Facts:

• Almost 5.7 million youngsters in grades 6-10 experienced some form of bullying according to a National Institutes of Health study
• About one in five teens who have been bullied contemplate suicide
• About 160,000 children skip school each day because of intimidation by peers according to the National Education Association
• Emotional alienation at home can create bullies according to Deborah Prothrowstith, professor of public health at Harvard: “A lot of kids have grief, loss, pain and it’s unresolved.”

Students, Parents, Teachers, Counselors, Social Workers and People throughout our communities:
What are your Solutions to Empower, Inspire, Encourage & Transform
bullies to become benevolent beings
and victims to become victors ?
Listen & View the 10th annual America’s Young Heroes contest solutions to prevent bullying & promote respect, by, for and about teens

WHAT IF:
One compassionate/caring, classmate, bystander or friend had intervened as in the award winning video, “Be A Friend:”

Yasmine wrote in “Speak Out,” her award-winning story that “positive actions make positive reactions; negative actions cause negative reactions” and as sociologist Robert Faris discovered in his recent study, “behavior is contagious.”

WHAT IF:
The bullied student in another award winning video, “Meet Me By the Water Fountain …..”, had the courage to tell an adult such as a teacher, principal, counselor as Allison, a teen poet did and discovered that “one knock on a door opened a new one” for her?
Yasmine, in her story, “Speak Out” told her mom and school dean about being bullied for wearing a hijab, and insisted that they promise to let her take care of the situation herself unless the state of affairs became too big of a problem for her to handle.
And so she sat down with the bullies and explained how they made herfeel and why she wears the hijab and how much pride she has for her religion, the hijab and herself. The bulliesapologized to her and became her friends and protected her.

WHAT IF:
The bullied teen went to the school police officer as suggested
in the third award winning video, “Always Say No to Bullying?”

“A Picture is worth a thousand words” and
“Music can change the world because it can change people” (Bono)
Check out the award winning music and art in the video, “America’s Young Heroes, 10th annual Winners” for more solutions to prevent bullying

Andrea’s song, “It is Now” not only describes her pain as a bullied victim in the first stanza but also progresses to self-empowerment, as her solution, in the last stanza:
“Moments in time pass by,
We’re taking back our lives.
We are Standing on our own, and never looking back.
Living with no regrets,
Nothing but happiness
We now know who we are, unveiling the manmade mask.
Years, Days, Minutes, Seconds to overcome
The time has come, and we have won.”
Share your suggested solutions; they can make the difference in the life of a child!!!!!

U.S.Congressman Ted Deutch has ‘dialogued’ about bullying prevention before Congress and America’s Young Heroes award winners and I are honored to have been included in the May, 2011 Congressional Record.

Let’s Dialogue!!!!
Vera Hirschhorn, M.S. Educational Consultant
Founder, America’s Young Heroes Educational Outreach
Prevent bullying & Promote respect!
Author,Teens Are Heroes, Too!
Challenges, Choices & Character
vera@americasyoungheroes.org
www.americasyoungheroes.org
‘Empowering Youth to Discover the “Hero” Within’