Lauderdale County School District teachers learn how to fight against bullying

The Lauderdale County School District met at MSU Meridian to learn more about putting a stop to bullying.

Keynote speaker Mississippi School Boards Association attorney Jim Keith, shared possible consequences of bullying if one is caught.

“We want to make sure that parents and students, and teachers, have a good understanding what bullying really is, and what it is not. We certainly don’t want it to go on, and we also want kids to understand that they don’t have to put up with that kind of behavior.”

Bullying isn't just happening between students.

“The same thing for employees, if they feel like they’ve been subjected to bullying or harassing behavior, we want them to come forward as well.”

With technology at their fingertips, students can communicate like never before making it easy for bullying to happen not only at school, but also through electronic devices.

“Bullying in today’s society is probably going to happen more likely on social media today outside of the school time on the weekends, but if it does;we want those kids to come forward and let us know what’s happening to them; because obviously that’s going to impact their relationship with other students.”

Bullying is not tolerated on school grounds, and anyone convicted of this behavior is subjected to be disciplined.

“Students just have different levels of punishment it depends on what they’re doing. If it’s just a certain amount of teasing or misconduct of that nature, it might be dealt with at one level; if it’s physical behavior then obviously it would be dealt with much more severely.”

There are ways to protect your child from becoming a victim of bullying at home.

“Parents need to be ever vigilant in regards to what their children are doing on social media and that means monitoring their cellphone usage, I think that’s certainly something that parents need to be doing until they build a point of trust with that child, that they can trust that child; because that smart phone is a powerful too.”