A leading authority on bullying in schools offers ideas for recognizing, preventing and dealing with it

By Melissa Landon
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues

How do we recognize, deal with and prevent bullying, particularly in schools? A leading authority on bullying offered some ideas June 12 in a University of Kentucky training session called "The Meanest Generation: Teaching Civility, Empathy, Kindness and Compassion to our Angriest Children," at Eastern State Hospital in Lexington.

Malcolm Smith, right, between sessions

Malcolm Smith, founder and director of the Courage to Care Project who serves on the faculty of Plymouth State University, said one myth about bullying is that it only occurs in large schools. "Actually, I'm more worried about children in a rural school," Smith said. In rural areas, he said, bullying can be a huge problem because there's nowhere to hide, everyone is often into everyone else's business, and an issue can escalate into a feud when families get involved.

Smith defined bullying as a single incident or pattern of written, verbal, electronic or physical actions intended to harm a pupil or his or her property; cause emotional stress; interfere with that student's right to an education; or disrupt the school's operation. Smith debunked a common theory about bullying that became popular in the 1980s—that bullies lack self-esteem. "Bullies are not kids who have low-self-esteem," Smith said. "The average bully is the kid who is a narcissist." Smith believes that a person becomes narcissistic if he or she never learned to bond and love as a child.

He argued that a lack of empathy and rising narcissism—which is characterized by an overinflated view of one's talents and a high level of selfishness—are the true causes of bullying. Empathy is the tendency to react to other people's observed experiences. Research shows that 70 percent of current students score higher in narcissism and lower in empathy than they did 35 years ago. Smith believes this is related to the rise in technology, the culture of self-esteem, the decline of time spent playing—which is often when children gain social competencies—and the overexposure of children to meanness and violence through the media.

Bullies are more likely to have been involved in domestic violence and child abuse; are more likely to commit crimes, drink and smoke; and have a greater propensity toward becoming anti-social adults. Signs that a child is a victim of a bully include exclusion, fear, lack of friends, erratic attendance, depression, withdrawal or clinging to teachers and staff.

Because bullying is characterized by an imbalance of power between the perpetrator and the victim, Smith urged school counselors and teachers not to try mediating a bullying situation, especially not by talking to both the victim and the bully in the same room or worse, leaving them to "work it out." Smith said, "You have to educate the social-emotional deficit in the bully, and you have to comfort the victim." Instead of simply punishing the bully, an authority must discipline him or her, which involves teaching.

To properly discipline a bully, he or she must be required to take responsibility for the behavior and explain to the authority why the behavior was wrong. Then the student must discuss alternative actions that could have been employed. Finally, the student must not only apologize but also perform an act of kindness toward the student he or she bullied.

Smith urged teachers and counselors to recognize and address bullying, explaining that it is not ever a good thing or a positive part of a growing experience, as some people think. He pointed out that adults in the workplace are protected by harassment laws and don't have to face bullying alone, so children shouldn't have to, either. He said to combat bullying, "model good social skills yourself, advocate for safer schools and better laws, work with your school parent-teacher organization, engage parents and students in prevention and work on culture and climate."

Advocates of school nutrition standards use high-school chefs' competition to show that food can still taste good

The higher school-food standards required by the Child Nutrition Act expire this year, and Republicans are continuing their efforts to roll back some of them. Democrats and advocates of the standards used a student cooking event on Capitol Hill to generate support for the standards, apparently to counter arguments of some school nutrition directors that some of the healthier options are more difficult to prepare and serve.

In the final competition, the top nine high-school teams served their winning dishes to lawmakers. The dishes had to follow their cafeterias' budgets and the national standards: To win, students had to include products rich in whole grains, low in sodium and a half-cup of fruits and vegetables, Whitney Forman-Cook reports for Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter. She doesn't list any of the dishes, but they're listed with the winners on the "Cooking Up Change" website of the Healthy Schools Campaign.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., hosted the event. She said that she and Senate Agriculture Committee Chariman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who has vowed to roll back some of the standards, have been discussing the issue, and she would like to pass a bipartisan bill by Sept. 30, when the current law's authority ends. One standard Stabenow doesn't want to compromise on is the requirement for a half-cup of fruit and vegetables; Michigan is a big fruit and vegetable state.

Stabenow said the Department of Agriculture "is very willing to work with schools where there are issues" in meeting nutrition requirements. (Read more)

Kentucky gets an $8.1 million federal grant to help teachers, other school personnel recognize students' mental-health needs

The Kentucky Department of Education has been awarded a five-year, $8.1 million federal grant to teach school personnel how to identify mental-health issues and get students the help they need, Brenna R. Kelly reports for Kentucky Teacher.

KDE was one of 120 state and local education agencies to get an Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education grant last fall as part of President Obama's "Now Is The Time" initiative to decrease gun violence, increase access to mental health services and increase school safety.

It is estimated that up to one out of five children living in the U.S. experience a mental disorder in a given year, according to the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.

Gretta Hylton of KDE’s Office of Next Generation Learners believes "that both KDE and local districts will be in a better position to get students the mental health help that they need," Kelly writes.

The grant program, Kentucky AWARE, will also create social media marketing campaigns, community events to promote mental health awareness and offer training on trauma-informed care in each of the pilot districts, to be provided by the Center on Trauma and Children at the University of Kentucky.

“More people will be able to recognize and respond appropriately to mental health issues in children,” Hylton told Kelly, “and will know how to connect those individuals with services in their hometown.”

Kentucky AWARE will be piloted in Jefferson County, Fayette County and Pulaski County schools and then move statewide. Hylton told Kelly that the three districts were chosen partly because they already have some mental-health and behavioral-intervention programs.

In addition to KDE, AWARE grants were awarded to Jefferson County, Fayette County, Bullitt County, Corbin Independent, Covington Independent and Henderson County school districts and to the Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services, Kelly reports.

School personnel, first responders, parents and anyone who interacts with youth in the pilot counties will be offered Youth Mental Health First Aid training, Kelly writes. Hylton told Kelly that she expected more than 10,000 people across the state to be trained at the end of the five-year grant.

Student loses 175 lbs. in 14 months after gastric-sleeve surgery

Elizabeth Whitt and Don McNay

Elizabeth Whitt, an Eastern Kentucky University communications major from Richmond, Ky., decided to have gastric sleeve weight loss surgery when she was 19, and now, 14 months later, she has lost 175 pounds, Don McNay writes for The Huffington Post. McNay had the same surgery on Dec. 1 last year and has lost 70 pounds since then. He is writing a book called Project 199: My Business Plan to Lose 175 Pounds because he wants to drop from his original weight of 377 pounds to 199.

While McNay had the surgery at age 55 as a last chance to avoid an early death, Elizabeth had the surgery in college, when most people are not thinking about death. Dr. Derek Weiss at Bluegrass Bariatric in Lexington, Ky., operated on both of them. Weiss said that "doing weight loss surgery on a teenager had been rare before the gastric sleeve became more common as the risk of complications is lower than the other surgeries," McNay writes. Weiss said that "LSG is a tool. It limits the amount you can eat very successfully. But I think all LSG patients who succeed can take most of the credit themselves; they chose what to eat (and drink) and how much to exercise."

Whitt before (above) and after (below) with her health team

McNay talked with Whitt because although he had interviewed many experts already, he wanted to hear from someone who had been through the surgery. Whitt said the surgery has allowed her to be much more energetic and active. McNay asked Whitt how she was dealing with the sudden surge of attention from people who are drawn to success. She said she doesn't pay attention to men who express interest in her now but didn't talk to her when she was overweight. Whitt also noted that her parents did not support her having surgery until she presented them with research showing the benefits.

Michael and Debi Benson, the president and first spouse at EKU, said Whitt babysits their three children. President Benson said, "Debi and I are very grateful for Elizabeth and have marveled at her physical transformation. This change has allowed her inner beauty, which has always been radiant and contagious, to shine through even more."

"It took all of my forcus and courage to have the surgery at age 55," McNay writes. "There is no way I would have undertaken it at age 19. . . . When I weigh in at 199 pounds and hit the same 175 weight loss number that Elizabeth hit, I will say one thing for certain: she has been my inspiration. And my hero." (Read more)

As Ky.'s teen-birth rank rises, mother objects to Casey Co. child-development class's baby shower for five pregnant students

Kentucky's ranking for births to females aged 15 to 19 is going up, and five students at Casey County High School are pregnant. A joint baby shower for them during class time recently sent the wrong message about teenage pregnancy, a mother of a teenager at the school told the Casey County News.

Carmen Foster gained custody of her daughter three years ago, but not before the girl heard her biological mother say she enjoyed being pregnant because of all the attention she received. The biological mother left her and six other children with an abusive ex-boyfriend until Foster gained custody, Abigail Whitehouse reports.

"Some of these kids come from situations we can't even imagine," Foster said. "They need daily positive examples to help them reach their potential. I don't want my daughter thinking that being a pregnant teen will get her tons of positive attention from everyone at school."

Foster, who was a teenage mother, said she has spent years instructing her daughter that she doesn't need approval from boys to have self-confidence. "I want better for our girls," she said. "I believe in love and acceptance and helping in any way that I can, but I also believe in doing so responsibly. This was not a message to be sent out at school."

CCHS Principal Josh Blevins told the newspaper that the baby shower, in a Human and Child Development class, "was a way of saying, here are some things to help get them on their feet. We are just simply addressing the fact that this has happened, and now it's our responsibility to educate these women on how to care for their children." Blevins said the class is an elective, and participation isn't required.

Jackie Allen, who teaches the class, said the students were working through a unit on pregnancy and childbirth unit, and asked if they could throw a surprise baby shower for the five students. "I think it was a positive experience for my students and for the girls they invited," Allen said. "I think that students who are pregnant need all the support they can get. I don't think there was any kind of glorifying teen pregnancy."

Kentucky ranked seventh out of 51 (50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2011 birth rates among females 15-19, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2008, the state Kentucky ranked 19th.

As school-lunch debate puts attention on rejected meals, we might consider a bigger problem: food wasted at home

The new nutrition rules for school meals have led some students to throw away food they're served. Schools across the country are estimated to waste $1.2 billion worth of food every year, based on extrapolations from a study the National Institutes of Health conducted in Boston schools. That's a lot of wasted food and money, but students and their families waste even more food at home, George Jones writes for WFIE-TV in Evansville.

According to the U.S. Department of Education approximately 49.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students will attend public schools this year. Each student is estimated to waste about $33 worth of federally funded lunches per year. "The average person in the general population wastes almost that much in total meals during one month," Jones reports.

Americans threw away $161 billion worth of food in 2010—nearly one-third of the available food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means the average person discards $372 worth of food each year, or four times as much as students.

"Sometimes people say it's the family and parents making choices, but it's the larger system we're in that making this problem," aid Pamela Koch, director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy at Columbia University. "They're working so many hours they think they don't have time to shop and cook healthy. And the most inexpensive foods are the ones that are not the most healthy for them."

Rising obesity rates and fast food consumption show that adults aren't eating well-balanced meals, much less school-aged individuals. The School Nutrition Association supports the rules requiring reduced-fat and fat-free milk and more fruits and vegetables, but "feels serving only whole grain breads and requiring children to take food they don't otherwise each is burdensome for schools," Jones reports.

"You're never going to be able to promote healthy diets for kids if they don't get healthy options across the board," SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner said. "It's the students who are unfamiliar with those healthier choices who are not responding well."

Students part of the Montgomery, Ala., group called E.A.T. (Education, Act Transform) were much more receptive to trying new foods—such as radishes—when they went through the process of planting and harvesting them. "They come here, and now they have an understanding," E.A.T. South Executive Director Denise Blake Green said. "They've seen the cycle—planting, harvesting, cooking, composting. When they leave here, food looks different to them." (Read more)