Stand Up To Bullies

When I was first appointed as a trustee at a school I was put on a committee called “learning environment.” I had never heard of this committee before and had no idea what it did or had done. Not a plum assignment as far as I was concerned. It was not my only committee, but since I was assigned to it I took it seriously.

I went to my first very polite meeting which was chaired by a nice women who was an upper school parent, had never been a trustee and only ever had students in the upper school. I had been through pre-school, lower school and at the time had a new middle school student. I had a different perspective.

If my memory served me, my first meeting was a report about how Chinese language classes were going. It was interesting, but at the end I asked what our call to action was concerning Chinese? Nothing. Trying not to be too much of a trouble maker, I asked what our purpose as a committee was? No good answer was provided.

I then asked when our next meeting was and what the topic was going to be. I was told we met twice a year and heard reports. The next one was about something similar to Chinese. It was then I asked, “When might we discuss bullying?” The chair asked why I brought that up. I said, bullying is a problem in middle school that actually affects the learning environment, so I assumed it would fall under our preview.

The chair took my question to heart and bullying became an issue we dealt with. No more nice reports were made at meetings and we started meeting with much more frequency.

The program this school went on adopt was called Olweus bullying prevention program. The program taught children to not be bystanders when they witnessed bullying, but to become allies. Bullies prey on the weak and count on others to be too afraid to become a victim of the bully themselves. Once kids were taught that there was strength in numbers and kindness toward the victim took the power from the bully. The bullying diminished when the bully was now the one on the outside.

Today Janet Mills, Governor of Maine stood up to a bully. We need more strong people to do the same. I am an ally of Janet Mills. I support Maine and the good people of Maine who elected this strong woman who was not afraid to tell the bully no. Other governors need to learn to Olweus method and stand together in strength and kindness.