Stopping School Violence

The speaker at our June 4, 2009 lunch meeting was Derek Randel, President of Stopping School Violence. Stopping School Violence was founded to help empower students, parents and educators to address and prevent bullying. Derek believes that getting community leaders, parents, school staff, administrators and the students to work together is the most effective way to address bullying and school violence.

Derek spent his time with us focusing on cyber-bullying, which is intimidation, mocking or threats by means of text messages, instant messages, emails, social networking sites, or the creation of web pages. Most counselors agree that cyber-bullying is potentially more devastating than traditional “face-to-face” bullying because of the wide audience that the bullying may reach and the sometimes impenetrable electronic barrier created between the bully and the victim. The worst cases of cyber-bullying can result in teen victim suicides, which have risen dramatically in the last few years.

A child that is the victim of cyber-bullying will generally not approach a parent with the problem because the parent’s solution will always be to remove the device (phone, computer, etc.) from the child. So, Derek’s solution is to communicate with the child long before the child has a phone or internet device that the device won’t be taken away if bullying occurs, but that the bullying must stop. Derek also made the following specific recommendations -

Save the evidence, but be careful to not commit a crime by printing, duplicating or forwarding the material.

Never respond to the message in the first place; it’s no fun for the bully to be ignored.

Become familiar with, and use, website blocking programs.

Never put an internet connection in a child’s room, and every computer screen in the house should back against a wall.

Look for signs of nervousness or anger in your child.

Never leave an internet device out of your control, and never share passwords.

Derek has been on numerous television and radio shows around the country. Derek utilizes his 12 years experience as a high school and middle school educator to counsel children, parents and educators, and has been nominated for a Disney American Teacher Award. For more information, see www.stoppingschoolviolence.com, or call Derek at (847)853-4308.