#bornbraveca

[bornbraveca]

Skit from the youth in Boston on how to stand up against bullying. Bystanders are just as much a bully as the actual bully. Be an ally, be brave!

[bornbraveca]

Harvard youth panel on bravery. Let's do this!!

[schoolforpirates]

What makes bullying work?

So many anti-bullying campaigns focus on the bully or the bullied, but I think we're missing something: we're not focusing on the things that make bullying possible: 

Bystanders and

The power of exclusion

There's a wonderful short book by Vivian Gussin Paley entitled "You Can't Say You Can't Play," about her experiences as a kindergarten teacher talking with her kids about whether they should adopt "you can't say you can't play" as a rule.  The popular kids, of course, don't want to adopt the rule, because their popularity is based on their ability to exclude less popular kids from play.   What happens to schools if the power to exclude is taken away?

And what happens to bullying when bystanders stop being a passive audience whose attention fuels bullying, and increases the emotional damage to the bullied by adding humiliation to injury?

There's a great documentary called The Interrupters, about people who have volunteered to be "violence interrupters" -- third parties who confront people who are getting involved in violence and talking them down.  

It made me imagine a fight breaking out and all the bystanders chanting "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Here's the trailer for the Interrupters, which is available for streaming from Amazon:

[mccrae]

Born to be Brave... on the Yard...Harvard Yard that is...

[mlfulton]

Heading to Harvard for the Launch of Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation

A California Endowment youth delegation is heading to Harvard this week to take part in the official launch of Lady Gaga's new foundation.  I am one of the lucky grown-ups who gets to come along -- I've painted my nails gold for the occasion! 

The big event is Wednesday - you can watch online via this livestream.

[bornbraveca]

Sabdhat's story of bravery...

Hi, my name is Mark Tran and I’m attending the launch of the Born This Way Foundation. Lady Gaga wants to inspire bravery and empower youth. I see bravery happening all over in my community of City Heights. Here’s one story...

Sabdhat N. is a freshman at Crawford Educational Complex.  She is of Indian descent, but lived in Pakistan before immigrating to the United States three years ago.  She lives in the Chollas View neighborhood of City Heights and attended both Carver Elementary and Horace Mann Middle School, before beginning high school at Crawford.

Sabdhat’s moment of bravery came last year when she was in eighth grade at Horace Mann Middle School.  She witnessed her friend being harassed and bullied by a group of girls, and told the group of girls that she was going to notify the principal.  The girls threatened Sabdhat with physical violence and retaliation if she decided to “snitch” on them.  While she was concerned for her safety, she could not stand idly by and watch the girls harass her friend.  She told the principal.  Because of her bravery, the principal took action and both her and her friend no longer had to suffer from any new verbal or physical harassment at school.

Sabdhat does not consider herself a brave person.  She describes herself as normally quiet and shy. She usually avoids confrontations.  Asked why she did what she did, she said “It was the right thing to do.”  We need more brave people like Sabdhat to stand up for what is right in our community.