Bullying: Our Kids, Our Problem
Thursday, October 18, 2007 @4:24pm EST
Reported by: Carolyn Donaldson
On WTAJ 10 News we're tackling a problem that seems to have existed forever.. Bullying. You probably remember the days long ago when one of your classmates or a neighborhood kid was picked on, teased or even physically harmed. Unfortunately, at that time, a lot of people dismissed it as "kids being kids". But these days, we know the ramifications can be severe. If you watch the news or read the paper, you know that bullying can have deadly consequences in schools. And we know that bullying victims can bare scares that last a lifetime.

Do you still think bullying is not a problem in your community? The statistics are sobering:

• 52 percent of students report seeing bullying at least once a week.
• Nine out of ten elementary students have been bullied by their peers.
• And nearly six in ten elementary students reported participating in some type of bullying in the past year.

You don't have to look far to find examples close to home of school violence. Just last week, a 14-year-old Montgomery County boy was arrested after police raided his home and found a cache of weapons including an assault rifle, air guns, homemade explosives, a bomb-making book and videos of the 1999 attack on Columbine. Authorities say the teenager was a home-schooled student who felt bullied.

Two days ago , an alternative high school in Cleveland, Ohio reopened under tightened security measures after a teen gunman wounded four people and killed himself the week before. "There's physical health and there's emotional health. You have the physical and emotional well-being of children. Bullying has to do with that emotional component. If they're not healthy emotionally, they're not healthy physically," states Aaron Walton, Chairman of Highmark Foundation.

Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power of strength and is becoming a serious national issue. The Highmark Foundation has committed $100 million through it's program "Highmark Healthy High 5 " aimed at reversing the current trends in childrens' health and to promote lifelong healthy habits in children throughout our region.

One of those 5 target areas is Bullying Prevention. Studies have shown that 77 percent of students report that they have been bullied mentally, verbally or physically in school. Walton notes, "When you put it in context, that's a lot of kids - that's the compelling issue right there - when you see the magnitude of the problem, it's very easy to get behind it that has that level of impact and try to do something positive about it." There are many stakeholders in this bullying issue. Insurance companies want to insure healthy people. "What is more important than childrens' health promotion? Children are our future. If we don't invest in our children, we're not investing in the future, so it's just a logical and natural thing for us to do," according to Walton. "Behaviors are being noticed and we are creating environments for change in behavior and that's where it all starts. If you don't change the environment, you don't change the behaviors." Educators are concentrating their efforts on the whole child and the school as a welcoming, safe community for all students.

Carol Kakabar, Principal of Westmont-Hilltop Middle School says, "there is no magic bullet and i think that bullying will always be around. You can't stop it 100% but what we can hope to do is bring it more to the forefront by having students interact more with each other and by having students be willing to tell us somehow." and her Assistant Principal Nicole Kuzmiak agrees. "As educators it's our job to help the entire child, the whole child and everything that encompasses - it's not just their learning environment but their self-esteem everything." Parents need to be engaged and involved. Bullying expert Dr. Susan Limber says, "This is not just an issue that kids need to deal with on their own, they need our leadership, they need a role model and they need our help." And the students themselves are perhaps the most important stakeholder as Westmont-Hilltop High School Junior Zach says, "We think that the only - the real people that can solve bullying are the students themselves."