This morning, I had to have some serious conversations with my students about a bullying situation that I have been watching unfold for the past couple of days.  It's the typical situation where a new kid arrives at a school and is targeted by other kids who have been there for a long time.  Add the fact that they are females and that the new kid is beautiful and drawing the attention of the male students and you have a recipe for disaster.     I enlisted the assistance of a lot of people to help me get this anti-bullying message out to my students including fellow staff members, parents of the children who were involved, and even older siblings of these girls.  As a united front, we met with a few classes and discussed with them the fact that we have a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying or any kind of violence or aggression in school.  Additionally, we talked to them about the dangers of being the victim of bullying such as low self-esteem and thoughts of suicide.  We even … [Read more...]