Education specialists discuss anti-bullying methods

Bullying remains an important topic for discussion for Bloomington officials in 2011.

Joan Knies, a community education specialist for Crisis Connection, spoke Thursday about bullying prevention to youth workers and advocates at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church in Bloomington.

The talk she gave was part of Youth Workers Cafe, an event put on throughout the state by the Indiana Youth Institute.

The group is attempting to encourage networking and collaboration between members of youth help organizations.

Attendees at the event included church officials, after-school youth group leaders, hospital officials and university administrators.

Knies’ presentation covered bullying prevention.

She said Crisis Connection primarily helps victims of domestic violence and sexual
assault.

Connection has begun to focus on how people can prevent incidents of violence and bullying from ever occurring.

Knies said bullies are most likely to pick up these habits from their homes or from the
media.

Kids are susceptible to negative lessons in the media because they are targeted, Knies said.

“Why does the media target kids?” she said. “Because they think they’re stupid.”

She said the media does this because young people’s brains are not fully developed, making them impressionable.

Though Knies said it would be impossible to prescribe a program for a fail-safe end to
bullying, she gave the youth workers some suggestions.

“First you need to give them resources they can use,” she said. “Second you need to work with them on relationships because that’s what it’s all about.”

Knies was careful to make sure the audience knew bullying can come from more than just the playground.

She said many kids are subject to bullying from teachers and parents as well.
“I used to work in human resources at a Fortune 500 company,” she said. “I saw bullying there in the workplace.”

In addition to the specific tips and ideas she had about working with bullied youth, Knies’ primary suggestion was to work together.

“We all play a role,” she said.

— Michael Auslen