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According to the National Education Association (NEA), a typical schoolchild has a 30 percent chance of being involved in bullying on campus, taunted on the bus, sexually harassed, “flamed” on the Internet, beaten up or ganged up on. Dr. Peter Sheras, a clinical psychologist with over twenty-five years of experience and associate director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project at the University of Virginia and director of the local School Crisis Network, develops and evaluates intervention programs for schools, parents, and communities in an effort to educate people about bullying before it becomes life threatening. In Your Child: Bully or Victim? Understanding and Ending Schoolyard Tyranny (NY: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2002), Dr. Sheras explains that bullying is not a question of “bad kids versus good kids,” but a situation in which both children need help in learning how to channel their emotions and interact successfully with others.
Order a copy of Your Child: Bully or Victim?
Bullying is a serious issue, whether the child is the victim or the aggressor- yet most parents have no idea whether their children are involved, nor what to do if they are. Your Child: Bully or Victim? provides hands-on help for parents, including recognizing the many forms abuse can take- playground name-calling to chat room cyber-slamming, combating such common (and dangerous) myths as “Boys will be boys” and “Just ignore them and they’ll go away,” and finding out about current school programs that effectively reduce bullying and help introduce them into your school’s curriculum.
Nearly every child has the potential to become a bully or victim, given the right circumstances. In fact, they are often the same person, as victims can turn to bullying in an attempt to resolve their situation. Only when our children learn to identify and respond appropriately to bullying, parents act to ensure our children’s right to safety, and schools and communities support that right as well, will the surge in violence among children in this country begin to abate.
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