TOPEKA — Schools across the state are observing Kansas Anti-Bullying Awareness Week this week.
“By resolution, the Kansas Senate and the Kansas State Board of Education have declared the first full week of October Bullying Awareness Week,” said Kent Reed, Education Programs Consultant , Counseling and Social-Emotional Character Development, for the State of Kansas. The Ministry of Education Guidance, Standards and Assessment Services team. “In the past, we have chosen a theme, but our experience is that local school districts prefer to choose their own.”
However, the KSDE school mental health team is challenging individuals and schools across the state to wear pink to raise awareness and address the harm caused by bullying, Reed said. Take a picture of yourself wearing pink and share it on social media platforms with the hashtag #BullyingStopsHere. Be sure to tag @ksdehq.
KSDE also partnered with the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Kansas Children’s Service League, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) to create the Choose Peace poster. The poster lists phone numbers and a QR code that students can use to report threats of school violence, bullying and suspicious activity. Resources are: Kansas School Safety Hotline (threats of school violence): (877) 626-8203.
Helpline for parents and young people (bullying): (800) CHILDREN.
Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) (QR code available on poster): https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
The poster can be downloaded here. The 2022 Communities That Care survey, which is conducted annually and anonymously among students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12, shows that 27.7% of respondents had been bullied at least once in their of the past month. At least 52.8% had seen someone being bullied, and more than 20% of students surveyed said they had been bullied at school once or twice a month or more frequently.
The survey shows that more than a third of students said that when they see bullying at school, an adult stops it and solves the problem.
Nationally, about 20 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 have been bullied, according to stopbullying.gov, a United States government website.
Students in grades nine through 12 are bullied in various areas of school, including the hallway or stairwell (43.4%); classroom (42.1%); cafeteria (26.8%); outside on school grounds (21.9%); and bathroom or cloakroom (12.1%), depending on stopbullying. govt. “Parents, school staff and other adults in the community can help children prevent bullying by talking about it, creating a safe school environment and creating a school-wide bullying prevention strategy. the community,” the website says.
For more information about Kansas Anti-Bullying Week or for resources to help end bullying, visit https://www. ksde.org/Agency/Division-of-Learning-Services/ Career-Standards-and-Ass essment-Services/ Content – A rea- M-Z/ School-Counseling/ School-Counseling-Res ources/Anti-Bullying – Sensitization.