Happy May! As we celebrate National Mental Health Awareness Month, I am sharing two resources that address the long-term effects of bullying on mental health. These resources reiterate the need for continuous bullying prevention efforts to ensure that students feel safe and supported in their learning environments.
I am also highlighting two upcoming OHR-sponsored webinars. The first will address bullying in the age of COVID-19 and discuss what discipline looks like as we continue to face the changing landscape brought on by the pandemic. The second webinar will be an hour-long bullying prevention training that will count toward the YBPA training requirement.
OHR will be collecting bullying data as scheduled. Please confirm that your LEA’s point of contact (POC) and email addresses are up-to-date in OHR’s Know Your Policy Portal on https://ohr.dc.gov/page/knowyourpolicy. Schools can download this Excel template to help ensure that all data are ready for entry into the data collection portal. If the POC listed there is incorrect or if bullying data reporting instructions should go to someone else, please email Deborah Temkin and Emily Fulks before May 17 (dtemkin@childtrends.org and efulks@childtrends.org). POCs will receive an email with login info on May 17. The email will likely come from either Deborah Temkin or Emily Fulks. Any POC that does not receive this email by May 18 should reach out to Emily Fulks at efulks@childtrends.org.
Bullying and Trauma Facts. This infographic from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information about the link between bullying, adverse childhood experiences, and trauma, along with facts on how being bullied can lead to PTSD.
The Relationship Between Bullying and Suicide: What We Know and What It Means for Schools. Bullying and suicide are both public health problems that negatively impact the lives of young children and youth. This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides research-based, action-oriented information to help educators improve their schools’ understanding of, and ability to prevent and respond to, the problem of bullying and suicide-related behavior.
Upcoming Webinars
OHR’s YBPA implementation partner, Child Trends, will hold two webinars to support your work to prevent bullying in schools:
Bullying in the Age of COVID-19 (June). This webinar will focus on acts of bullying in a socially distant world while also considering currents calls for racial justice and the increased harassment of individuals who identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI). We will recap some data from the SY 2019-20 OHR report and discuss how acts of bullying have changed during the pandemic. We will also hear from school discipline practitioners about how discipline has evolved in response to a socially distant world.
Bullying Prevention and Intervention in the District of Columbia (August). This webinar is a train-the-trainer webinar for bullying POCs to fulfill the YBPA training requirement that all school staff must receive annual training on bullying prevention and intervention. The webinar will outline the provisions of YBPA 2012, including preventing and responding to acts of bullying within the school.
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Mary Wallace | Human Rights Officer
Pronouns – she, her
District of Columbia Office of Human Rights
441 4th Street, N.W., Suite 570N
Washington, D.C. 20001
Main: 202.727.4559
Direct: 202.727.3651
Fax: 202.727.9589
ohr.dc.gov
facebook.com/DCOHR
twitter.com/dchumanrights
instagram.com/dchumanrights
Register for upcoming OHR workshops and events at ohr.dc.gov/events.
Remember that the Youth Bullying Prevention Act of 2012 requires all schools in the District of Columbia to provide information on all reported and confirmed bullying incidents. We will request these data at the end of the 2020/2021 school year. To assist in this process, we have provided a spreadsheet tool (.xlsx) to help you compile the data requested. We will be providing further guidance on submitting your data to OHR later this spring.
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