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Bullying Prevention Summit
Washington DC, August 2011
The second "Bullying Prevention Summit" sponsored by the Federal Department of Education, Health and Human Services, Defense, Justice, Agriculture and Interior was held in Washington D.C. August 11, 12th. Dr. Judith Tindall, President of NAPPP, Clinical Psychologist was an invited participant in the Summit. The purpose of the Summit was to focus on the issue of Bullying, review research and resources on the topic and give federal agencies input from the participants concerning the next step to solve bullying in our schools, workplaces and communities. Participants included leaders in the prevention field, federal agencies, faith based organizations and a variety of diverse organizations representing social services, corporate leaders, advocacy and enforcement groups.
Some of the keynote speakers included Anne Duncan, Secretary of Education, Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy of Education in charge of Safe and Drug Free Schools; Regina M. Benjamin, M. D., Surgeon General; Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Office of Justice Programs; and Assistant Secretary of Education Russlynn Ali. Several panel presentations were given that represent research, actual programs that work, enforcement and policy approaches. Participants had many opportunities through structured small groups to give input to the federal agencies concerning the next step in dealing with the issue of Bullying. Bullying is a heart-breaking problem. It is defined as aggressive behavior that is persistent, intentional and involves an imbalance of power or strength. Bullying includes everything from being threatened or physically assaulted to being called derogatory names or being left out. Cyberbulling is a modern twist on traditional bullying.
According to Anne Duncan, Secretary of Education "Every child is entitled to feel safe no matter of their ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender". He believes that prevention programs can impact school safety. According to Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy of Education, Bullying is at an epidemic level. 1 out of 3 in middle and high school report being bullied. According to Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D., Cyberbulling Research Center, over 15-35% of students have been victims.
Some of the consequences of bullying are physical , emotional, psychological , and behavioral such as conduct problems, delinquency, violence, substance use, academic struggles, absenteeism, overall difficulties.
Some of the strategies that were indicated were around peer programs such as mentoring and other peer delivered programs. These were just part of the answer to bullying. If your peer program does not address bullying, you may want to consider incorporating into your programming for next year.
Dr. Tindall had an opportunity to push NAPPP mission of talking about the programs that follow NAPPP Programmatic Standards tend to be more effective.
The Federal Government has set up a website:
www.BullyingInfo.org which is an extension of
www.FindYouthInfo.gov, a project of the interagency Working Group on Youth Programs.
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