WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange resident and bullying/anti-bullying expert Randy Nathan brought his powerful presentation to the Jan. 16 Redwood PTA meeting. Nathan’s topic was “Conflict v. Bullying,” and discussed the challenges of the New Jersey anti-bullying law in school districts, the history of the law, facts about bullying and ways to begin addressing it.
Verbal bullying is the No. 1 form of bullying. It is estimated that 160,000 students call out sick nationally on any given school day because they are bullied. More than 30 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 10 experience bullying, which Bullying.gov describes as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.”
Nathan explained that student response to bullying is broken down with 10 percent being targeted students, 85 percent being bystanders and 5 percent being upstanders. The hope is that as parents and students are educated and encouraged, the number of upstanders will grow.
Photos Courtesy of WOSD
About the Author
