From Nijmie Dzurinko, Executive Director and Organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union:
Student leaders in 9 organizations across the City of Philadelphia are tackling issues of bullying and violence head on through the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools. The Campaign for Nonviolent Schools is a youth-created initiative geared toward eliminating school violence without pushing students into the criminal justice system.
The Campaign for Nonviolent Schools works on three levels of change: individual, school, and system-wide. Student leaders have actively adopted the philosophy and practice of nonviolent social change in the tradition of MLK and Ghandi. Through study and reflection they have come to understand the power in nonviolence. They have created their own definition of violence: power that hurts. By extension, nonviolence is not merely the absence of violence, but it is power that helps. So far they have trained over 500 students across the School District of Philadelphia in nonviolent principles and nonviolent action.
Secondly, the campaign is working to shift individual schools toward a vision of a Nonviolent School. Nonviolent schools share a number of characteristics. They create an atmosphere of personalization in which each member of the school community is treated with respect and dignity. They use restorative discipline practices which focus on repairing harm and preventing problems rather than simply reacting to them. They ensure that student’s voices are heard and that young people have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. And they strive to provide their students with the resources they need to succeed. This vision of a Nonviolent school has been created over the past year in interactive sessions with students from every neighborhood and background in the city of Philadelphia.
Members of the Campaign are also actively participating in the Blue Ribbon Commission on School Violence that is led by Mayor Nutter and Superintendant Arlene Ackerman. Through this and other avenues they seek to influence the School District’s discipline policy.
The Campaign launched on MLK day 2010 with a 600 person mobilization against school violence attended by State Representative Vanessa Brown and district Attorney Seth Williams. Members of the Campaign have also conducted two Nonviolent Flash-mobs to demonstrate to the community that youth can be an organized and disciplined force for good. In November 2010 they conducted a Youth Power Summit, training over 200 students from 46 Philadelphia High Schools in nonviolence, restorative practices, eliminating bias violence, understanding the school to prison pipeline, and student rights and responsibilities.
The Campaign for Nonviolent Schools was founded and continues to be led by the Philadelphia Student Union. Members are Philadelphia Freedom Schools, Asian Americans United, Citywide Student Government, BPSOS, the University Community Collaborate at Temple, Asian Students Association of Philadelphia, the Youth Commission, and Youth United for Change.
For more information visit: www.phillystudentunion.org
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From ESPN’s Matt Mosley:
Most of you have probably heard about a 13-year-old boy named Nadin Khoury from Philadelphia who was brutally attacked by seven bigger schoolmates two months ago. ESPN’s Rick Reilly watched three Eagles players surprise Khoury on a recent airing of ABC’s “The View,” and wrote a column about it:
Wide receiver DeSean Jackson, guard Todd Herremans and center Jamaal Jackson were the three players who walked onto the set. DeSean is Khoury’s favorite player in the league.
“Khoury seemed at once shocked, overwhelmed and redeemed,” writes Reilly. “Where once his chin stuck out as best it could, it now fell open in wonder. He looked like a kid who’d forgotten it was Christmas morning. He wept without wiping his tears. [DeSean] Jackson sat as close to him as possible, as if to make the two one. He praised the boy for his bravery and added, “Anytime ever you need us, I got two linemen right here.”
‘Nadin’s mom cried, Whoopi Goldberg cried, my wife cried and I cried.’
Continue reading here.
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The issue of bullying jumped to the top of our cultural radar screen with a series of tragic events in October 2010 and it hasn’t gone away. In a culture where we suffer from “National A.D.D.”; where stories drift away in a news cycle that is always scooping the next big issue before wrapping up the last; what is it about the age old topic of bullying that has kept us talking for months?
It appears to be a combination of something familiar and tangible; childhood memories of being on one side or the other of bullying, but with a new twist that has changed the game. Advances in technology have made “cyberbullying” an unavoidable new reality.
Cyberbullying allows the bully to act faster and easier with the potential for humiliation exponentially higher. In the not too distant past, publicly embarrassing a classmate would entail writing something incendiary on a bathroom wall. Today, classmates record physical abuse and upload it to YouTube for the entire world to see. Derogatory remarks can be posted on Facebook and Twitter for thousands of friends to see in an instant. A student who could once escape a bully when the school bell rang can now be harassed 24/7 with hurtful text messages.
The new role of parents is also touching a nerve. Technology has finally given adults the extra set of eyes they never had access to once the school bus drove away. Parents have traditionally had to trust that when children recount the highlights of their day at the dinner table, that they are indeed providing an accurate picture; the good, bad and in between.
Today, cruel acts of aggression that would have previously gone unreported are now on the permanent record; in text messages, on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and social media platforms that parents do not even know exist; parents are beginning to actually see what bullying in 2011 means. Cyberbulling has taken this problem from the schoolyard and put it in front of our faces, in our homes.
But how do we move forward? Closing this technological gap will be a matter of pro-active parenting. Children will not take the initiative to educate their parents on social media because they are inherently secretive and protective of their ability to communicate freely and candidly with friends. We as parents and educators will have to educate ourselves.
Here are some facts to consider:
¨ 93% of teens ages 12-17 go online
¨ 63% are online every day
¨ Cell phone ownership is up from 45% in 2004 to 71% in 2008
¨ Between 20-25% of students have been the victim of Cyber Bullying
¨ Victims of Cyber Bullying are more likely to suffer from low self esteem and suicidal thoughts
¨ 1/3 of teens reported being bullied at school
¨ Only 1/3 of bully victims reported the bullying to someone at school
¨ 44% of middle schools reported bullying problems, compared to just over 20% in elementary and high schools
The facts help us develop an action plan. For parents and school administrators to get a firmer handle on this new frontier, it will be necessary for all of us to re-train ourselves to:
¨ look for problems in different places;
¨ ask different questions;
¨ be in the trenches by learning the communication tools of children;
¨ resist the urge to simply pull the technological plug on children out of frustration;
¨ understand that the same social media tools that seem to be the problem today, will be the same tools that allow them to flourish in the new and evolving workforce tomorrow
¨ acknowledge the obvious: these tools will be available to children whether you want them to or not
Many of us are behind the learning curve. It is a high speed rail train that has left the station. It is difficult, at best, to slow it down. Slowing down forward progress will always be a losing battle. With initiative, collaboration, communication and commitment among parents, teachers and our children, we have a unique opportunity. The responsibility to catch up is not an option. If we love our children, it is required.
Councilwoman Blondel Reynolds Brown http://www.blondellonline.com/
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