People always want to see the best in their students, and their children. But there is a time when the rose coloured glasses need to come off.
Recently, an anti-bulling program was brought out to one of the schools in Cypress County, in order to teach, not just the students, but also the teachers and parents, how to look for bullying, and how to protect the ones around them in the case.
According to the Dare to Care program, the main message is not necessarily focused on the bully or the victim, it is more focused on the witness who stands by and does nothing.
The Dare to Care program informs the silent majority know that it is okay to stand up and speak out
Speaking up is a problem, but not in the way most people think. Children are afraid to speak up because they themselves do not want to be bullied.
Physical bullying is something that can be stopped, and can be discovered down to the root, but in most schools, now-a-days, the bullying is not physical; it is mental.
When something is merely said to someone else, where is the proof it was said?
Something that happens far more often in girls, verbal bullying is still visible in any school, no matter how hard people try to ingrain good behaviour.
Teachers turn a blind eye, whether because they don’t know how to deal with the problem, or they simply don’t know about the actions going on.
The true side of the story is never the story a person is going to believe, because in many cases, it is the word of many (the bullies) who have ganged up on one or two victims.
The victims never stood a chance.
And to these victims, to speak up means just a more intense backlash afterwards.
In schools, no one likes a snitch.
No school is perfect in that no school can completely eliminate bullying, but there is a difference in which schools strive to change the act through a method that works.
But schools also have to realize that they need to get to their students young.
A person can lead a horse to water but cannot force it to drink, and this is the mentality in schools.
Older children, who are already the bullies, will not stop just because they watched a presentation on how the act is bad.
Schools can boast about having zero tolerance for bullying, but when they believe the bully over the victim, how can that promote the victims to stand up for themselves?