Key week for bullying awareness

Bullying needs to be detected and addressed early! “By age 24, 60% of identified bullies have a criminal conviction. Young children who were labeled by their peers as bullies required more support from adults, from government agencies, had more court convictions, more alcoholism, more anti-social personality disorders and used more mental health services,” according to research by psychology professor Debra Pepler at York University (here’s a sample of her work . That’s just one of a group of statistics – some disturbing, some calls to action – that Bill Belsey pulled together and distributed to mark this week, Canada’s sixth-annual Bullying Awareness Week. A parent and teacher too, Bill is founder of the award-winning Bullying.org and Cyberbullying.ca. Here are some other eye-opening numbers from Dr. Pepler and other Canadian researchers (for more info, see BullyingAwarenessWeek.org):

Bullying is reduced in schools where principals are committed to reducing bullying.

See also the McGill News on an experience that brought cyberbullying home – literally – for cyberbullying expert and McGill University professor Shaheen Shariff; Tips to help stop cyberbullying; “Cyberbullying better defined“; “Online harassment: Not telling parents“; and “Teaching students to help stop cyberbullying.”