What to do if you encounter bullying

The recent suicides of five middle and high school students who were relentlessly taunted because they were gay or thought to be gay have called national attention, once again, to the problem of bullying in schools.

Whether based on prejudice about someone’s race, religion, ethnicity or sexuality or just because a kid is different, bullying has had consequences for both victims and bullies.

So what should you do if you encounter students — or anyone, for that matter — being bullied? Fortunately, there are resources available and known strategies that work to help educators combat the problem.

The Department of Education’s Respect for All Initiative and Chancellor’s Regulation A-832 are your first resource. Each school should have Respect for All posters and at least one Respect for All representative. Talk to your chapter leader if you are interested in learning more about Respect for All.

A variety of organizations offer educational resources, lesson plans, videos and more for educators.

Though recent headlines have drawn attention to the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, many different students are bullied for many different reasons. Four teens were arrested in Staten Island for hate crime attacks on a Muslim student the same weekend nine people were arrested for torturing two teens and a 30-year-old in the Bronx for being gay.

The crisis of bullying in schools is compounded by the fact that New York City public schools have fewer and fewer resources to deal with children’s social and emotional development. Between budget cuts and test prep myopia, other aspects of education have been neglected.

There is one thing everyone can do every day to combat bullying and that is to be a visible ally for kids who are targeted. That means being explicit in our support for who they are, no matter who they are — letting them know that there is nothing wrong with being gay or Muslim or black or Latino or Asian; that there’s nothing wrong with walking with a limp or speaking with an accent or stutter; that no one deserves to be picked on because they are different in some way.

Too often youths are isolated and think that they have nowhere to turn. The suicides by LGBT students make clear that this population is at special risk; they may have no adults in their lives who support them. It’s important to make sure that all students know that they do have someone to turn to.