Unfortunately, all children are familiar with bullying, whether they are victims, witnesses, or bullies themselves. With one out of three students being bullied in school or online (education.com), this issue is pervasive and takes many forms, including physical violence, verbal abuse, gossiping, and cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is rampant and makes bullying easier for students who would not normally demonstrate this type of behavior because there is no physical confrontation involved. Many students own cell phones and have Facebook and/or Twitter pages, making cyberbullying especially easy and significantly increasing the amount of bullying in schools today. Bullying is a far too common occurrence that creates feelings of sadness, leads to depression, and even drives some victims to commit suicide. One of the most recent examples of cyberbullying and its consequences is that of Amanda Cummings. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083504/Amanda-Cummings-suicide-Hate-messages-Facebook-tribute-page.html . This teenage girl committed suicide because of the effect cyberbullying had on her life. While there isn’t a clear solution, it is clear that we have to do something to help children deal with this problem.
To help educators address this issue with their students, Community for Education Foundation makes its Overcoming Obstacles Anti-Bullying Handbook available for download at no cost. The handbook contains over 20 hours of instruction on helping victims, dealing with violence, and cyberbullying solutions. Download a free copy of the Overcoming Obstacles Anti-Bullying Handbook today: http://www.overcomingobstacles.org/resources.php
Overcoming Obstacles
