Over the years at Families as Allies, families have consistently called us about how to deal with their children reporting bullying at school. Since school began last August, more families than usual have called about bullying concerns, and the nature of the bullying they describe is more severe than what families typically report. Families are reporting more bullying incidents that involve weapons and more that include adults at school allegedly bullying students.
We are alarmed at the trends families are reporting and want to be as supportive and responsive as possible to the families experiencing them. We begin by calling your attention to practical information we’ve shared in previous blogs:
- How Do I Talk to My Child About Bullying?
- What Mississippi Law Says about Bullying at School
- Bullying Prevention Resources on Families as Allies Website
We encourage all of you to join us for Support for Families Dealing with Bullying at School, a webinar on November 19 at noon. This webinar will help participants with these goals:
- Identify federal and state bullying-related laws
- Know how to use state bullying policies and procedures to help their children
- Understand how parents can use federal protections for children with disabilities related to bullying.
In addition to assisting individual families, we are looking at ways to address bullying at the system level to help keep all children safer at school. We have discussed the importance of a state-level system-level anti-bullying policy. The Mississippi State Department of Education does not have one, leading to families scrambling district by district to know the policy and how to file a complaint. We encourage you to talk to your local legislators if you share this concern.
We have also discussed gathering more information from families about bullying at school, possibly through town hall meetings. We know that there is strength in numbers (and wisdom among the people who make up the numbers), so we want to reach out to and partner with other organizations supporting families with this issue.
Please let us know if you have ideas about how Families as Allies can help address bullying at school.
