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The Case for Including Intent in a Definition of Bullying post thumbnail

The Case for Including Intent in a Definition of Bullying

Last week I presented at the International Bullying Prevention Association’s annual conference in San Diego, CA. This was the second time that I have participated in this event, and both experiences were enjoyable and educational. The attendees (over 700 strong this year) are generally very interested in the work that we are doing at the […]

Our Website Crashed: Why That’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing post thumbnail

Our Website Crashed: Why That’s Not Necessarily a Bad Thing

Our website was down for a couple of days last week which was *extremely* maddening for us as we pride ourselves in giving our faithful followers free and unfettered access to our resources without interruption. The cause of the downtime was, well, to put it bluntly: You! Nearly a quarter of a million people visited […]

Getting Teens to Rethink Cyberbullying post thumbnail

Getting Teens to Rethink Cyberbullying

This year, I’ve enjoyed being in touch with Trisha Prabhu, a 14-year-old freshman at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois. In the fall of 2013, after hearing about a young girl’s suicide because of cyberbullying, she set out to design a long-term solution to cyberbullying. Her work led her to the product Rethink, which […]

A Girl and her Guitar, Inspiring Bullying Victims to Stay Strong post thumbnail

A Girl and her Guitar, Inspiring Bullying Victims to Stay Strong

Recently, I have been in touch with Kathleen, who won Seventeen Magazine’s 2013 Mean Stinks contest by sharing a song she wrote which has been played in over thirty schools nationwide. It’s not just any song, it’s a song rooted in Kathleen’s desire to use her talents to encourage teens like her who have experienced […]

Cyberbullying Prevention through Dance and the Spoken Word post thumbnail

Cyberbullying Prevention through Dance and the Spoken Word

As National Bullying Prevention Month rolls on, we continue to highlight extraordinary movements and projects designed to combat cruelty and rekindle kindness, tolerance, and respect. Today, I want to feature the efforts of MusEffect, a very talented dance company out of Los Angeles. I have been in touch with their director, Jessica Starr, because I […]

Natural Day – Love Yourself Before You Can Love Others post thumbnail

Natural Day – Love Yourself Before You Can Love Others

Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to get to know Sanah Jivani, who is a senior at Klein Collins High School, and the founder of the international #naturalday movement. I was blown away by her story, and told her how important it was for others to hear it and be inspired by it (as I […]

What Jennifer Lawrence can teach us about sexting among teens post thumbnail

What Jennifer Lawrence can teach us about sexting among teens

This week, the Washington Post proclaimed that “sexting is the new first base.” This assertion was grounded in the results of a research study first published in 2012 (based on data from 2010). Researchers found that over one-fourth (28%) of 948 teens from seven public high schools in southeast Texas had sent a naked picture […]

Distinguishing Bullying from Other Hurtful Behaviors post thumbnail

Distinguishing Bullying from Other Hurtful Behaviors

In my last post on this blog I wrote about the difficulty in determining when mean behavior crosses the line and becomes bullying behavior. I also discussed the challenge for researchers in trying to quantify the difference. In this post, I’d like to talk about why it is important to establish such a line. As […]

Standing Up and Speaking Out Against Cyberbullying post thumbnail

Standing Up and Speaking Out Against Cyberbullying

I met Sarah Ball a couple of years ago, as she sat in the front row of a cyberbullying presentation I gave to educators at a national conference held in Orlando. As a teenager, she stood out from the rest of my audience of school professionals. She also stood out in terms of her contagious […]