PNS Daily Newscast - September 24 

Update: A second accuser emerges with misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavenaugh. Also on the Monday rundown: We take you to a state where more than 60,000 kids are chronically absent from school; and we'll let you know why the rural digital divide can be a two-fold problem.

Daily Newscasts

Is Your Kid A Bully?

June 28, 2012

HARRISBURG, Penn. - Pennsylvania parents who have seen the YouTube video of seventh-grade boys harassing a 68-year-old school bus monitor may wonder if their children could do such a thing. Christy Buck with the Mental Health Foundation says parents who don't want their kids to turn into bullies need to help them understand that bullying can be deadly.

"Even the strongest willed, athletic, super person at a school could possibly have the predisposition for depression. Ultimately, from something that somebody says or how they're treated, that person can go take their life."

Buck says studies show that 80 percent of students would never bully another student. However, she adds, "There are a boatload of kids that, they just don't want to be mean. They stand by and watch it, but they don't know what to do."

The "Be Nice" program teaches students about mental health. Buck says when she presents it in the schools she is blunt about telling students that reporting or getting up the courage to confront a bully could actually prevent a suicide.

"Maybe over the weekend a person who is treated poorly all the time at school would have contemplated killing themselves, except you were nice to that person on Friday. Imagine going back Monday morning and learning that you actually saved that kid's life."

Pennsylvania law requires every school to have an anti-bullying policy in place which lays out disciplinary actions in the event of a bullying incident. The law also requires that those policies be reviewed every three years.

Tom Joseph, Public News Service - PA