A Reason to Skip One Day of Starbucks

As the Executive Director of the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, I am honestly overwhelmed and humbled by the progress we have made this year implementing our Speak Up Be Safe™ bullying and child abuse prevention program in elementary schools across Florida.  We expect to serve 400% more students than we did last school year.  Those 450,000 students attend the Monique Burr Foundation’s Speak Up Be Safe program in 47 out of 67 counties across the state.  (Don’t worry; we are working hard on the additional 20 counties who have not approved Speak Up Be Safe yet.) 

I think about media stories on child abuse and the horrific results from long term bullying that have caught our attention over the past year.  Some of those stories happening right here in Florida.   I don’t know a single person who didn’t hang their head when this kind of news hit the airwaves, and yet despite a nation full of concern, we are still struggling to raise funds to provide this preventative program in our public schools at no cost to the school.  We talk about these stories with ease, but at $2 a student, I wonder if our program would have changed the news.

As funds permit, we can and are implementing control features to keep our children, schools, and communities safer.  School counselors and teachers have expressed gratitude for a program that helps them teach students how to be safe against all forms of abuse and bullying at no cost to them.  Parents now have tools they didn’t even know they needed to communicate with their kids about topics that are not always comfortable but necessary.

Studies validate our approach and verify that the program content is age appropriate.  Our team of 7 employees is already working on updates to our Speak Up Be Safe program for the 2013 – 2014 school year.  We want to include the most current information about cyberbullying and bullying prevention along with developing fun interactive tools to reinforce lessons learned in the classroom.  We have also partnered with Lauren’s Kids who provides the “Safer, Smarter Kids” program for VPK – Kindergarten students. 

With all this work going on, I’m known to make a Starbucks run every now and then.  Around the holidays, I chose a Gingerbread latte… the Grande is $4.58.  It costs MBF only $2 to provide instruction and materials to a student in our state.  My coffee would pay for two students with a little left over.

Currently, we do not receive any state funding to supplement the cost of these programs.  And while it seems so simple at $2 per student, we still struggle to raise enough to meet our state’s need. In this New Year, would you be willing to step up as our kids speak up?  At the expense of one cup of Starbucks, you can provide the Speak Up Be Safe program to a student.  If you can’t forego the coffee, at a minimum “like” us on Facebook, visit our website and educate yourself on what we’re doing even if you do not have children or grandchildren.  Chances are, we’re in your community and we’re making a difference.

Happy New Year!
Lynn

Bullying is Happening All Around

13 million students will be bullied in the US this year. Given those numbers it’s hard to imagine that some people don’t see bullying as a real problem, but it is happening all around. Many parents don’t think bullying exists in their child’s school. Some teachers as well often believe bullying isn’t a behavior worthy of their intervention. For example, in one study, 25% of teachers saw nothing wrong with bullying, and consequently intervened in only 4% of bullying incidents.

But bullying is a real problem, with real consequences. Even to those not being bullied, they see it and they feel the consequences.

Here is a poem written by Emily, a 15 year-old High School Student:

It’s time we all realize bullying is a real problem in every school and we must do more to stop it.  But we must do more than just react to bullying after the fact. We must speak up and prevent bullying from happening in the first place. As Emily says, “we need to stand up and get this message spread.” What will you do to spread the message of bullying prevention? If you need some ideas, check out the MBF – Speak Up Be Safe Resources page.

Written by: Stacy Pendarvis 

Bullying not taken seriously!

You’ve read in past blogs here about bullying statistics and bullying prevention, and about our Speak Up Be Safe™ program, but last week in the news we read about something that shocked many of us. In Naples, Florida, a judge recently granted immunity to a teen who killed another teen last January,  ruling that under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law” a person who feels bullied or otherwise threatened is legally entitled to meet force with force, even deadly force. The judge ruled the teen was “standing his ground because he had tried to avoid the bully’s advances multiple times and was under the threat of great harm.”

Bullying causes a wide range of consequences in our society… mental health problems, academic learning issues, social and relational issues, bullycide (suicide), and now this!  It’s time to stop this…it’s time to prevent this…it’s time to protect children from this senseless pain, destruction and loss.  But how?  How do we do that if bullying is not taken seriously? And statistics show that many don’t take bullying seriously. 

According to www.bullyingstatistics.org, school bullying statistics in the United States show that about one in four kids in the U.S. is bullied on a regular basis. 77 percent of all students are being, or have been bullied verbally in some way or another, including mental bullying or even verbal abuse, and most violent altercations between students are more likely to occur on school grounds than on the way to school.  So it is most definitely a serious problem.  However, one of the most unfortunate aspects of these school bullying statistics is that in about 85 percent of bullying cases, no intervention or effort is made by a teacher or administrative member of the school to stop the bullying from taking place.

I wonder what our reaction would be if no school personnel responded in 85% of medical emergencies that happened in schools?  Not only do students need to be educated, but school teachers and administrators do as well.  Speak Up Be Safe™ (SUBS), the bullying and child abuse prevention curriculum being distributed throughout Florida in public elementary schools by the Monique Burr Foundation for Children is doing just that.  And everyone can play a role in helping.  Learn more about SUBS and how you can help us get this message out and prevent more bullying tragedies at www.MoniqueBurrFoundation.org. Join us and help us protect Florida’s children now!