While interning at The American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention I was lucky enough to have the
opportunity to attend The Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus. Since
AFSP's executive director was on a special panel at the caucus I was
even able to assist in deciding the material and information that
would be discussed. A major focus of AFSP is to make sure that people
realize that bullying is one of many contributing factors of suicide.
The caucus consisted of three initial
panels, the screening of the documentary Bully, and then a closing
panel. The movie Bully was more emotional than I could have imagined.
It chronicles the lives of students (elementary to high school) that
are struggling with bully or have completed suicide due to bullying
being a contributing factor. Seeing the struggles the students and
their families faced was shocking. Even more startling, many school
personnel and parents in the movie did not know the proper ways to
deal with instances of bullying. There is definitely an awareness and
education factor that needs to be set in place for adults.
Another interesting part of caucus,
besides the documentary, was listening to all of the information the
panelists presented. Students, parents, teachers, principals, school
personnel, and health experts were all represented on the different
panels. Each one brought a unique and vital point of view to the
discuss. I quickly realized the different angles that bullying needed
to be targeted. Overall the caucus was well done and I am definitely
looking forward to following the steps they make towards combatting
bullying in the future. Bullying is a huge stressor and factor that if dealt with properly can help to combat suicide among America's youth.
- Jenn
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