Radio Smart Talk: Pushed Around -- witf's project on bullying

Radio Smart Talk for Thursday, March 21:

In many people's eyes, being picked on physically, teased verbally, or harassed is a rite of passage -- part of being young.  Some have said, "We all go through it." 

What it is is bullying and just because many people have experienced it doesn't make it right or acceptable.

In fact, research shows that bullying can have devastating effects on children and adults -- some that may last a lifetime. There are too many stories about young people who have responded to constant bullying by resorting to violence or suicide.

How prevalent is bullying?  Every day, about 160,000 children stay home from school because they don't want to be bullied.  Who are they and how can they be helped?

Those are a few of the questions witf will address in its Pushed Around project on bullying.

We will focus on signs of bullying, approaches for stopping bullying, the psychology behind bullying, and personal stories of local people impacted by bullying, among other topics.

Thursday's Radio Smart Talk will serve as a primer for the issue.  Appearing to provide background on bullying will be Margueruite Ferrara, a health educator at the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center in York  and Stacy Molnar-Main, a bullying prevention expert who is certified as a school psychologist, counselor and principal. She serves as Strategic Initiatives Manager at the Center for Safe Schools

Pushed Around is supported by Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.