April News & Updates- Restorative Justice Program

Restorative Justice Program News & Updates

April 19, 2022 | Issue 19

The Role of Adults in Bullying

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By Aleisha Santos, Restorative Justice Program Assistant

"Did you tell someone?"

"Yeah, and no one did anything about it"

This is the exchange that we hear far too often from students who are referred to Teen Court after getting into an altercation that they say resulted from bullying. If all fifty states are required to have a bullying prevention policy, why is bullying still a major issue in our schools? The answer is simple. Policy alone is not enough to stop this pervasive social dilemma.

In a perfect world, no one would be bullied, teased, or picked on, but the problem is we don’t live in a perfect world. Teenagers are being harassed on Instagram Live, getting dragged into fights, and receiving death threats, all because someone views them as an easy target for bullying. While social media has presented a new form of bullying, bullying people has been around for ages, and it's not going anywhere until we change how we respond to it.

Our role as adults, teachers, and parents is to advocate for the children around us. If a young person tells you they're being bullied, it's our responsibility as adults to advocate on their behalf and to do whatever we can to protect them. If we don't step up to the plate to help them, who will?

Here are three tips for helping young people who are the target of bullying

● Don’t turn a blind eye. If you see bullying, be proactive.

● Set boundaries. Set clear expectations as to what constitutes acceptable behavior in classrooms, on buses, at home, etc. (Remember, bullying isn't confined to school grounds).

● Listen. Be someone a young person can trust to confide in if they're being bullied. And if you say you’re going to help, actually help.

While we can't immediately eradicate bullying, as adults, we can support and advocate for young people whenever the opportunity arises.

Aleisha Santos

Restorative Justice Program Assistant

Community Ambassador Highlight

Meet Nyasha! Nyasha is a junior at Wayne Early Middle College. Nyasha started volunteering with the Restorative Justice Program in the fall of 2020. Since he started volunteering, Nyasha has participated in over FORTY Sentencing Circles. Nyasha says he likes volunteering with the Restorative Justice Program because "it allows me to see different people and the situations that they go through as we try to help and give them another chance so they can live a better life without the disability of not being able to do what they love because of a criminal record."