To Combat Bullying – Collaborate

WILDWOOD – Bullying and domestic violence can be considered as silent menaces to victims who frequently do not have the confidence to speak up or have been threatened anew if they do so. 
In a conference to prevent those vicious forms of behavior that are growing in prevalence, County Prosecutor Robert Taylor, June 5 spearheaded workshops and information exchanges at the Wildwoods Convention Center.
The event was to assist educators, counselors, law enforcement, recreation employees, social workers, and parents cope with the effects of this exploding social problem.
Dr. Claudio Cerullo, a school administrator and author focusing on helping families with bullied children, spoke about “restoring peace … one child at a time.”
He then delved into the issue in a breakout session he led on how bullying affects children with special needs. Other workshops addressed the topics of cyberbullying, sexting and teen dating violence.
Cerullo was supported in his session by Daniela Redpath, a specialist in anti-bullying. Her 15-year-old son, David, is both autistic as well as a bullied child as was Cerullo when he was growing up.
“Special needs children are different, and this makes them a magnet for others to bully them or prey on them. There are various kinds of bullying, physical, verbal, cyber and relational, but all are designed by the perpetrator to gain control, exploit or make friendship or other ‘reward’ conditional on doing what that person wants the victim to do,” explained Redpath.
“The biggest thing parents can do is to ask questions,” advised Cerullo.
“Many parents say they don’t know what their children are looking at on the computer, who they’re talking to via their phones, but they should. They need to monitor all those kinds of contacts, have the passwords of their children and shut things down including access to the internet on a periodic basis.
“Many parents truly are clueless even about who their child’s friends are. We are trying very hard to bring a collaborative effort among school personnel to combat bullying, but the right home environment is crucial to support that work,” he continued.  
Cerullo noted that about two-thirds of special-needs children are bullied compared to about one-third of “normal children,” saying that while parents want their special-needs children to have contact with regular classroom situations many times, because of the bullying, this initiative backfires and hurts the child more than staying in a non-mainstreamed path. 
During the session, many participants shared their personal experiences of having children or grandchildren who faced bullying as special-needs students or students who were grappling with depression, anxiety, or various types of addiction.
All can lead to terrible consequences as teenagers and even those as young as in elementary school struggle with problems well beyond their control or capacity to cope.
How can parents support the work of those dedicated to keeping the school environment as safe as possible, whether it be the bus, locker room, cafeteria or hallways?
Keep an open line of communication with the child, and make it a daily ritual to eat at least one meal together where everyone can share that day’s news and activities.
Get the child engaged in an activity or volunteer opportunity that they look forward to; not every child wants to play sports which many times can get too competitive – mostly because of the parents per the conference speakers.
The bottom line is that with the school and parents working collaboratively to support all children, whatever their needs, orientation, or areas of strengths and challenges, all schools can ensure a better learning environment for their students.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.