Goodbye to Bullying
With school out of session for March Break, Centerpoint Mall is making good use of its sudden influx of students. Together with Brandon Street Community Development Foundation, it’s holding Blow the Whistle on Bullying, a week-long event dedicated to stamping out bullying in Centerpoint’s community.
Visitors to the mall this week have plenty of opportunities to face the facts about bullying. 5000 red whistles have been handed out to remind shoppers to “blow the whistle” on bullying. Shoppers can also fill out a message for the Giant Wall of Kindness to commit to being kind to others (or they can post their message online to be entered in a draw for a $500 shopping spree).
The shopping center is also offering a series of daily seminars on bullying. A daily Mom & Tot Bullying session discusses the hazards of unintentional bullying within the family. An evening session discusses Workplace Bullying – how to recognize it and how to prevent it. A local school principal discusses his firsthand experiences with bullying and the devastating effects it can have. Another session looks at bullying and the immigrant experience. Teens will have a few opportunities to express their thoughts on bullying through songwriting workshops. And a pair of sessions look at cyber-bullying and how to avoid it and protect your family’s privacy. An impressive amount of thoroughness and thoughtfulness clearly went into planning these talks.
Finally, teens can join the Anti-Bullying movement in the No Texting Challenge. Text messaging helps make modern bullying easy, so teens willing to take a stand and give up their phones for an hour to silently consider the effects of careless texting will be rewarded.
