With stories about the impact of bullying becoming an increasing concern, now is the time to find ways to confront the problem. In light of that fact, Kelly Karius is touring the area doing workshops and speaking about the No Such Thing as a Bully program.
Karius, who was recently in Yorkton, says the focus of the program is not on labels, but on behaviors. She notes that when she has spoken to students, none of them will say they are a bully, but often she finds that as she lists bullying behavior many students recognize things they have done. Because of this, she says it's not effective to use the bully label, because it's not something which people would identify in their own behavior.
"Rather than spending time picking out the bully and the victim, what we want people to do is start looking for bully actions and victim responses, and the idea that we all use bully actions and victim responses at times," Karius says.
"It's a realization on the faces of students and adults that those behaviors are pervasive and what we need to pay attention to."
The focus on the recent sessions was ten things people don't know about bullying, and Karius says this approach is based on the different, behavior-based perspective. She says that through recognizing those different aspects of bullying, people can effectively help their kids.
"It's direct tools and skill building techniques."
She says part of the problem with many bullying programs is that they're a response to a tragedy, while what she is doing is trying to is taking a proactive approach.
"It's based purely on preventative. We want people to understand that there is so much here that we can prevent if we look at these behaviors," Karius says.
The No Such Thing as a Bully program is more than just the workshops, Karius notes that it is an entire website at nosuchthingasabully.com with resources for schools and students to help deal with the problem. She says part of the goal is to facilitate communication on the subject between schools. She says it also has a way to report bullying incidents if needed.
"We want to teach parents to coach their kids through bullying and conflict but when it needs to be reported, we want that report to go to five people in the school all at the same time so that it is getting investigated properly and consequenced properly. When we talk about consequences, we talk about restoration, how do we restore a positive environment back to this school."
The workshops are free to attend and free for schools, though she notes she is always looking for sponsorships in order to spread the word and Karius says that if anyone would like to get involved in the program they can get in touch through the website.
