- Hello and welcome to an Ohio Learns 360 family webinar.

I'm Amy Juravich from WOSU Public Media.

We're here today to discuss bullying awareness and prevention.

One out of five students report being bullied each year.

How can families identify when it is happening and what can we do to keep kids safe, happy, and healthy?

Joining us for this discussion is Dr. Cricket Meehan, the director of Miami University's Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs.

Welcome to the program, Dr. Meehan.

- Thank you for having me.

- And also joining us from the Ohio Department of Education is Dr. Jill Jackson, an Education Program Specialist in the Office of Whole Child Supports.

Welcome Dr. Jackson.

- Good evening and thank you for having me as well.

- And I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what bullying is.

This event tonight is focusing on elementary school-aged kids.

So when it comes to young kids, what is bullying versus two kids just having, you know, a disagreement or not getting along?

So Dr. Jackson, would you like to start us off by explaining what is bullying?

- Yes, thank you so much for the opportunity.

I would like to reference the Ohio Department of Education's definition of bullying, harassment, intimidation for Ohio schools.

It says that harassment, intimidation, and bullying means either of the following.

It's any intentional, written, verbal, graphic or physical act that a student, or group of students, exhibit towards other particular students more than once.

And the behavior both causes mental and physical harm of the other student, is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student.

This also includes electronic acts, or means by committed through the use of cell phone, computer, pager, any personal communication device or other electronic communication means.

So that is what we have formally provided to Ohio schools as a definition for bullying, harassment, intimidation, no matter the age grade.

- Okay.

And Dr. Meehan, do you wanna weigh in a little bit about what is bullying?

Maybe you can compare bullying versus teasing a little bit, like that kind of thing.

Especially 'cause we're talking about elementary age kids.

What is bullying versus just teasing?

- Yeah, so I think the definition that Dr. Jackson provided, I mean that covers a lot of what we're looking for in terms of behavior.

So just very succinctly, when we're thinking of bullying, we're thinking of it having three key components.

And so, it's a behavior that is aggressive, it's hurtful behavior and behavior that is hurtful and aggressive can be other things as well.

But there's two other parts that we want to pay attention to, to know that it really is bullying.

One is that it typically is repeated.

It's something that's happening over and over again.

And adults may not always see the repetition, but in general, that repetition is there.

So if we start to talk to our young children, they'll start to tell us that this has happened more than once to them.

And then the final piece of that that I think is pretty critical to pay attention to, and this is really what distinguishes it, is an imbalance of power.

So the person who is doing the bullying behavior has some level of power over the individual on the receiving end.

So this is very different than two friends, or two peers, for example, that are just talking to one another and they're maybe teasing each other and that sort of thing.

So that's a different kind of perspective than an imbalance of power where someone may be physically stronger than the other person.

They may be intellectually more intelligent.

They may have higher social standing in a group.

Those are the types of things that we're thinking of with imbalance of power.

So if we're seeing that, if we're seeing those three key pieces, again, aggressive, hurtful behavior, there's an imbalance of power and generally that it's repeated.

So that's what constitutes bullying.

- Okay.

Now, something like that, something being repeated and being aggressive at the elementary school age, it could be hard for an elementary school student, how young they are, to really express what is happening.

Because something simple like, "He stole my ball on the playground" can seem very dramatic to a six year old, right?

So how does a parent know if they keep hearing about the same kid, the repeated behavior, how does a parent know if it is actually bullying?

It is actually repeated behavior?

Yeah, Dr. Jackson, go for it.

- So one of the things that Dr. Meehan said is, again, that repetition.

So I always tell parents that, okay, each time your student comes and shares with you about their school day and things that they have experienced, make and take note.

So I always go through the five why's: Who, what, when, where, and why did this happen?

And kind of have that conversation with your student and take note.

And again, a one time occurrence by definition is not bullying behavior, but you want to have those conversations and take note so that if then tomorrow, your student comes home and they say, you know, "I had this experience at school and it didn't feel good."

And then you say, well, who, what, when, where, why?

And you know, you kind of go through those five why's again, and then you start to see the pattern.

It happened with the same person or in the same place at school or any of those five why's start to look the same each time, you start to have a pattern.

And so again, having regular conversations with your little one, seeing how their day was, and then again, when incidents occur start to get that information from them around what I would say are those five whys, so that you can start to establish that pattern for reporting.

- Okay.

Now if you are just joining us, this is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar and we're discussing bullying awareness and prevention.

So Dr. Meehan, if you want to weigh in a little bit more about this idea of the repeated behavior.

So Dr. Jackson was saying take note, remember names, that kind of thing.

So if your child is bringing up the same name again and again saying, "I'm not getting along with this person," or, "This person is not treating me well on the playground or in class, they keep stealing my paper," and it's the same name over and over again.

When does the parent talk just to their child about it?

Or when does the parent need to talk to the school?

- [Dr. Meehan] It's a really great question.

And I think building those relationships is critical.

So being able to talk to your child or if you have a friend's child that you're close with, having those open discussions and open relationships really are going to be key.

And as Dr. Jackson mentioned, you know, you really do want to dig into what are some of the details of what's happening.

So what I would say is, if you are noticing that you're hearing the same name over and over again, for example, ask some deeper dive questions.

So you wanna talk about, is this something that is causing distress?

Is there anxiety or depression or some other mental health symptoms occurring?

Are you noticing anything that's a physical kind of symptom?

Are papers and books being torn in their book bag?

Are they losing belongings, if people are stealing or taking things from them?

Are you noticing cuts or bruises on their body?

All kinds of different signs and symptoms to pay attention to.

And if you're starting to tie those conversations to some of those symptoms and you're noticing that there's distress, those are absolutely times to bring it to an adult at school.

So that could be the teacher to start with, it could be the principal or an administrator.

If you have a close relationship with someone else in the building like a school counselor or whoever your child may be close to, that could be the first person to start those conversations with.

I would think that most of our young people who have told us that they've been distressed about the bullying that's happened to them, but felt that no one did anything was when they told an adult and the adult did not take action.

So the most important thing to do as a parent is to take some sort of action to move those conversations forward and to help your child understand that you are going to do something to try to improve the situation.

And it may not improve immediately, but for them to see that you're taking action is absolutely critical to your relationship with your child.

- Okay.

And I wanna get back into that idea of the parent taking action versus what action we expect from the school in just a second.

But first we wanna say, if you are just joining us, this is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar and we're discussing bullying awareness and prevention.

We'd like to thank Ohio Learns 360 and the Ohio Department of Education for their support of this initiative.

The Ohio Learns 360 Initiative is a partnership between Ohio's eight PBS stations, with support from the Ohio Department of Education.

At a statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 will be supporting families, educators, and students through community events, after-school programs, summer programs and virtual programs like this one.

You can learn more at ohiolearns360.org.

Now for our audience at home, we want to hear from you.

Please use the Q&A function in the webinar to ask a question.

Parents know their kids best, so what questions do you have as we dive deeper into this topic?

With us tonight is Dr. Jill Jackson, an Education Program Specialist in the Office of Whole Child Supports.

And this is a part of the Ohio Department of Education.

And then also with us is Dr. Cricket Meehan from Miami University where she is the Director for School Based Mental Health Programs.

Now, just to get back to that idea of the parent advocating for the student and emailing the teacher or calling the teacher and saying, "I think that we might have a bullying issue."

What if the student tells someone at school?

Is the school supposed to then contact the parent?

Should the parent be expecting to hear from an adult at the school?

Dr. Jackson, if you wanna take that.

- Yes, gladly.

So let's talk a little bit about what is required of Ohio schools.

Again, based on what's in Ohio's anti-harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy.

Like we have really done a good job of looking at the definition of bullying behavior with the component that Dr. Meehan shared, it's aggressive behavior, it is repeated behavior, and there's a power indifference.

Not only that, the next pieces are that those behaviors cause mental and physical harm to the student and is, again, sufficiently severe and persistent and creates an intimidating and threatening abusive educational environment.

And so those were the things we mentioned early on in the webinar as far as the definition of the behavior.

And those are important to the next steps in the policy that say that schools are supposed to have a way to be informed about these behaviors.

Schools have three ways in which they should make students, staff, and families, their local community, aware of how to report these bullying behaviors when they are occurring and they are made aware of then with their students.

One is, they should be able report anonymously just in case they feel concerned about any retaliation with reporting.

Two, they should be able to report informally or just be able to just share information with any staff, person, teacher, or administrator in the building.

Thirdly would be formally, and that would be in which the school has a formal way in which they collect this information for the next step required in the policy, which is conduct an investigation.

Once schools are informed about bullying behavior, they are to investigate what was reported and then provide interventions.

- Okay.

And Dr. Meehan, do you wanna add anything else about what the parent can expect from the school?

I just wonder how much there could even be a power imbalance there, where the parent just feels like, "I don't know what to do," and how can the school help with that?

- Yeah, and so what I would say is it's important even before an incident starts to build those relationships with the adults who are in your child's school, especially the teacher and anyone else who has regular contact on a daily basis with your student.

So building those relationships, checking in, making sure that the communication channels are open.

So sharing email, phone numbers, whatever it is, whatever is the best way for you to communicate back and forth.

Starting that early and before there are any problems can be really helpful because what will happen is the teacher then, or whoever it is at the school, will know your family.

They'll know that you are the child's guardian or parent and be able to build those relationships and understand that when you bring something new to them that's concerning to you, that this is something that they need to take very seriously.

So that's, I think, step one.

Is just build those relationships early.

I would also say, if you are not receiving a response to whatever it is that you're bringing to an adult at the school that you feel is appropriate, don't just stop there.

Go to the next person in the school.

So if that's another teacher, if that's someone in the office or whoever it may be, continue to find someone who will listen to the story, listen to what's happening, and hopefully be able to provide some solutions.

And I think that would be the third thing that I would recommend as a parent is to ask what will happen at school.

What will be some of the solutions, what will be some of the strategies that will hopefully help reduce what's happening and try to encourage the school, the adults at the school to really share with you specifically what they're planning to do and the steps that they're planning to take.

Because as Dr. Jackson mentioned, schools do have requirements on how they need to handle these sorts of incidents and they have policies and procedures that are in place to be helpful so that everyone can remain safe.

- And this is an Ohio Learns 360 webinar and I'm Amy Juravich.

We're talking about bullying awareness and prevention.

And to our audience at home, we wanna hear from you, has your child been impacted by bullying?

You can ask your question in the Q&A portion of this webinar, and Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom, will deliver your question to our guests.

And I think that Amy Palermo does have a question.

- We do.

We have a question from our audience.

Should a parent of a bullied child ever contact the parent of the child who is bullying?

And then I'll add to that, what if they know each other?

Do you have any advice?

- Yeah, should the parent contact the other parent?

Dr. Jackson, do you wanna start off with that?

- So, if they know each other, again, like Dr. Meehan was saying, having a relationship is fundamental to ensuring the reduction of these behaviors and creating a safe space for students.

If parents know each other, one, have a healthy relationship, two, and are able to have a conversation in which they can share their concerns in a way in which is solution-based and outcome-driven for the students, then that would be optimal.

Oftentimes, parents have to be able to separate maternal emotions.

I know I'm a mom, so sometimes that's a challenging space, but being able to be driven towards what is required for schools, for themselves.

In other words, what are the interventions gonna be?

What are the resolutions gonna be for ensuring the behaviors do not continue and that the students stay safe?

So if the parents, one, have a healthy relationship, can maintain that for resolution of the students, and then end up in a space in which they have some pretty specific steps for the students to follow in a way in which the behaviors are being eliminated and students are able to stay safe during the school day.

- This is a really wonderful opportunity for parents in the relationships with each other to model positive communication, and solution-focused and great relationship skills.

So if parents are able to do that, then their young people are going to benefit from learning those skills in watching those interactions happen.

- And Dr. Meehan, earlier you were talking about how the school, you need to ask the school what solutions they're going to provide.

So what step they're going to be taking.

Can you dive a little deeper into that?

So what solutions should schools be providing?

'Cause you know, as a parent, the school can tell me, "Well, we're gonna make sure they don't sit next to each other," or, "We're gonna make sure, you know, x, y, and z."

What kind of things should the parent be looking for for the school to be saying these are the solutions?

- Yeah, well absolutely depends on the situation, but some of the most important things are that whatever the solution is, if it is separating by physical space, that can be a solution.

If it's ensuring that that young person has a peer or someone who they can go to to support them throughout the day, having an adult that they can talk to, whatever the solution is, a really critical piece of it is following up long term.

So coming back later, maybe in a couple days or in a week, and the adults at school checking in and following up and ensuring that there has been changes in the behaviors and that the problematic behavior isn't occurring as much or not at all.

And so that's something that I think, when we often talk about bullying, we want to figure out what's going to happen right away and end that situation.

And that's good.

But we need to think about long term, because again, this is a repeated behavior, so we need to follow up regularly and have adults who are checking in and there needs to be a period of time where that does occur.

So schools should share with the parents, you know, who will be the person doing that checking in, how often will it happen and how long will it happen?

And then provide some regular feedback to the parents on what's happening at school.

- If I may, I would like to add to that.

So the Ohio Department of Education, the anti-harassment, intimidation and bullying initiative in which Dr. Meehan is a part of, she has described steps that we offer to Ohio schools through what's called action planning.

And so, through action planning, we recommend that there is a plan in place that's inclusive of the family, the school, and that could include, like Dr. Meehan said, peers, it could include any school staff.

It may be the teacher in the classroom that is of concern or it could be some other staff in the building.

Hopefully inclusive of the administrator as well, because you want that level of leadership support for your students safety.

And so a team approach is needed because you have to restore trust and safety for students as well as, like Dr. Meehan was saying, ensure for the rest of the school year.

So you would have an action planning team for your students so that immediate action can be taken for their safety.

And then that team would meet and that team would really hear out the students needs.

Again, kind of going through that five whys again, the who, what, when, where, why, and how bullying is occurring for them so that everyone is on the same page, everyone has the same information and everyone is understanding the students experiences from the students lens more so than from theirs.

Because adults can dictate and determine things that may not provide a good intervention fit for addressing and resolving the behaviors for the student.

Once the student's needs are heard by the team of support for the student, then that's when everyone would kind of say, here's what we can do, maybe in the morning to address these concerns, midday, and then end of day and really walk through the student's school day based on what they have shared and provide prevention, intervention or response strategies for what the student is expressing.

That way everyone knows what the interventions are and the student is even able to say, "Yes, this is going to be something that's successful for me."

I've heard through the years, and Dr. Meehan the same, people saying the school did something but it didn't work.

Right?

And that's oftentimes because interventions are put in place that aren't a best fit for what the students experiences are.

So, this action planning team approach is necessary so that, again, everyone's on the same page and we're certain that the interventions provided are a best fit to resolve, eliminate, and deter these behaviors from occurring.

And then the last piece that Dr. Meehan said is that this is an ongoing process for the balance of the school year.

It's not a one time occurrence, it's not a one time conversation or a meeting with this team.

It's a team of support that really has guidance driven from the student and family, and then with the definitive interventions in place, then you all say, "How are we gonna follow up and when are we gonna follow up?

Are we gonna follow up in person?

Phone, text, social media, however is determined?

And then how frequently is it gonna be?

Every other day, once a week, twice a month or monthly?"

Whatever is needed for that student's individualized plan of support.

And then that is maintained for the balance of the school year.

And we're doing, as again, Dr. Meehan referenced, what we call progressive monitoring.

"Okay, everything is really going great in the morning, but after lunch we ran into a hiccup."

And so you don't throw out the whole plan.

And you don't throw out the whole team.

You just kind of take the team and you narrow in and you say, what happened after lunch?

You go through those five why's again and you- Where do you need to adjust, shift interventions, change focus, and then keep teaming and supporting the student so that their full day for the rest of the year is safe and supported with interventions that everyone is aware of, which is hugely important.

Schools making sure everyone is aware.

A lot of times parents are concerned, they say, "The school said they're gonna do something but we don't see it or we're not feeling safe."

And so, this really addresses and resolves that, so that everyone is on the same page working together and the student's safety can be restored and supported for the balance of the year through action planning.

Lastly, that resource that Dr. Meehan and I just walked through can be found on the Ohio Department of Education website.

You type in bullying on the webpage and you get the first link, which is the anti-harassment, intimidation and bullying resources link.

There's a lot of great stuff on there for parents.

Even a tab for parents on the left.

But then also in the middle of the resource page is the document guidance for action planning, which parents can take with them after this webinar to utilize to work with schools if they need so to eliminate bullying behavior with their student.

- Okay.

And I know we have another question from our audience at home, so- And you can ask your question using the Q&A function of this webinar and Amy Palermo, what's the next question?

- Our next question.

If you have a student or child who does not open up easily and does not really let you know that they're being bullied, but you think there's something going on, how do you proceed?

- Dr. Meehan, do you wanna take that?

- Often just being with a young person, being in the same room with them and allowing them the space and the time to open up or to talk when they're ready.

It doesn't always have to be verbal.

So there are other options.

The idea of maybe using drawings or maybe using music or other avenues to try to get that student comfortable in what's happening and then able to talk to that adult.

And as Dr. Jackson mentioned, if the first adult isn't the right fit, maybe there's someone else in the building or maybe another peer who could talk with that young person.

So it's just trying things over and over again until you get to something that's working well.

And then, that really is just not giving up, like just repeating the process over and over and over to ensure that safety is the number one concern.

- And I wanted to talk for a little bit about this idea.

So we're talking about bullying awareness and prevention.

So a part of the prevention is related to what you just said, there's a social and emotional learning component to elementary school and teaching students how to be empathetic individuals and how to have awareness of what's going on around them.

So can we talk a little bit about how all the students in the class can help make sure there's no bullying going on amongst them, being advocates for each other.

Dr. Jackson, do you wanna talk a little bit about just the being aware of others?

- Sure.

I'm gonna provide a leading framework for Ohio schools and then I'll allow Dr. Meehan to fill in all the good stuff.

So in Ohio, all schools are required to implement positive behavioral interventions and supports, also known as PBIS.

It addresses what we call three tiers of needs for addressing student behavior.

Tier one are universal needs that all students should receive.

And those are, again, your fundamental social, emotional, skills and supports so that their students have healthy behaviors, healthy relationships, are self aware and are able to self-manage and regulate their behaviors for themselves, and then in relationship with their peers.

Tier two are where students may have a bit of a challenge with this and may need some additional supports.

Evidence-based programs is what we recommend in this space or evidence-based practices, so that students are able to learn skills, social, emotional skills if you will, so that they can learn how to better self-regulate, have more what we call protective factors than risk factors, and are able to engage in a healthy way during the school day with their peers.

And then tier three are students that may already have plans and supports in place within the school or within the community and along with their families, even oftentimes at tier three to support their best behavior in school.

So tier one, in PBIS, is the place in which we would focus in response to your question, however, to ensure that, what we call, school-wide practices.

And then here's the really good part that I get so excited about in this requirement.

It's not just for students, it's for staff and students.

And so that is the comprehensive approach that we are really excited about in Ohio schools, that this good work is for everyone.

And because teachers have to create a positive school culture and one in which bullying behavior is not considered or encouraged.

And again, like Dr. Meehan mentioned, with parents modeling, teaching and modeling, all the time of these behaviors for every student in the school, every staff as well are able to establish a positive school culture and climate in which the norm is that there is not a bullying behavior and it's not encouraged or a space in which it's allowed.

- Yeah.

Dr. Meehan, do you wanna weigh in on this idea of what's being taught and modeling the behavior, not just with adults, but amongst other students?

So how can everyone help prevent bullying?

- Yeah, I think one of the things that we need to think about is that every interaction that we have and every relationship that we're building matters and our words matter, our actions matter.

We, as adults, are role models and mentors to our young people.

And I think we need to always remember that we are not only engaging in our interactions, but everyone around us is learning from them.

And so I think it is, again, opportunities for the adults to be mentors for the young people to learn how to engage with each other, for adults to say, you know, "Maybe that interaction that you had with each other didn't really work out so well," and talk about how it made each other feel and really dig in deeper so that our students can learn more.

So, it's all practice.

It's really engaging in those relationships that are positive.

It's learning those skills like Dr. Jackson mentioned, and these are things that we can do over and over again.

So it's a repetitive process.

- And just to add on to that, can we talk a little bit about the bystander effect?

So what if your child comes home and says, "Billy's being mean to this other kid."

What should you do as a parent?

How do you guide your kid to help in that aspect?

Because if it's happening, I have to imagine that other students are noticing, even if it's not directly impacting them.

Dr. Meehan, do you have any advice about what a bystander in the class should be doing?

- Yeah, I would say, a lot of times our young people don't know what to do and they don't know how to intervene or they may not feel safe to intervene.

And so they don't need to directly interact with the person who's engaging in bullying behavior.

They don't need to stop it directly, but they can do something as simple as when they've noticed something happening to someone else to say to them, even if it's later, "I'm really sorry that that happened to you," or, "When I saw that, that didn't make me feel good."

And so those kinds of behaviors, I think, are things that young people can engage in and they're safe.

And that's something that we can share with anyone who's experienced or witnessed what's happening.

- And thank you again for joining us for this Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

We're talking about bullying awareness and prevention.

I'm Amy Juravich.

And to our audience at home, have you had to talk with your child about bullying?

And have you had to talk with the school about it?

Please ask your question in the Q&A portion of this webinar.

And Amy Palermo from WOSU Classroom will deliver your question to our guests.

And this is Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

It's a part of an initiative between Ohio's eight PBS stations, with support from the Ohio Department of Education.

At the statewide level, Ohio Learns 360 is supporting families, educators, and students through virtual programs, including series like this one.

You can always find out more at ohiolearns360.org.

And I also want to talk for a moment about the idea of kindness.

So everyone wants to be a kind person.

And you want to be around kind people.

So, can we talk a little bit, Dr. Jackson, about how to just spread the idea of kindness, but without kindness becoming- I feel like sometimes the word kindness is just thrown around so much and everyone's like, be kind, be kind, that it becomes kind of meaningless.

So how do you instill in your child and to have them take that to school, the idea of kindness?

- Well that's a truly important question.

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

I think that talking about kindness in various ways is very important.

In addition to talking with your student about kindness in various ways, giving examples when kindness occurs.

Really pointing that out and saying that was a really cool thing.

And then talking about how that felt.

What was that experience like?

And talking about how good that felt, that really helps with the experience and makes students really take in that good feeling, let that linger and really have an exchange about that experience so that kind of becomes embedded.

And not only can they talk about it and it's a cognitive process, but it's also an experiential piece that they know how that feels as well as what that means.

I'm gonna stretch that over again to the schools because this should be a shared relationship between families and schools and all three groups really working together to create safety.

So families talking with their students about kindness in various ways and what that means and how they experience that.

As well as with that PBIS work I just talked about, positive behavioral interventions and supports, tier one usually offers what's called behavioral expectations.

So oftentimes you'll see in schools things like be kind, be patient, be supportive or things like that.

And so those are additional ways in which teaching kindness can carry from home to school.

Oftentimes with PBIS, because it is a district-wide initiative, it includes family and community conversations around what are behavioral expectations for kindness or to create safe schools.

And when schools really implement PBIS to the extent in which families and communities are involved, you can have common messages to talk about at home and that are reinforced in school and in the classroom that really help to create a culture of kindness that is consistent and hopefully giving students, again, a safe learning environment and school experience.

- Yeah, Dr. Meehan, do you wanna add anything about that?

You can wear a t-shirt that says be kind, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is being kind all the time in the classroom.

So can you talk a little bit more about the idea of kindness versus the awareness and respect that you need for your fellow students?

- Right.

So I think kindness is something that we have to learn what that looks like.

We have to understand what are the actions we take that actually show that we are being kind.

It's not something that is simply a lip service kind of word.

So we don't just get to say I'm a kind person and not have the actions that show that.

So again, I think this repeated message that I've talked about throughout today, that we're building relationships and we're describing what the behaviors are that our young people can do.

And we as adults are role models for that.

So we can show what a kind act looks like in a lot of different settings and in a lot of different ways.

And sometimes kind actions may look different to different people, but I think the more that we're teaching our young people what different things we can do to be kind look like, that will help.

And I think that gets into this idea that it isn't simply just a word on a t-shirt.

It really becomes a value that is part of who we are.

And so families can instill these values, schools can instill these values and it's something that we need to do, again, over and over again.

And we need to show that we're committed to all of these different values, kindness being one of them.

When we do that, when we're committed and we're showing that, that's when we get to this idea of being respectful of others.

So we're showing that we're being respectful by engaging in these positive things with those around us.

And I think that's something that, as parents, we can do that with our young people.

In our schools, we can encourage them to go to school and engage in that.

And then again, asking them, how have you been kind to others today?

Or how have you respected others?

How have you been part of the solution as opposed to being part of the problematic behavior?

And I think that's going to be where we're going to see a difference when it comes to bullying behavior being reduced and having less experience, if we have more people that are engaged in those positive things.

- Yes.

And Dr. Jackson, do you wanna add anything else about that?

- Well, I do, but it's gonna just take us just a bit into another area.

But I would be remiss if I ended this without saying that Ohio's anti-harassment, intimidation and bullying policy is intended to address student to student behavior.

I thought I saw a comment earlier and I wanna make sure that I let everyone know that if you have concerns about adult behavior or adults not being kind or adults not modeling this behavior or even following Ohio's anti-harassment, intimidation and bullying policy or your local district's anti-harassment, intimidation and bullying policy, it becomes a matter of professional conduct.

Professional conduct is different, has different requirements regarding addressing the behavior of staff in Ohio schools.

And so we always really have to separate that work and look at student behavior and what's going on in ensuring and promoting their kindness and providing interventions if they're not.

And however, if staff are responsible for these behaviors and displaying bullying behavior, it's a matter of professional conduct in relationship to their employment and work in the district.

So I just wanted to make a connection there, but at the same time make sure I address that before we conclude.

- And I did wanna take a moment to talk a little bit about cyber-bullying, 'cause I think a lot of the bullying that we've been talking about is an in-person situation.

Now we're talking about elementary school age kids.

So the idea of cyber-bullying might be not quite there yet.

Maybe they're not on devices as much or they don't have as much access to devices and other people on those devices as older kids, but we could get in there whenever you get to third graders, fourth graders, fifth graders.

Can you talk a little bit about what parents need to look out for when it comes to the idea of cyber-bullying, Dr. Meehan?

- Yeah, so cyber bullying can happen on a lot of different devices, phones, iPads, computers, whatever.

And it can happen in school settings, out of school settings, and it tends to be fairly pervasive and can cross the home and the school line.

So a lot of school bullying, if it's in person kinds of things, stays within the school.

And the same at home.

With cyber-bullying, it really does.

It can happen and impact our young people throughout their entire day and it's harder to turn it off and to get away from it.

And so it's something that parents need to ask about, to talk about.

And, really, especially when our students are younger, those are the best times to start those conversations about how to be a good positive digital citizen.

What does all of those values and those behaviors look like in that online setting?

And then providing them with examples and ways to practice those behaviors.

But then also having that open relationship to have them report to you when those things, when uncomfortable or bullying type things are happening in those online settings.

So again, it's something really for parents to be aware of and to have those open conversations about.

- And Dr. Jackson, I have to think that some of your policies that you've been talking about also incorporate cyber-bullying into that as well.

- Well it's in the definition.

That I spoke to at the beginning of the webinar.

And so if bullying behavior occurs online, it is inclusive of the bullying behavior that should be addressed by the school.

What schools will be challenged by and we'll have to find ways to support is when this happens outside of school hours.

And so schools are oftentimes concerned about how to address that.

But what I say to them is if what occurred online outside of school hours impacts the school day, they are still behaviors that are concerning and should follow action planning guidance and intervention should be in place to ensure the students feel safe and don't feel the school is a threatening environment because of online activity that took place outside of the school day, so.

It should follow the same policy practices in addressing the student's behavioral needs so that everyone feels safe.

- And we're down to our last couple of minutes, so I just wanted to end with each of you giving us just a little bit more about resources that parents can use, if you have just a little more advice for the parents who will be listening to this webinar about what they should do if bullying has impacted their life or particular websites you wanna point them to.

So Dr. Meehan, if you'd like to start.

- And I know Dr. Jackson knows what I'm going to say because I love the Search Institute and the Search Institute's website has some amazing resources.

So searchinstitute.org, I believe is their website.

But if you were to Google "Search Institute," you'll find them.

They have the developmental relationships framework and this is a wonderful resource that gives you actionable strategies on how to build those relationships that we kept talking about today.

So there is a guidance document in there.

I highly recommend parents to take a look at that and to think about how you can incorporate some of those strategies into your relationships with your young people because it really will start to make a difference and you'll start having more open conversations.

Your young person will be sharing more with you and you'll be able to hopefully engage and have more positive experiences and safer experiences as a family.

- [Amy] Dr. Jackson, are there resources that you wanna point parents to here as we end?

- Search Institute, for sure.

Ohio Department of Education, in the search, type in the word bullying and go to the anti-harassment intimidation and bullying resources page.

It is chock-full of resources with families and educators in mind to work together locally to ensure student safety.

And then lastly, I put the federal resource stopbullying.gov and it is, again, a wealth of resources for families, students, and schools to again stop bullying across the country.

- Okay, well thank you so much.

And this has been Ohio Learns 360 webinar.

Thank you for joining us and thank you to Dr. Cricket Meehan from Miami University.

Thank you for being here.

And also thank you to Dr. Jill Jackson from the Ohio Department of Education.

Thank you.

And your feedback on tonight's topic and to help inform future topics by completing a brief survey.

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If you are not able to take a photo right now, a link will be emailed in the next 24 hours to anyone who registered for tonight's event.

And we want you to join us again on Wednesday, December 14th for our next topic, advocating for your child and connecting with their school.

Thank you to Ohio Learns 360 and the Ohio Department of Education for this event.

And also thank you to Amy Palermo with WOSU Classroom.

And thank you to the television production team at WOSU for making this event possible.

You can watch other webinars in this series and find more information on upcoming virtual events, including links to register, by visiting our website at ohiolearns360.org.

I'm Amy Juravich, thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you next time.