Milton Parents Decide To Be Proactive When It Comes To Bullying

The recent suicide of Minnesota teens Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz–reportedly due to bullying–was on the minds of parents who gathered at Birmingham Falls Elementary Thursday to learn more about bullying and what they can do prevent it.

The meeting, which was sponsored by the school’s Parent-Teacher Association, began with a staggering statistic by speaker Allison Neal.

“There are estimated to be 160,00 children who avoid going to school every single day because they feel like they’re going to be bullied,” Neal said.

Neal is co-founder of Revved Up Kids, an organization that offers free bullying awareness seminars to local elementary school PTAs. Her hope is to start a dialogue “about creating and sustaining a culture of kindness and understanding”

She said that the risk of physical bullying peaks between the ages of 6 and 9. Parents, all whose children are within this age group, were encouraged to teach children that we're not all that different from one another.

“Let’s teach our children not to look at the differences as something that are bad but look at them as good because they’re really so few and far between,” said Neal.

The relatively new issue of cyber-bullying was also discussed. Neal’s first advice to parents with young children was to eliminate the problem.

“If your child has a Facebook page, please shut it down,” she said.

For young children already involved in the world of technology, monitoring is key, Neal said.

“ If you’re allowing them to use this technology you’ve got to chaperon it very closely,” she said.

While discussing the correlation between bullying and suicide Neal mentioned Fentress and Moravetz, two young girls who shared the experience of incessant bullying by classmates. As parents shook their heads in sadness the importance of such seminars became apparent.

“Last year there were 33 suicides by children as young as age 9 that were attributed to bullying,” said Neal.

On a state level, Neal said that Georgia’s anti-bullying law is graded as an A++ by bullypolice.org, “which means we have one of the best and strongest in the country,” she said.

While that is good news, there is still a long way to go in preventing bullying altogether and Assistant Principal Jasmine Kullar shared with the audience how Birmingham Falls Elementary is helping the effort.

Kullar explained the school’s Bully Prevention plan with parents as well as future plans to help prevent bullying among students. This includes training among teachers, bus drivers and volunteers. School assemblies and student focus groups are also being considered for next year.

For more information on Revved Up Kids and how to hold an elementary school seminar, click here.