Empowered children

It's one of every parent's worst nightmares -- learning your child is being bullied. We've all witnessed it before, or worse, experienced it ourselves -- and just pray that it won't happen to our own sweet babies.

Justin's school is very serious about equipping students with skills to confound bullies to keep them from being victims. To that end, the administration brought in an expert therapist with years of experience working with both children have been bullied, and ones doing the bullying. This past week, assemblies were held all day on Tuesday with all students from kindergarten on up to teach them strategies for protecting themselves and preventing future bullying.

The best part about this was that there was also a workshop held for parents to cover the same material, and understanding what to do and not to do if you discover your child is being bullied by another. The speaker was phenomenal, and very relatable. He gave some really practical advice on how to follow through on the training at home, as well as cautioning parents on what NOT to do should bullying become an issue for their child. The information actually transcends more than school students -- bullying, unfortunately, occurs all throughout our lives. It happens in our neighborhoods, our social circles, even the workplace. The speaker said it even occurs in nursing homes, and he wasn't kidding. Learning how to control our reactions to intimidating children (or adults) who perform verbal, physical, or social bullying is empowering to those on the receiving end of such abuse.

My husband and I both got a lot out of the session we attended. It made us feel good to know that there are things that can be done to stop and prevent bullying. And it reflects highly on the staff at the school that they take this widespread problem to heart and are working to do something about it.