, because the kids aren’t talking. They’re ashamed to admit it, because they think it’s a sign of weakness, and they want to handle it themselves.
But if more parents would get into the game, Jennings said, we might be able to turn things around. He told me that the majority of parents haven’t been trained to look for signs of bullying in their child’s life. But they need to. And they can start by asking themselves a few questions:
- Does your child not want to ride the school bus any more?
- Does your child often wake in the morning complaining about stomach aches and asking to stay home from school?
- Are your child’s friends not coming around so much any more?
- Has your child stopped receiving invitations to parties?
Most important, said Jennings, is if you suspect your child is being bullied, you must become proactive, and try to get that child to talk.
See the original essay by Thomas at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlo-thomas/marlo-thomas-bullying_b_866313.html.
All the best,
Brian
