Bullying stops with you

Did you know? Bullying Is A Real Issue!

From the Field
The major theme
of this year’s IBPA
annual conference
is kindness, and with
the new school year
upon us it is critical
to build prevention
efforts with this
concept front-and-
center.
We don’t want youth to simply not do the wrong thing, but do what is
right instead – treat their peers with respect, compassion, and
empathy. To be sure, sometimes educators naively expect kids
to know and apply the Golden Rule in all their interactions from
early childhood. However, without intentional efforts to instruct
and cultivate kindness, your students are simply not going to be
others-focused by default. With that in mind, here are some ways
you can encourage the children and teens in your life to make
kindness go viral at the beginning of this school year.
Set Up a Social Media Compliments Page
Most teens have a profile on one or more social networking
platforms and are very comfortable navigating these
environments. Perhaps you could encourage them to set up a
separate account for the purpose of dishing out anonymous
accolades to their classmates. This idea was made famous by
Kevin Curwick’s “OsseoNiceThings” Twitter feed and Jeremiah
Anthony’s “West High Bros” Facebook compliments page. Now
dozens of social media accounts have been set up by teens for
the purpose of encouraging and praising their peers.
Participate in Random Acts of Kindness
More and more individuals in all walks of life are realizing that
it’s actually really cool to be kind. It’s even cooler when kindness
is dished out anonymously and unexpectedly. Encourage your
students or children to engage in random acts of kindness in their
school or broader community. Search online for examples of young
people being kind to others to give them inspiration. Dozens of
videos and even a Twitter hashtag ( ) can
direct you to ideas as well.
Create a Public Service Announcement
Many teens have great ideas for promoting positivity that they
would love to share with others. Give them creative freedom and
let them loose to script out and record a short video with the
simple purpose of encouraging others to be kind. They could
interview their classmates or “famous” people in their school or
community (like the principal or mayor). Leave it up to them about
how to approach the activity—they’ll surprise you and hopefully
come up with something really compelling! Then you can upload
it to YouTube, your school’s Web page, or social media accounts,
and otherwise use it as a teaching tool to reach so many others!
Make Posters
A simple activity that kids of all ages can tackle is to design
inspirational posters that can be plastered on walls around the
school. It doesn’t take much artistic talent to inspire others to
be kind with drawings or creative slogans. Teachers could work
with a particular class or a specific subset of students to produce
posters that could be covertly placed all over the school on
Friday afternoon or over the weekend. The rest of the student
body will return on Monday and be totally inspired by what they
see all around them.
In closing, remember that promoting kindness doesn’t have
to be a big production. The best ideas are often among the
simplest. Working together, parents, teachers, and teens can
make tremendous strides toward combating cruelty in all its
forms during this new school year. Hopefully, as you share these
ideas and stories of kindness, your teens will feel compelled to
write their own!
Make Kindness Go Viral in the New School Year!
By Dr. Sameer Hinduja & Dr. Justin W. Patchin
Dr. Sameer Hinduja is a Professor at Florida Atlantic University and Dr. Justin W. Patchin is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau
Claire. Together, they co-direct the Cyberbullying Research Center (http://www.cyberbullying.org/), which is intended to be an information
clearinghouse for educators, counselors, mental health professionals, law enforcement, and others who work with youth. The Center provides
bullying and cyberbullying statistics, resources, presentations, downloads, activities, events, facts, examples, stories, and so much more to
help you prevent and respond to victimization. Hinduja and Patchin’s latest co-authored book Words Wound: Delete Cyberbullying and Make
Kindness Go Viral was written specifically for teens and comes with a free Leader’s Guide. In addition, their latest book for educators Bullying
Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying was just completely updated and released in its 2nd edition.
Dr. Hinduja is presenting three times at this year’s conference – come say hello and share successes, struggles, and questions!

Home - Cyberbullying Research Center Provides bullying and cyberbullying statistics, resources, presentations, downloads, activities, events, facts, examples, and more

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