I meant to post this a loooong time ago, but I kept forgetting (ya, I’m disorganized and ditzy like that! Ha, ha!). Especially when different news reports of bullied teens committing suicide broke out — first, of Amanda Todd, then of Felicia Garcia and, most recently, of Erin Gallagher.
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| Photo by Ambro on FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
And then, of course, there was the SHOCKING gun-poking incident (by a parent!) at Colegio San Agustin — the student who was victimized here was actually a victim of bullying as well! I’m sure his was a case among millions.
Let’s face it — bullying is a common occurrence today. It can happen anywhere, to anyone (regardless of your age or social status, etc.) and can be done by anyone. A lot of bullying is done online nowadays, but there is still rampant bullying offline as well. Just take a look at the statistics in this post, which were for 2010. Can you imagine what the statistics must be now?
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| Cyber-bullying cartoon by Grant Cochrane on FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
As a parent and as a person, I feel very strongly about bullying and am totally against it (although, come to think of it, I realize that sometimes I myself am a bully at times, without being conscious of it. *sighs*). Admittedly, I’m no expert, and I can’t give professional advice nor provide counseling to those who are being bullied, nor parents of children who are being bullied. I can point you to the right people though. 🙂 (Feel free to leave me a message here if you need me to.)
Nonetheless, when a parent from Siena College San Jose Bulacan invited me to speak about bullying for their grade school parents, I didn’t refuse. Of course, I made it clear to them first that I am no guidance counselor, psychologist or any “expert” in the field of managing bullying. I told them that I would be speaking mostly as a parent who had been privileged to attend different learning and enrichment events such as the Family Congress 2012 and if they’d be OK with that.
Surprisingly, they were, and I spoke to around 100 (I’m not so sure about the number, haha!) parents on the topic, “Managing Bullying.” I based my talk mostly on the notes I took down at the Family Congress and Bloggers’ Meet prior to it.
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| Michele Santos-Alignay, Maribel Sison-Dionisio and Raf Dionisio speak about bullying at the Family Congress 2012 |
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| Michele talking about cyber bullying |
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| Raf sharing his personal experience of being bullied as a child in grade school because he was overweight. He waas bullied for several years. |
I hope that the parents present were able to glean something from my talk! 🙂 (Though the parent who coordinated with me about it did say that there was positive feedback, yey! Thank You, Lord! And special thanks to the Family Congress speakers, Ms. Maribel Sision-Dionisio and Michele Alignay of The Love Institute, and Raf Dionisio. Of course, thanks, too, to Ms. of F.I.D. Event Services and Rowie Matti of Galileo Enrichment Learning Program, who co-organized the Congress with Ms. Maribel.)
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| That’s me and my boss, Rissa Singson-Kawpeng, with Fides, Maribel and Rowie, the fab women behind the Family Congress 2012. 🙂 *Note: Photos of the Family Congress above and previously were taken from the . |
Anyway, I’m embedding my slides below, just in case you might find them helpful in one way or another. 🙂 Please take note that I DO NOT claim any copyright nor ownership over the pictures I used in my slides. I found the pics through Google searches. Anyway, if you want to contact me about this post, or about speaking at your event, or anything else, please feel free to email me here. Thanks and God bless you! 🙂
