Bullying: Stopping the problem starts with parents, schools
It's true. No one generation has a corner on the solution to the problem of bullying.
Although adults might like to romanticize their own childhoods, bullying existed then, too.
But there is a problem in today's schools -- and it is one that needs to be addressed aggressively and with real solutions in mind.
In September, there was yet another tragic story of a student, this time a middle-schooler, who was tormented in person and online by school mates.
The pressure became so bad, the young girl decided to take her own life -- and did.
And what motivated the police chief in the town to take action was a subsequent message from one of the tormentors online that she did not care about her classmate's death.
There are several statements that need to be made about bullying. Education is critical, but so, too, is enforcement. Students must understand how important it is that they tell someone if they are a victim of bullying or watch someone else being tormented.
Teachers also should be educated about the need to be able to recognize bullying -- and curriculum on how to treat each other should be a part of every school year.
But there is another step, one that requires some parents to do some soul-searching.
It begins with a question: How do these bullies manage to torment these children online without consequence? Have these parents abdicated control over their children's mobile devices -- and do they really need them in the first place?
Social media can be a brutal place -- and a potential field of land mines for young, inexperienced teens. A mistake there could change a life forever.
It is time for much more aggressive monitoring of what teens are doing online -- and for parents of bullies who do nothing to stop the behavior to be held accountable.
This is not about privacy.
It is about safety -- and the chance to right a wrong -- before we lose another young person who feels he/she has nowhere to turn.
Published in Editorials on October 16, 2013 12:43 PM