Bullying is becoming a hot button issue in education today. In the wake of recent LGBT teen suicides around the country, many politicians, celebrities, and less famous folks are taking part in the “It Gets Better” Project to share their stories and feelings about how it feels to be taunted or harassed by bullies. And now President Obama has joined the ranks and not only offered his own video, but has decided to launch his own campaign through the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to prevent LGBT bullying in schools.
The Department of Education (DOE) released an open letter to school officials and administrators yesterday detailing how federal civil rights laws apply to students on school campuses, and what should be done to ensure that students are free from “student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment.” The DOE and the Obama Administration also announced that early next year, a conference will be held at the White House to discuss ways to prevent bullying. The conference will include workshops to help educators understand their responsibility to stop bullying and resources they can use to prevent it from happening in their classrooms.
Because most bullying largely takes part on school grounds, educators are the first defense in protecting students. As Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali points out, bullying doesn’t just affect students socially and physically, it has an affect on their education as well. “Students cannot learn if they feel threatened or harassed. We want to keep students safe and learning, and today’s guidance will help us do that.”
What I find most distressing about the recent bullying suicides, is the number of parents coming forward saying that they complained to school officials about how their child was being treated, and nothing was done about it. It is inexcusable for adults, who are charged with making sure our children are safe and able to learn, to be aware (or even unaware) of this kind of behavior and do nothing to stop it. The DOE workshops scheduled for early 2011 will hopefully train educators to be better able to identify bullying and prevent it from happening. The “kids will be kids” attitude is something that needs to be unlearned and we all need to start taking bullying more seriously.
With the “It Gets Better” video and the letter to school officials, the Obama Administration is sending a clear message to the general public that bullying will not be tolerated, and hopefully this message will catch on.
Story via Change.org
