Natasha Alam from True Blood has joined the growing list of celebrities speaking out publicly against bullying. Celebrities are raising awareness and bringing attention to this escalating challenge.
Alam recently filmed an anti-bullying public service announcement (PSA), click here to learn more.
Canada recently targeted bullying with their National Bullying Awareness Week and the UK recently promoted the Big March to bring attention to bullying, violence and harassment in schools.
Each of these efforts encourages people to speak out about bullying and victimization, and adults are being urged to listen. These campaigns also mention prevention, the need for awareness and how everyone (students, parents, teachers, staff, community members, etc.) can play a role and make a difference.
I agree that PREVENTION is critical, and I agree we need to help victims be heard and encourage Security Teams and Prevention Teams to listen. Unfortunately, traditional ‘safe school’ approaches are not delivering the results we need.
The statistics are real; the challenges victims face and the suicides are real, and it is clear that the time is now for new approaches.
The PSAs, marches and awareness weeks are all great first steps. However, bullying is a systemic problem that needs comprehensive tools and solutions to deliver multi-directional awareness, accountability, auditability and measurability. How is your school measuring your efforts? Are administrators measuring incident reports and tips provided by victims and bystanders? Are you measuring if school leaders and communities are listening? Are you measuring if prevention and intervention efforts are working or not working on an ongoing basis? Are you measuring if your efforts are meeting the OCR Dear Colleague letter’s guidelines?
Awareity wants to know… How is your school addressing bullying? Do you have a new innovative approach?