Newswise — October is National Bullying Prevention Month.
Sadly, given the highly publicized suicides of four students in recent weeks, attributed at least partially to bullying, raising awareness about such abuse couldn't come at a better time.
Two experts at the University of Virginia can comment and offer suggestions to alleviate the problem. They are Curry School Education professors Dewey Cornell and Peter Sheras.
• Dewey Cornell is an authority on bullying, youth violence and school safety. He has developed threat assessment guidelines that are being used by thousands of schools nationwide to prevent student violence that often erupts from incidents of bullyng. He has also conducted extensive research on bullying and school climate. A forensic clinical psychologist, he is director of the U.Va. Youth Violence Project and a faculty associate of U.Va.'s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. He has worked with juvenile and adult violent offenders, testified in criminal proceedings and legislative hearings, and consulted on violence prevention efforts. He has written more than 100 publications in psychology and education. Two recent books are "School Violence: Fears Versus Facts" and "Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence." For more on his work, go to youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/.
• Peter Sheras is a clinical psychologist who specializes in adolescent relationships, family relationships and stress. He is author of books for parents related to bullying and adolescent behavior ("Your Child: Bully or Victim" and "I Can't Believe You Went Through My Stuff"). He has developed an adolescent parenting stress index that examines the stresses of adolescents and their parents. He is a member of the National Academies of Practice. In his clinical practice, he treats both bullies and victims and is an expert on adolescent behavior. He is a past president of the American Psychological Association's Division of Media Psychology. He is also one of the lead faculty members in the Virginia Youth Violence Project; as part of that work, he counsels schools nationwide on factors that can trigger violence among youth.
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