Have you ever been bullied? Chances are you or someone you know has been or currently is being bullied!

While bullying isn’t a new phenomenon, “Bullied to Death” is becoming all to common. I am not going to inundate you with statistics. Serge and Carmen have more than done their homework. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to respond to Carmen’s tweet when I saw it on my feed last week. Bullying has made the front pages of newspapers across the country at an alarming rate in recent years – children harming each other and themselves because they either felt empowered to bully others or were made to feel so insignificant that committing suicide became a viable solution.

This breaks my heart.

I remember being bullied once in school. We were stationed in Michigan at Selfridge Air National Guard Base just north of Detroit. I don’t remember her name or how it started but I do remember her constantly picking on me over my light skin and “white” hair. She taunted me and would yell ‘Don’t you think you are all that?’ She threatened to beat me up and cut my hair off. My parents always told me to take the high road and walk away – “toughen up”, “ignore it”, “don’t be so sensitive”.

No matter how much I tried to ignore her, the situation escalated to such a degree that I didn’t even want to go to school. Waiting for the bus was torture. I would make up illnesses only so that I didn’t have to go. Once she actually started hitting me, my dad told me to hit back.  I remember her coming at me, pulling my hear and shoving me. On my way down I punched at her but ended up grabbing hold of her lip. Blood was drawn. She ran away. A few hours later the base police came to our house. My dad backed me up and she never bothered me again.

Nevertheless, remains with you, sometimes even into adulthood. I dislike conflict. I often avoid it at all cost.

While I am not a parent (yet) I believe that parents are in the best position to advocate for their children – to keep them safe from bullies and to teach them the harm in bullying others. We can’t rely on school administrators and teachers to protect our children from bullying and other forms of student on student violence. While school safety is school administration mandate, parents are far better equipped to have a more significant impact.

So, if you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or are/wish to be a positive role model and person of influence to children in your community, this series is for you!

How to Prevent Bullying: A Parent’s Guide

By Sensei Serge Sognonvi and Carmen Sognonvi
Originally published at http://www.urbandojo.com/blog

Did you know that nearly 1 in 4 students in the United States experience some form of bullying?

It’s no wonder so many parents come to us at Urban Martial Arts with questions about how to prevent bullying.

Since June is Children’s Awareness Month — its goal is to make sure children are less exposed to violence and don’t grow up emotionally scarred — we thought this would be a good time put together a comprehensive series of articles on ways to stop bullying.

Over the course of this month, we’ll be publishing this 7-part series on how to prevent bullying:

Part 1: The 5 Essential Bullying Statistics Every Parent Should Know
Part 2: Effects of Bullying
Part 3: Why Do People Bully
Part 4: Bullying Warning Signs
Part 5: What To Do If Your Child Is Being Bullied
Part 6: What To Do If Your Child Is Bullying Others
Part 7: How Martial Arts Can Help Prevent Bullying

We hope you’ll find this series to be a useful resource on how to prevent bullying. And if you have any ideas or suggestions you’d like to offer, please do so in the comments section. We’d love your input!