PANAMA CITY — Two local organizations partnered Friday to educate the community on how to help stop bullying.
The Student Advocacy Center of Bay County and the Bay County Chapter of the Rainbow Push Coalition — both headed by Greg Dossie — held a second roundtable discussion on bullying at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Center. A staff attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center and a private practice clinical social worker were on hand to guide the discussion.
“If (victims of bullying) are feeling helpless and hopeless … they are going to start to feel as worthless as the bully wants them to feel,” said social worker Kelly Shelton. In that state, they’re less likely to report bullying.
Kids of varying ages attended the event. When asked how many had been bullied, several students raised their hand. When asked what to do about bullying, most responded: “ignore the bully.”
Shelton said while children should report bullying, she said they should also participate in ending it. By creating an environment where bullying is intolerable, where other children dislike like the act, bullies will be less apt to attempt to bully, be it physical or psychological.
Stephanie Langer, SPLC staff attorney, talked to attendees about how to report bullying and their rights as students. She highlighted a “school to prison pipeline,” which starts at school, where many children are arrested for the first time in their lives.
Bullying is proportionally misinterpreted based on the race of the bully, according to Langer. When a minority-race child is merely teasing “as kids do,” she said that student is more likely to be arrested than a white child caught in the same act.
A system that is supposed to foster education initiates the first step to jail by expelling children, which leads to dropouts and, subsequently, arrests — especially in the case of minority students, Langer said.
Dossie told children at the discussion to report bullying to a teacher, principal and parent. Parents should file a formal complaint at the school district because, according to policy, the district has to respond to the situation within 10 days.