"Victims of Bullying and their Families: How do I Know? How do I Help?"

                                Parent Forum

“Victims Of Bullying And Their Families:”

     How Do I Know?    How Do I Help?

March 20, Tuesday                         7:00-8:30 p.m.

                     Ottoson Middle School  Cafetorium

                                      For Parents K-8

Close to 80% of school-aged children report witnessing bullying at school while less than 10% of children bully or are bullied. Most of us outside of the school don’t know which children are involved in bullying.  At the same time, all members of the community are needed to substantially reduce bullying and the damage to individual children.  This talk addresses families and identifies specific steps that parents of children of all ages can take to prevent involvement in bullying and reduce its lasting reach.  Prevention starts at the beginning of life and goes well beyond the walls of our homes.  There are specific steps parents can take to reduce a child’s risk for being exposed to violence at school, to empower children to participate in safe schools, and to help children who are involved as victims or bullies.  The presentation will touch on the unique challenges of cyberbullying and children with disabilities.

PRESENTER: Kelly M. Champion, PhD. Is a clinician, researcher, and advocate specializing in violence prevention and clinical-child psychology.  She works locally for a group practice providing individual psychotherapy specializing in children, teens, families and young adults.  In addition, she is a member of the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence and is certified to train  professionals in ACT_Raising Safe Kids Program – A violence prevention program that is distributed by the American Psychological Association.  She has published research in peer-reviewed journals on school-bullying and on training in violence prevention.