December 11, 2024 • 17 mins
Equipping students with effective tools to handle bullying is crucial for fostering a safe and supportive school environment. Today, we delve into two innovative anti-bullying programs implemented in Cobb County schools: "Stop, Walk, Talk" for elementary students and "Expect Respect" for middle and high schoolers. Join our host, David Owen, as he engages with Kelly McNabb, Director of Cobb's Student Assistance Programs, and Joslin Maxwell, Wellness Specialist, who share valuable insights on how these programs empower students to advocate for themselves and their peers. Together, they discuss the importance of fostering empathy, understanding the dynamics of bullying, and the role of bystanders in creating a culture of respect. Tune in to learn how these initiatives not only address bullying but also teach vital life skills that help children navigate social interactions throughout their lives.
Guests:
- Kelly McNabb, Director of Student Assistance Programs
- Joslin Maxwell, Wellness Specialist
Chapters:
- [00:00] - Equipping Students to Deal with Bullies
- [02:26] - Understanding Bullying: Definitions and Dynamics
- [06:09] - Understanding Bullying and Its Impact
- [09:36] - The Role of Bystanders in Bullying Situations
- [13:56] - Bullying Prevention Resources and Programs
- [15:59] - Introduction to Bullying Prevention Programs
(If the timecode links above don't work in your podcast player, visit "Podcast Home" below.)
Useful links from the podcast:
- Cobb Shield - This page contains info about Vector Alert, a resource for reporting safety concerns.
- In-depth on School Safety with Chris Ragsdale - Part 2 - The Inside Scoop - This episode features Superintendent Chris Ragsdale discussing bullying prevention as a component of Cobb's comprehensive safety initiatives.
- Student Assistance Programs
- Positive School Culture Support
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The Cobb County School District
Takeaways:
- Bullying is a persistent issue in schools, and equipping students with coping tools is essential.
- Parents often feel deeply affected by bullying incidents involving their children, whether as victims or aggressors.
- The definition of bullying includes intentional harm, an imbalance of power, and a pattern of behavior.
- Empowering bystanders to intervene...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Equipping students to dealwith bullies in Cobb is next on this
episode of the Inside Scoop.Hello and welcome back to the Inside
Scoop. I'm David Owen. Westrive to provide information here
that can help your studentreach their greatest level of success
in KOP schools. If you hearsomething helpful, give us a quick
(00:21):
like, subscribe and share itwith a friend. Bullying is something
that's been around forever.Parents and even staff aren't always
nearby to intervene. Soequipping students with the tools
to handle it is important.Here to tell us more about how Cobb
helps students handle bulliesare Kelly McNabb, director of Cobb's
(00:43):
student assistance programs,and Joslin Maxwell, wellness specialist.
Ladies, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, David.
So, like we said, bullying isjust one of those things that's been
around forever. And parents,it seems like it hits a nerve if
they find out their child wasbullied. And it even hits a nerve
(01:04):
with a lot of parents if theyfind out their child did the bullying.
So where do you think thatcomes from? Why are parents so offended
when something like bullying happens?
Well, as a parent of an 11year old daughter, she is in the
Cobb County School District, Idon't ever want her to, to be hurt
(01:26):
or to be sad or feeldiscomfort. And I think that's just
kind of the times we try toprotect our children to the best
we can. And especially when,you know, there's a conflict between
them and a friend, it ispersonal because you want to help
them solve it, but then youalso don't want to step in so much.
So they don't learn how tosolve their own problems. So it very
(01:48):
much is a balance and it canbe a struggle. And especially if
that, if bullying has happenedto you in the past, then you very
well would take that verypersonally and feel that for your
child.
Yeah.
And then on the flip side, youhave your, if your child is the one
distributing, demonstrating,excuse me, some bullying behaviors,
then also, like, I don't wantmy child to be the person who is
(02:11):
hurting someone else or, youknow, causing harm. So like you said,
it's that balance and it'sthat struggle as a parent to just
want the best for your children.
It's interesting how, howparents respond sometimes more dramatically
than the child themselves.Right. So we've been talking about,
we've been tossing around theterm bullying. Is there an official
(02:32):
definition of what bullyingactually is? Joslin?
Yes, there is. And I'm goingto put it in ways that I hope will
make it easy for everyone tounderstand the bullying behavior
would be purposeful. So it'snot something that just happens by
accident, oh, I accidentallyhurt your feelings or accidentally
bumped into you. It'ssomething that's intentional. Along
(02:54):
with it being purposeful,there's also typically an imbalance
of power. So that powerdifferential could be based on age,
it could be based on size, itcould be just based on kind of social
sway. Right. Somebody kind ofhas a higher social status than another.
Okay. So lots of differentthings could kind of play into that.
But there is that kind ofdifference in the power between the
(03:16):
person that is targeting andthen the person that's being targeted.
Also, there is a pattern ofbehavior. So it's not usually just
a one time occurrence. This issomething that's happening repeatedly.
And so that pattern is showingup over time or over multiple days
or weeks or months. Andlastly, just some sort of pain is
(03:40):
caused. So this can be aphysical pain occurs. A lot of times,
I feel like we kind of thinkabout that bullying in the movies
or something like that assomething that's happening in the
hallway or with the lockers,or it can be a physical harm that's
caused, but very often it's anemotional type of hurt that can be
caused too. So someone isintentionally left out, somebody
(04:03):
is intentionally teased. Andin today's age, often this can even
happen online. Socyberbullying is a big piece of bullying
in general as we're talkingabout it with being relevant to 2024.
Yeah. That's interesting thatyou brought that up because we hear
of that fairly frequently.Right. I mean, kids don't just relate
(04:25):
in the halls of schools. Theycan still stay connected afterwards
online. What if you have acircumstance in which the person
who is a victim or a target,really and truly, it's more of a
hypersensitivity to an issuethat somebody else might not find
(04:47):
an offense. Is that somethingthat's taken into account when considering
whether bullying even happened?
Sure. And you bring up areally good point. I know we're going
to kind of get to some of thebullying programming that's happening
in Cobb now, but the reasonwhy I am such a supporter of both
programs is because studentsare empowered to tell somebody to
(05:10):
stop if they don't like theway that they're treating them. And
so just like you, someonemight not even realize that it's
hurtful. But this is thenreally teaching students to have
a voice to advocate forthemselves so that they can let someone
know if they don't want themto continue saying what they're saying
or they don't want them tocontinue doing what they're doing.
So I feel like that life skillreally goes kind of across the board
(05:34):
relationally versus it justbeing bullying situations.
Yeah. So the alleged bullywould then know, hey, that's a line
that is not to be crossed forme. Even though you think it's just
fine.
Also, our programs really arefocused on expecting respect and
on having a school widelanguage where everybody knows what
(05:55):
the stop signal is, everybodyknows what's expected of them. And
regardless if it's actuallymeeting the definition of bullying
or not, we are expecting ourstudents and our staff and our families
to treat each other with respect.
Absolutely. So to that point,tell us more about the programs.
I understand that you've gotone program for elementary age, I
(06:17):
guess, and then middle andhigh school kind of together. Tell
us more about who would bebest to speak to that.
It would be Joslin.
It would be Joslin.
Okay.
So Stop, Walk and Talk isdesigned for our elementary school
students. And like Kelly justmentioned, at the elementary level,
students are taught not only astop phrase, and very often it's
just simply something likestop. But schools are able to make
(06:40):
it fit for, for what is bestfor their school community. So they
can kind of customize that.But there's also a signal that goes
along with it. Some schoolsare doing a stop signal just with
a hand raised. Some are doingkind of a timeout type of signal.
I was going to say that wouldbe my go to.
And so even very youngstudents or students that might have
(07:01):
some limitations with languageare able to communicate their needs
through the stop signal. Andif they let somebody know they want
them to stop what they'redoing and they don't, then the next
step is for them to walk away,kind of gain that proximity. That
might just kind of diffuse thesituation in and of itself. But if
they feel like it's stillongoing, then we're encouraging them
(07:23):
to talk to an adult. So eachstudent is kind of taught these steps
if they happen to change. Cobbschools, the steps are really similar
across the board. So they knowhow to handle different conflicts
as they come up, or like Kellysaid, just situations that they don't
feel are respectful when itcomes to just kind of relational
interactions.
Yeah, I like that. Crossschool, we do have a lot of students
(07:45):
that move from one school tothe next not by their choice, but
just parent jobs or what haveyou. So that's very helpful. Right?
Yeah.
So that was the elementarylevel. Elementary. What about the
upper levels? What are theyequipped with? How do you Treat that
the middle.
And high school students arelearning about the program, Expect
(08:06):
respect. The steps are reallyquite similar. Empowering the bystander
is across all levels. But Ifeel like maybe even more emphasized
with middle and high, someonethat's demonstrating bullying behavior
very often is getting somepeer support or some peer encouragement.
And so when a peer steps inand also delivers that stop message,
(08:30):
that can be really powerful.The person that's demonstrating bullying
behavior might be doing it tokind of raise their social status.
And so if it's not wellreceived, then that can be one of
the best ways to change theirbehavior. At the middle and high
level. We also have studentsthat are on an advisory council because
(08:50):
we know that we want realstudent input. We want to hear their
honest voices about thingsthat are happening, areas of concern,
and then they can come up withtheir own plans supported by the
staff at their schools, butthat they can reach students directly.
At a middle school. Recentlywe had their advisory council students
(09:11):
distributing stickers of theExpect respect poster to every single
student. And so they went intothe homerooms, they talked about
the steps as a review, andthen they helped them put the stickers
on their laptops or theiragendas so that students were hearing
from other students about howimportant this is.
Yeah, you're right. I mean,when it comes to influence, adults
can say all they want, but apeer saying something makes a big,
(09:35):
big difference. And that'sinteresting because we started this
conversation talking aboutbully and victim or target, but it's
the bystander that apparentlyhas the most power in the situation,
right?
Right.
Well, there's power innumbers. And more students are going
to fall into the camp of abystander than the person demonstrating
(09:55):
the bullying behavior orsomebody receiving on that target
end. So if the majority ofstudents feel comfortable jumping
in and asking somebody to stopor talking to an adult on that targeted
students behalf to get themhelp, that can make a real big difference
in changing the behaviorstowards what we want them to be respectful
for.
(10:15):
All kind of makes a social norm.
It does. It really does.
So you got two sets of parentshere, right? I've been on both sides
of this. So I have anappreciation for the parents, of
course, of the child who isbeing bullied or allegedly being
bullied. And then you've alsogot the parents of the child doing
the bullying. Now, in mostcases, those parents are not proud
(10:39):
of their child's activity.Right. So how can parents step in
and intervene in a way that'seffective and kind of team up with
school leadership on helpingto get things tamped down from this
bullying situation.
I really believe that everyhurtful incident and it doesn't matter
(11:00):
which side of that situationyou're on as far as target or the
person that's hurting orharming, but every hurtful incident
is a teachable moment. Sohaving parents or family members
collaborate with school staffto talk about what happened and what
could occur differently nexttime and how can we support each
(11:23):
other and how can we bekinder. I feel like just having those
ongoing conversations if therewas an incident that happened, but
also continuing to talk aboutjust what are social dynamics like
as a preteen or a teen,keeping those open ended questions
flowing. I feel like as anadult to be able to say, you know,
what's your favorite partabout riding the bus? What's been
(11:45):
the greatest challenge withgetting along with your friends lately?
Talking about things that arekind of in their life so that you
know where the bumpy partsmight be coming up even before an
incident occurs. But you mightbe able to equip them to be ready
if something were to happen.And also a big believer in just role
playing empathy as many timesas possible because we know that's
(12:07):
so beneficial for our kids. Soif somebody's thinking about kind
of hurting to gain a littlebit of power. Right. Really stopping
to think about what's it likeon that receiving end. So we can
do that with TV examples, justthings that are happening in real
life, things that might comeup within our family or our neighborhood.
But I think continuallytapping into empathy is something
that can really help a studentto do the right thing.
(12:30):
Yeah. Just paying attention tohow things are received. You started
to say something, Kelly. I'm sorry.
And I was going to say also ifyou do hear that your child is being
bullied, then making sure thatyou're working with the school teacher,
you're working with theadministration. And we also have
a vector tip line in thedistrict that you can report bullying.
But I would say starting withyour child's teacher to discuss what
(12:52):
are some ways that we can helpthem manage this situation so that
they don't think they tohandle it on their own and handle
it in an inappropriate way.
So ideally handling it asclose to the location, for example
the school, is the idealscenario. But it's interesting, I
didn't even think of thevector tip line as being a resource
(13:12):
available. That doesn'tnecessarily mean the police are going
to be storming the halls ofthe Right. So what happens in that
scenario? Whoever receivesthat tip then Contacts, you guys
or how does that work?
They would contact the school.They would do some investigating
and contact the school if itwas deemed necessary to do so. But
(13:35):
like I said, I stronglyrecommend starting with the school
first.
Go direct. That always works.And if I may, I would recommend watching
Back to the Future. I thinkthat was a great lesson in how bullying
should not happen.
Good reminder.
Sorry, just a little sidetracked.
You took it way back.
Yeah, way back to the Future.Okay, so where can parents learn
(13:58):
more about these programs thatyou guys have launched?
Well, if you go into any ofour schools, you should see these
bullying prevention posters inour elementary schools. Again, stopwalk
talk. That gives the detailsfor what do you do if you're being
bullied or if you see bullyingoccur. And then also, of course,
expect respect in our middleand high schools. And so you will
(14:20):
see those posted throughoutthe. Also, you should check out our
social media for the CobbCounty School District. Our post,
we did a really cool bullyingprevention poster contest for the
month of October inconjunction with the visual arts
department. And so we had somevery talented students across the
district submit entries andyou should see some of those being
(14:41):
posted, well, a few weeks ago,until hopefully for the rest of the
school year, of some reallycool posters where they took the
theme of the expect respectand stopwalk talk and they made it
their own and how it touches them.
Yeah, I was going to say, Ibet that's really insightful into
what they themselves haveexperienced. Right? Wow. Well, this
(15:02):
is all fascinating. Looking atit from the outside. I'm glad I'm
not still in middle school andbullying being a thing and the terminology,
frankly, going back especiallyto the elementary years program.
What was the name of it again?
Stop walk talk.
Okay. Those are all hardthings for me. Parents can hear those
(15:26):
terms and reemphasize them athome. Right. I mean, just get that
as kind of the standard way ofthinking about how you respond to
a bully.
And we have heard stories ofsome of our colleagues talking about
their kids coming home andsaying doing the stop signal, stop.
Or putting their hand up totheir siblings. So it is certainly
being heard. It's beingunderstood by our students and we
(15:49):
have first hand examples of that.
Okay. I would love to see aparent's response to that in the
kitchen when two. Never mind.
Right, exactly.
Pulling too much on mypersonal experience. Well, thank
you ladies for coming in andsharing so much about these two great
programs. These were justimplemented, I guess this year, this
school year.
We actually startedimplementation of these specific
(16:11):
programs last year, but wehave been doing bullying prevention
in the district since I'vebeen here for 24 years.
Okay. But these specificprograms just essentially just rolled
out. So, ladies, thank you somuch for sharing about these two
programs. They are enormouslyhelpful, I would think, for the students
to have to be equipped withhow to respond to these issues that
it might feel like they're inover their heads on. So thank you
(16:35):
so much for helping ourstudents along in life.
Well, thank you for having us.
And if you found somethinghelpful in this podcast, and I think
each and every one of usprobably has, make sure you give
us a. Like, subscribe andshare it with a friend. You never
know if that friend's familymight be dealing with bullying, and
that's not the sort of thingthat they're normally going to talk
(16:55):
about. So just share it andit's available if they need it. Also,
if somebody is interested inhearing this podcast, they can find
us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts,iHeart Podcasts, Spotify, and, frankly,
wherever you normally get yourpodcasts. So thank you for listening
to this edition of the InsideScoop, a podcast produced by the
(17:16):
Cobb County School District.
Equipping students to dealwith bullies in Cobb is next on this
episode of the Inside Scoop.Hello and welcome back to the Inside
Scoop. I'm David Owen. Westrive to provide information here
that can help your studentreach their greatest level of success
in KOP schools. If you hearsomething helpful, give us a quick
(00:21):
like, subscribe and share itwith a friend. Bullying is something
that's been around forever.Parents and even staff aren't always
nearby to intervene. Soequipping students with the tools
to handle it is important.Here to tell us more about how Cobb
helps students handle bulliesare Kelly McNabb, director of Cobb's
(00:43):
student assistance programs,and Joslin Maxwell, wellness specialist.
Ladies, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, David.
So, like we said, bullying isjust one of those things that's been
around forever. And parents,it seems like it hits a nerve if
they find out their child wasbullied. And it even hits a nerve
(01:04):
with a lot of parents if theyfind out their child did the bullying.
So where do you think thatcomes from? Why are parents so offended
when something like bullying happens?
Well, as a parent of an 11year old daughter, she is in the
Cobb County School District, Idon't ever want her to, to be hurt
(01:26):
or to be sad or feeldiscomfort. And I think that's just
kind of the times we try toprotect our children to the best
we can. And especially when,you know, there's a conflict between
them and a friend, it ispersonal because you want to help
them solve it, but then youalso don't want to step in so much.
So they don't learn how tosolve their own problems. So it very
(01:48):
much is a balance and it canbe a struggle. And especially if
that, if bullying has happenedto you in the past, then you very
well would take that verypersonally and feel that for your
child.
Yeah.
And then on the flip side, youhave your, if your child is the one
distributing, demonstrating,excuse me, some bullying behaviors,
then also, like, I don't wantmy child to be the person who is
(02:11):
hurting someone else or, youknow, causing harm. So like you said,
it's that balance and it'sthat struggle as a parent to just
want the best for your children.
It's interesting how, howparents respond sometimes more dramatically
than the child themselves.Right. So we've been talking about,
we've been tossing around theterm bullying. Is there an official
(02:32):
definition of what bullyingactually is? Joslin?
Yes, there is. And I'm goingto put it in ways that I hope will
make it easy for everyone tounderstand the bullying behavior
would be purposeful. So it'snot something that just happens by
accident, oh, I accidentallyhurt your feelings or accidentally
bumped into you. It'ssomething that's intentional. Along
(02:54):
with it being purposeful,there's also typically an imbalance
of power. So that powerdifferential could be based on age,
it could be based on size, itcould be just based on kind of social
sway. Right. Somebody kind ofhas a higher social status than another.
Okay. So lots of differentthings could kind of play into that.
But there is that kind ofdifference in the power between the
(03:16):
person that is targeting andthen the person that's being targeted.
Also, there is a pattern ofbehavior. So it's not usually just
a one time occurrence. This issomething that's happening repeatedly.
And so that pattern is showingup over time or over multiple days
or weeks or months. Andlastly, just some sort of pain is
(03:40):
caused. So this can be aphysical pain occurs. A lot of times,
I feel like we kind of thinkabout that bullying in the movies
or something like that assomething that's happening in the
hallway or with the lockers,or it can be a physical harm that's
caused, but very often it's anemotional type of hurt that can be
caused too. So someone isintentionally left out, somebody
(04:03):
is intentionally teased. Andin today's age, often this can even
happen online. Socyberbullying is a big piece of bullying
in general as we're talkingabout it with being relevant to 2024.
Yeah. That's interesting thatyou brought that up because we hear
of that fairly frequently.Right. I mean, kids don't just relate
(04:25):
in the halls of schools. Theycan still stay connected afterwards
online. What if you have acircumstance in which the person
who is a victim or a target,really and truly, it's more of a
hypersensitivity to an issuethat somebody else might not find
(04:47):
an offense. Is that somethingthat's taken into account when considering
whether bullying even happened?
Sure. And you bring up areally good point. I know we're going
to kind of get to some of thebullying programming that's happening
in Cobb now, but the reasonwhy I am such a supporter of both
programs is because studentsare empowered to tell somebody to
(05:10):
stop if they don't like theway that they're treating them. And
so just like you, someonemight not even realize that it's
hurtful. But this is thenreally teaching students to have
a voice to advocate forthemselves so that they can let someone
know if they don't want themto continue saying what they're saying
or they don't want them tocontinue doing what they're doing.
So I feel like that life skillreally goes kind of across the board
(05:34):
relationally versus it justbeing bullying situations.
Yeah. So the alleged bullywould then know, hey, that's a line
that is not to be crossed forme. Even though you think it's just
fine.
Also, our programs really arefocused on expecting respect and
on having a school widelanguage where everybody knows what
(05:55):
the stop signal is, everybodyknows what's expected of them. And
regardless if it's actuallymeeting the definition of bullying
or not, we are expecting ourstudents and our staff and our families
to treat each other with respect.
Absolutely. So to that point,tell us more about the programs.
I understand that you've gotone program for elementary age, I
(06:17):
guess, and then middle andhigh school kind of together. Tell
us more about who would bebest to speak to that.
It would be Joslin.
It would be Joslin.
Okay.
So Stop, Walk and Talk isdesigned for our elementary school
students. And like Kelly justmentioned, at the elementary level,
students are taught not only astop phrase, and very often it's
just simply something likestop. But schools are able to make
(06:40):
it fit for, for what is bestfor their school community. So they
can kind of customize that.But there's also a signal that goes
along with it. Some schoolsare doing a stop signal just with
a hand raised. Some are doingkind of a timeout type of signal.
I was going to say that wouldbe my go to.
And so even very youngstudents or students that might have
(07:01):
some limitations with languageare able to communicate their needs
through the stop signal. Andif they let somebody know they want
them to stop what they'redoing and they don't, then the next
step is for them to walk away,kind of gain that proximity. That
might just kind of diffuse thesituation in and of itself. But if
they feel like it's stillongoing, then we're encouraging them
(07:23):
to talk to an adult. So eachstudent is kind of taught these steps
if they happen to change. Cobbschools, the steps are really similar
across the board. So they knowhow to handle different conflicts
as they come up, or like Kellysaid, just situations that they don't
feel are respectful when itcomes to just kind of relational
interactions.
Yeah, I like that. Crossschool, we do have a lot of students
(07:45):
that move from one school tothe next not by their choice, but
just parent jobs or what haveyou. So that's very helpful. Right?
Yeah.
So that was the elementarylevel. Elementary. What about the
upper levels? What are theyequipped with? How do you Treat that
the middle.
And high school students arelearning about the program, Expect
(08:06):
respect. The steps are reallyquite similar. Empowering the bystander
is across all levels. But Ifeel like maybe even more emphasized
with middle and high, someonethat's demonstrating bullying behavior
very often is getting somepeer support or some peer encouragement.
And so when a peer steps inand also delivers that stop message,
(08:30):
that can be really powerful.The person that's demonstrating bullying
behavior might be doing it tokind of raise their social status.
And so if it's not wellreceived, then that can be one of
the best ways to change theirbehavior. At the middle and high
level. We also have studentsthat are on an advisory council because
(08:50):
we know that we want realstudent input. We want to hear their
honest voices about thingsthat are happening, areas of concern,
and then they can come up withtheir own plans supported by the
staff at their schools, butthat they can reach students directly.
At a middle school. Recentlywe had their advisory council students
(09:11):
distributing stickers of theExpect respect poster to every single
student. And so they went intothe homerooms, they talked about
the steps as a review, andthen they helped them put the stickers
on their laptops or theiragendas so that students were hearing
from other students about howimportant this is.
Yeah, you're right. I mean,when it comes to influence, adults
can say all they want, but apeer saying something makes a big,
(09:35):
big difference. And that'sinteresting because we started this
conversation talking aboutbully and victim or target, but it's
the bystander that apparentlyhas the most power in the situation,
right?
Right.
Well, there's power innumbers. And more students are going
to fall into the camp of abystander than the person demonstrating
(09:55):
the bullying behavior orsomebody receiving on that target
end. So if the majority ofstudents feel comfortable jumping
in and asking somebody to stopor talking to an adult on that targeted
students behalf to get themhelp, that can make a real big difference
in changing the behaviorstowards what we want them to be respectful
for.
(10:15):
All kind of makes a social norm.
It does. It really does.
So you got two sets of parentshere, right? I've been on both sides
of this. So I have anappreciation for the parents, of
course, of the child who isbeing bullied or allegedly being
bullied. And then you've alsogot the parents of the child doing
the bullying. Now, in mostcases, those parents are not proud
(10:39):
of their child's activity.Right. So how can parents step in
and intervene in a way that'seffective and kind of team up with
school leadership on helpingto get things tamped down from this
bullying situation.
I really believe that everyhurtful incident and it doesn't matter
(11:00):
which side of that situationyou're on as far as target or the
person that's hurting orharming, but every hurtful incident
is a teachable moment. Sohaving parents or family members
collaborate with school staffto talk about what happened and what
could occur differently nexttime and how can we support each
(11:23):
other and how can we bekinder. I feel like just having those
ongoing conversations if therewas an incident that happened, but
also continuing to talk aboutjust what are social dynamics like
as a preteen or a teen,keeping those open ended questions
flowing. I feel like as anadult to be able to say, you know,
what's your favorite partabout riding the bus? What's been
(11:45):
the greatest challenge withgetting along with your friends lately?
Talking about things that arekind of in their life so that you
know where the bumpy partsmight be coming up even before an
incident occurs. But you mightbe able to equip them to be ready
if something were to happen.And also a big believer in just role
playing empathy as many timesas possible because we know that's
(12:07):
so beneficial for our kids. Soif somebody's thinking about kind
of hurting to gain a littlebit of power. Right. Really stopping
to think about what's it likeon that receiving end. So we can
do that with TV examples, justthings that are happening in real
life, things that might comeup within our family or our neighborhood.
But I think continuallytapping into empathy is something
that can really help a studentto do the right thing.
(12:30):
Yeah. Just paying attention tohow things are received. You started
to say something, Kelly. I'm sorry.
And I was going to say also ifyou do hear that your child is being
bullied, then making sure thatyou're working with the school teacher,
you're working with theadministration. And we also have
a vector tip line in thedistrict that you can report bullying.
But I would say starting withyour child's teacher to discuss what
(12:52):
are some ways that we can helpthem manage this situation so that
they don't think they tohandle it on their own and handle
it in an inappropriate way.
So ideally handling it asclose to the location, for example
the school, is the idealscenario. But it's interesting, I
didn't even think of thevector tip line as being a resource
(13:12):
available. That doesn'tnecessarily mean the police are going
to be storming the halls ofthe Right. So what happens in that
scenario? Whoever receivesthat tip then Contacts, you guys
or how does that work?
They would contact the school.They would do some investigating
and contact the school if itwas deemed necessary to do so. But
(13:35):
like I said, I stronglyrecommend starting with the school
first.
Go direct. That always works.And if I may, I would recommend watching
Back to the Future. I thinkthat was a great lesson in how bullying
should not happen.
Good reminder.
Sorry, just a little sidetracked.
You took it way back.
Yeah, way back to the Future.Okay, so where can parents learn
(13:58):
more about these programs thatyou guys have launched?
Well, if you go into any ofour schools, you should see these
bullying prevention posters inour elementary schools. Again, stopwalk
talk. That gives the detailsfor what do you do if you're being
bullied or if you see bullyingoccur. And then also, of course,
expect respect in our middleand high schools. And so you will
(14:20):
see those posted throughoutthe. Also, you should check out our
social media for the CobbCounty School District. Our post,
we did a really cool bullyingprevention poster contest for the
month of October inconjunction with the visual arts
department. And so we had somevery talented students across the
district submit entries andyou should see some of those being
(14:41):
posted, well, a few weeks ago,until hopefully for the rest of the
school year, of some reallycool posters where they took the
theme of the expect respectand stopwalk talk and they made it
their own and how it touches them.
Yeah, I was going to say, Ibet that's really insightful into
what they themselves haveexperienced. Right? Wow. Well, this
(15:02):
is all fascinating. Looking atit from the outside. I'm glad I'm
not still in middle school andbullying being a thing and the terminology,
frankly, going back especiallyto the elementary years program.
What was the name of it again?
Stop walk talk.
Okay. Those are all hardthings for me. Parents can hear those
(15:26):
terms and reemphasize them athome. Right. I mean, just get that
as kind of the standard way ofthinking about how you respond to
a bully.
And we have heard stories ofsome of our colleagues talking about
their kids coming home andsaying doing the stop signal, stop.
Or putting their hand up totheir siblings. So it is certainly
being heard. It's beingunderstood by our students and we
(15:49):
have first hand examples of that.
Okay. I would love to see aparent's response to that in the
kitchen when two. Never mind.
Right, exactly.
Pulling too much on mypersonal experience. Well, thank
you ladies for coming in andsharing so much about these two great
programs. These were justimplemented, I guess this year, this
school year.
We actually startedimplementation of these specific
(16:11):
programs last year, but wehave been doing bullying prevention
in the district since I'vebeen here for 24 years.
Okay. But these specificprograms just essentially just rolled
out. So, ladies, thank you somuch for sharing about these two
programs. They are enormouslyhelpful, I would think, for the students
to have to be equipped withhow to respond to these issues that
it might feel like they're inover their heads on. So thank you
(16:35):
so much for helping ourstudents along in life.
Well, thank you for having us.
And if you found somethinghelpful in this podcast, and I think
each and every one of usprobably has, make sure you give
us a. Like, subscribe andshare it with a friend. You never
know if that friend's familymight be dealing with bullying, and
that's not the sort of thingthat they're normally going to talk
(16:55):
about. So just share it andit's available if they need it. Also,
if somebody is interested inhearing this podcast, they can find
us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts,iHeart Podcasts, Spotify, and, frankly,
wherever you normally get yourpodcasts. So thank you for listening
to this edition of the InsideScoop, a podcast produced by the
(17:16):
Cobb County School District.
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