• Safety Tips:
• School Safety: Consider Multicultural Differences in Conflict Resolution
• Personal Safety: Coping with a Bully
• Questions & Answer : Finding a Missing Child
• Statistics: Juvenile Victims
• One opinion, open for discussion: Kicking the Bully

School Safety Tip:

Many schools are seeking ways to embrace diversity. Some are also instituting "Code of Conduct" policies and conflict-resolution program. As educators, law enforcement officials, and professionals in positions to mediate conflict, it behooves us to learn about the differences which cultural perspective brings to the table.

"Even when all parties come to the table with the best intentions, natural cultural differences among cross-cultural parties can easily lead to misunderstanding, destroy the best efforts at conflict resolution, and end the hopes of restoring and repairing relationships,"states an introduction from the government report, Multicultural Implications of Restorative Justice: Potential Pitfalls and Dangers, written by Mark S. Umbreit, Ph.D., Director (April 2000).

To view the full report, visit:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/infores/restorative_justice/96522-multicultural/welcome.html

This report offers insight into various cultural differences, such as body language and use of language. This information can be successfully used to resolve a conflict between different parties separated by age, or ethnicity, or even race.

Personal Safety Tip:

Being confronted by a bully is one of the harder lessons life throws at a child, and it is best to prepare your child in advance how to cope. Sometimes parents are tempted to intervene, and call up the bully's parents. If you are considering this action, check out the following website first. If you are looking for tips on how to help your children cope with a bully, or if you suspect your child is acting like a bully, you will appreciate the tips offered at http://www.safechild.org/bullies.htm#TAKE A STAND You can find a curriculum offered for educators on helping "bully-proof" elementary students.

Another interesting website examines the results of a grant study done in a Maine school district. It shares information regarding bullies in school settings, from the students' perspective. For example, students reported that 71% of the teachers or other adults in the classroom ignored bullying incidents. All educators and parents should view this study at http://www.lincoln.midcoast.com/~wps/against/bullying.html

Questions from Readers and Our Answers:

Q. I am a teacher in an area with a high number of transient families, with a lot of instabilities in their lives. Last year, I had a student who told me that he lived with his father and that his mother was dead. However, there were gaps in the information he shared, the kind other children often did share openly. Now I am wondering if maybe he was a child living with a non-custodial parent. Where could I find out?

A. There is a valuable website for anyone interested in finding out more about missing children. Visit www.ncmec.org and you can learn a lot, as well as see photo records of missing and lost children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provides a photo database that is a proven tool in the recovery of missing children, many of whom are abducted by a non-custodial family member.

All teachers, law enforcers, and members of the public are encouraged to help locate missing children through participation in the NCMEC Poster Partner Program. (http://www.ncmec.org/html/posterpartner-details.html) You will be informed of a missing child in your area the instant information is available, via an e- mail alert. You will have the opportunity to print out posters to be hung in public places to help in the search, and will be informed when the child is found. There is no charge for this program.

Fingerprint America reminds you that all families should keep updated photos of their children, as well as a record of their fingerprints in a secure location for use in an emergency.

Statistics:

¬ In 1995 and 1996, juveniles were twice as likely as adults to be victims of serious violent crime and three times as likely to be victims of simple assault.
To view full chart of source details:
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/qa113.html

¬ Bullies identified by age eight are six times more likely to be convicted of a crime by age twenty-four and five times more likely that non-bullies to end up with serious criminal records by the age of thirty.
(Source: http://www.lincoln.midcoast.com/~wps/against/bullying.html )

One Opinion, Open for Discussion

Students are skipping school to avoid bullies, about 8% of middle school students, as the above referenced Maine study found. In one community, a mother got fed up with her son being attacked by other young teens on his way home from school, so she asked for help. Unfortunately, it was not easy to find.

The school district said they could not act because the bullies were not enrolled in the school, and the attacks did not take place on school property. The police could not arrest the offenders for harassment because they were underage. The mayor and the police chief decided to bus the student temporarily, while they explore their options.

According to reports, the bullying teens had been kicked out of school earlier that year. It would seem that while this assisted the school district in being able to function in its educational capacity, it left these young teens unsupervised all day long. It also left them without any intervening adults, no mentors, and very little hope of finding a better path to follow.

If they had been in second grade, we might have thought they were jealous of the good student, so started to pick on him. But now as young teens, adults see these challenging children as "Trouble," and there are few programs which will see past that label. Studies are showing that bullying behavior becomes resistant to change by the age of eight. "Resistant" does not mean it is impossible to change, just that it will not be as easy to teach.

It seems that studies keeping on proving that prevention programs are cost-effective and necessary. It seems that prevention programs are often the first to go in budget cuts, and in the mandatory curriculums being used to show higher academic achievement. But what is the point of better academic performance if the students cannot get along well with others? Politicians ought to reach beyond funding studies that tell us children need adult support, especially "tough" children, and start funding programs that will help them before a few more years slip away, and a new generation of bullies slip between the cracks of the system.

Learn more by visiting Dr. Jim Hopper's site at http://www.jimhopper.com/abstats/ and the Pandora's Box site that has much information on the topic of sex abuse at http://www.prevent-abuse-now.com/sitemap.htm.

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