Moses Lake schools hold bullying seminar
Dave Johnson presented a bullying seminar to parents of Knolls Vista Elementary students Monday.
MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake School District is giving parents tools to address bullying.
Dave Johnson, who works for Ephrata-based Canfield Insurance & Risk Management Specialists, presented a seminar on bullying at Chief Moses Middle School last week and at Knolls Vista Elementary Monday.
In the presentation, he defined bullying and emphasized the prevalence of cyber-bullying, which often provides bullies a shield of anonymity. An amendment to RCW 28A.300.285 defines and outlaws cyber-bullying.
Johnson offered parents strategies they could use to help children address bullying and cyber-bullying. These included keeping household computers in a open family place, informing children about keeping personal information private, increasing a child's awareness of the danger of online strangers, knowing what online communities children are involved with and their usernames, being about periodically checking a child's computer files, watching out for secretive behavior and installing software that captures every keystroke made on a computer.
Some parents expressed frustration with the way bullying is handled in their children's schools. One parent, who said his son is about to enter kindergarten, was concerned his child may be bullied.
"I'm scared of what he has to look forward to," he said.
Parent Martha Foryan said her son, who is now in sixth grade, has been bullied in the Moses Lake School District since first grade. The perpetrators change every year, she said. Even though she knew a lot of the information presented at the seminar from online research, it still provided some helpful techniques to try, she said.
"Our number one goal is to provide a safe and supportive learning environment and bullying behavior interferes with that," said Linda McKay, director of elementary education for the Moses Lake School District.
She helped organize the district-wide bullying training.
People all over are concerned about bullying and harassment, she said. The school district wants to communicate with families, educate them about bullying and provide support.
No one person can wave a magic wand to make bullying disappear, she said
"We really feel all of us together will make that difference."
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