National Bullying Prevention Month 2022
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and we thought this what the perfect time to shed some light on bullying. Bullying is a big issue in the United States, it’s impacting children nationwide can be very harmful, but there are steps being put into place to help turn things around.
Read on to learn more about National Bullying Prevention Month, and what you can do to get involved.
What is National Bullying Prevention Month?
Every October, schools, as well as various organizations all come together to acknowledge National Bullying Prevention Month. The goal is to have people come together to help educate others on bullying and to encourage schools as well as communities to put a stop to bullying.
National Bullying Prevention Month was started as a way to help increase awareness of how all forms of bullying are impacting all age groups.
What is Being Done About Bullying Nationwide?
Organizations such as STOMP Out Bullying and PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center work all year long to help bring awareness to bullying.
However, every October during National Bullying Prevention Month, people from around the world will come together to:
Encourage various organizations to share anti-bullying awareness resources
Host bullying awareness events at school or in your community
Inspire others to come together for kindness and create a world without bullying
Create a campaign to help the nation in creating safer and more supportive schools without bullying
Partner with ambassadors who are changing the world with their efforts to share the message of National Bullying Prevention Month
Share information through news media and online through social media platforms like Facebook
When Did National Bullying Prevention Month Start?
The idea of National Bullying Prevention Month started in 2006 by PACER, the National Bullying Prevention Center.
PACER National Bullying Prevention
The organization that started it all, PACER does amazing work, tirelessly trying to help put a stop to bullying nationwide. This year, they offered National Bullying Prevention Month tee-shirts, provided activities for all grade levels, including elementary, middle, and high school, to open the conversation about bullying.
PACER also provides classroom toolkits to use throughout the month of October. These resources are still available online here to help get students involved in creating a world without bullying.
PACER also offers year-long classroom lesson plans called ALL-IN, which is a great resource for someone to present to a classroom or a community organization to present on the topic of bullying. You can find that here.
What You Need to Know About Bullying
Bullying is a huge and devastating issue that’s happening in our country’s schools every single day, and the statistics are frightening. According to the National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice, in 2017, 20% of students aged 12-18 had experienced bullying nationwide. It was also found that a whopping 70.6% of young students noted that they had seen bullying happen.
Most bullying was found to occur in school, outside on school grounds, or on the school bus. However, cyberbullying is also becoming a much bigger issue as more and more people are using smartphones, tablets, and computers as their primary means of communication. The same survey that looked at the percentage of students bullied in schools, also found that 15% of students between the ages of 12-18 had been bullied online or through text.
Bullying is a big issue and something that we all need to be talking more about, both in the classroom and at home. It’s something that can increase the risk of depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation, and these can all increase the risk of suicide.
How Can You Get Involved?
So, what can you do to get involved? Even through National Bullying Prevention Month is just the month of October, there’s no better time than now to get involved and make an impact. You can get involved in your own local community anti-bullying organization, or get involved in large organizations like PACER.
You can see what you can do to get involved with PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center here. Some of the ways to get involved include purchasing their World Without Bullying Resource Kit, which shares ways to help us all understand how we can help put a stop to bullying.
You can also get your child’s school involved by hosting an awareness day or get your community involved by hosting something like an anti-bullying race, or anti-bullying awareness community day and share resources provided from organizations like PACER.
We all have a duty to help create a safer world for us all to live in. If we all did just one small thing towards bringing awareness to the issue of bullying, we could all be a part of a much large mission. One small step towards education and awareness can help keep the ball rolling in preventing bullying worldwide and creating safer and kinder school environments for generations to come.
Read More About National Bullying Prevention Month
Sources
Stop Bulling. Facts About Bullying. Accessed October 1, 2022 at https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html#stats
Pacer. October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Accessed October 1, 2022 at https://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/
