CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – From students facing issues with friends and negative comments from others, online bullying in schools can be a major problem.
It’s Bullying Prevention Month, and 10 News spoke with two school counselors about what is being done to address the issue and make children feel safe.
Counselor Jane Greenough at Falling Branch Elementary said they try to help younger kids understand the definition of bullying.
“They don’t always understand what bullying is sometimes. When someone is mean, and they do something one time, that’s not bullying. Bullying is when someone does something over and over again repeatedly to try to cause an imbalance of power,” said Greenough.
She said they also help children understand their feelings through a social and emotional curriculum where kids watch short videos that teach them about mindfulness, how to respond to their feelings and ways to speak with their friends.
Greenough said they have one-on-one counseling with kids as well as group therapy to address the issue as well.
When it comes to cyberbullying, Greenough said the issue isn’t a problem that much at the elementary school level, but she has noticed it with the fifth graders.
“A lot of times, it might be relationship-related. It might be that girls are targeting another girl, and they are saying mean things, like about their appearance, or it might be a relationship like ‘I like this guy; you don’t like this guy,’” said Greenough.
Greenough said they try to teach students to think about what they are posting online, and they speak with everyone involved.
When it comes to bullying in high schools, Counselor Kristen Scott with Martinsville High said they encourage students to speak up and say something if they notice someone else is being bullied at school.
“At the end of the day, kids listen to their peers more than they’ll ever listen to parents, teachers or adults. They’ll listen to people who they think are cool and that’s their peers,” said Scott.
Another method used to address bullying at Martinsville High is called restoration. This involves the school counselors speaking with the person who is being bullied and the bully.
Scott said there are several consequences for bullying. One major consequence is suspension. However, how the school handles it depends on the case.
Meanwhile, when it comes to cyberbullying, she said they see about three cases a week. While she understands what’s posted online can affect them at school, she said it’s hard for the school to do anything about it if it’s something that is posted at home.
“We are very limited on what we can do because we can’t force kids to delete posts. We don’t have the power to do that. We don’t have the power to go through their phones or delete things or make them delete things. This is very much a parent thing,” said Scott.
Scott said they try to prevent the bullying from ever occurring in the first place.
“Last month was Suicide Prevention Month, so we went around to classrooms and talked about things that would make you more at risk for harming yourself and that was listed as one of the things. We gave some examples of people who have been cyberbullied and unfortunately, harmed themselves, not like people that we know, but famous cases,” said Scott.
Scott said the ordinance that Governor Glenn Youngkin passed banning cell phones in all Virginia schools has helped a lot when it comes to cyberbullying. Greenough agrees as well that the ban on cell phones has made a big difference.
When it comes to how parents can work with the school system to make sure that the issue of bullying is addressed, Scott said she thinks parents can be involved and aware of what their children are doing online.
“A lot of times when we end up catching something and we report it to parents, they had no idea that their child was even on some of the apps that they were on,” said Scott.
Greenough added that parents should try to understand what bullying is and encourage students to speak with their teachers.