Bullying and Cyber Bullying

Recently the Legislature of the State of NJ voted to pass the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. Our State has been very aggressive in tackling the issue of bullying and cyber bullying. As a youngster school bullying is something that we all witnessed or experienced at one point, however the bullying antics experienced today by elementary, middle and high school students are nothing like those falling under "sticks and stones may break my bones...." Today bullying is far more severe and impacting largely due to young people having access to social networks via the internet and communicating via text amongst one another. Today bullying takes a psychological toll on many of our youth between the ages of 10-19 years of age. Frankly bullying of any type is an aggressive act, one that tends to aggravate instability and hopelessness in the minds of adolescents already struggling with stressful life circumstances. It is critical that we support our young people by implementing measures to insure their safety. I received the following from the Clark Public School district and I am sharing the steps that Clark is taking to address this issue with hopes that other school districts will follow Clark’s lead by implementing ways to communicate the severity of this issue to parents and to let the children know that they are not alone.