Bullying Prevention Month: Make Kindness Your Superpower!

Although once considered a “rite of passage,” bullying is no laughing matter. In the United States, 28 percent of students in grades 6–12 have experienced bullying, and approximately 30 percent of young people admit in surveys that they’ve bullied others. Additionally, more than 70 percent of students say they have seen bullying in their schools.*

Whether your child attends online school, is homeschooled, attends private school, or goes to your neighborhood school, bullying is a topic you need to address as a family. And, because October is National Bullying Awareness and Prevention Month, this is a great time to start your family’s conversation.

How Parents Can Learn About Bullying

To help parents learn about what they need to know about bullying, Connections Academy hosted a live online event where families could hear expert advice from school counselors. Families shared their experiences with overcoming bullying. 

Join the online conversation all month long by following Connections Academy on Facebook. We’ll be sharing great resources and stories of families who have overcome bullying.

Talk to Your Kids

Don’t make the mistake of thinking your kids are automatically safe from bullying in schools and from online bullying. Even if your child isn’t the target of bullying, he or she can be affected by seeing someone else victimized. Bullying can occur in school, during extracurricular activities, online, or in your own backyard, regardless of your race, religion, gender, or socioeconomic background.

Visit our Resource Hub for additional information about cyberbullying or social media bullying, effective ways to handle bullying, and helping children overcome bullying. We hope you’ll choose to get involved by talking with your kids and taking a stand against bullying.

Take the Kindness Pledge

One way to defeat types of bullying is to teach children to be kind to others. Already, Connections Academy parents, students, teachers, and school leaders worldwide have risen to our challenge and taken the Kindness Pledge—and we hope you’ll join us!

To make kindness your superpower, download our poem and pledge about kindness and print a copy for each person in your family. Read and discuss the poem, and have fun brainstorming for ideas of how you can be helpful and supportive of your friends, neighbors, and relatives and the needy people in your community. Have everyone sign the pledge, and hang it in a prominent place as a reminder!

To help show that kindness matters, why not see how far you can spread the Kindness Pledge movement? Hand out copies of the poem and pledge, and share this blog post on social media. Keep your Kindness Superhero partners updated throughout the month by telling them your ideas and successes. Make it a family affair—and soon your kids will realize how good they feel inside when they reach out to help others.

To learn how you can be more involved in your children’s education and enjoy opportunities to help them build character, visit the website for Connections Academy online public school. Or to learn about online private school, visit Pearson Online Academy ’s website.

* Research statistics can be found on https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html.