When we turn a blind eye to students who are bystanders to bullying, we are telling our students that it is okay to not stand and speak up against the problems that they or their peers are facing. If we continue to promote pro-active students, we will stop the epidemic of bystanders in our society. The Times of Trenton Friday op-ed discusses the dangers of being a bystander in both corporate society and to bullies in schools.
“Our corporate society, our government agencies and our leaders are all a reflection of us. And sadly, we are largely a nation of bystanders, afraid to stand up and speak out. We continue to churn out new generations of bystanders managed by a top layer of predatory leaders who bank on our lemming-like behavior.
In our schools, student populations are comprised of a majority of bystanders (76 percent), sandwiched by bullies (13 percent) and victims (11 percent), according to the National Institute of Child Health and Development. And I would venture to say that corporate and government workers likely reflect similar statistics.
In the same way that bystanders ignore and enable a bully, employees of the companies and agencies involved in the BP oil disaster ignored the elephant in the room and were afraid to come forward, i.e. to call someone’s attention to the broken safety mechanisms, policies and procedures.” Read more of this article here
What can you do to stop the bystander epidemic?
If you wish to donate, visit the KidsBridge Website.