Glad to see constructive talks taking place about bullying

Bullying.

I think that we can all agree it’s a bad thing.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Statistics show that one in five high school students reported being bullied on school property last year. Reports of bullying are highest for middle schools (28 percent) and followed by high schools (16 percent). Reports of cyberbullying are highest for middle schools (33 percent), followed by high schools (30 percent), combined schools (20 percent), and primary schools (5 percent), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In the wake of suicides by two Whitley County Middle School students in recent months, bullying is a topic on the minds of lots of people as it should be.

I don’t know that we will ever truly know what role, if any, that bullying may have played in these tragic deaths.

We do know that research indicates that persistent bullying can lead to or worsen feelings of isolation, rejection, exclusion and despair, as well as depressions and anxiety, which can contribute to suicidal behavior, according to stopbullying.gov.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of young people, who are bullied, do not become suicidal. Most young people, who die by suicide, have multiple factors. While bullying does not cause suicide, it’s one of many factors sometimes involved, according to stopbullying.gov.

In other words, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that stopping bullying (like that will ever happen) will prevent suicide and, in particular, teenage suicide.

Still, it’s a noble goal to pursue the stoppage of bullying, which the American Psychological Association says has become a nationwide children’s mental health crisis.

So how do we stop and/or prevent bullying? I wish that I had the answer.

A good first step is more discussion about the issue and about what warning signs are for bullying, ways to prevent bullying and so forth.

Fortunately, something along these lines is already in the works.

A Whitley County community forum on bullying is planned for Tuesday, March 28, from 4 – 6 p.m. at the Whitley County Health Department, which is located at 368 Penny Lane, Williamsburg. It will take place in the lower level conference room.

The event is free and an opportunity to talk about how bullying affects youth in our community and what we can do to change the attitudes of those who tolerate bullying behaviors.

Adults are encouraged to attend, and high school-aged youth can attend with a parent or caregiver.

Registration is required and can be done online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/whitley-county-community-forum-on-bullying-tickets-574633513307.

Contact the Whitley County Health Department at (606) 549-3380 for more details.

The forum is a partnership between the health department and the Whitley County Community Green Dot Coalition. Green Dot is a violence prevention curriculum for bystanders. Cumberland River Behavioral Health has been active in area schools with Green Dot for several years with this curriculum, which also includes components about sexual assault and domestic violence prevention.

Hopefully, this forum will lead to more awareness about bullying in our schools, in our communities and online, and that it will better inform parents about things to watch out for and offer suggestions about what parents and others can do to help children if they are being bullied.

It would be nice to see some future bullying forums held in conjunction with our local schools or perhaps even with our local churches.

Bullying has probably been around since the dawn of mankind. I think we all saw it in some form or fashion when we were in school. A big difference between now and when I was a kid is that bullying, which used to end at school, now sometimes carries on through social media when kids get home and they can’t escape it.