BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT) — INAM – an anti-bullying group at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School – has started to find ways to tell students that they are special. And, as the school year wrapped up and testing added stress, it’s a message that was much-needed.
(Photo: From left (in back) — Haley Hoover, Jenna Ceriani, Sylvia Pisarchick, Lainee Swanson, Devin Snyder, (in front) Katherin McMeekin, and Callie Barber.)
INAM stands for “It’s Not About Me,” a mantra reminding students that bullies are picking on them because the bully has a problem, not the person being attacked.
“We can’t stop all bullying,” explained Brockway sophomore Sylvia Pisarchick, an INAM member. “We can help people process being bullied.”
INAM and Brockway’s anti-bullying program are spearheaded by psychologist Dr. Sharon Dippold.
“I have said for years that trainings on bullying have it backward,” Dippold said. “My approach to helping kids with bullying is not to focus on the bully. If we teach bullied kids that bullying is not about them, you protect their self-esteem.”
Dippold has been working with the school to get this message out. She trains all seventh-grade students on this message. In her 30 years of practice, she has seen a lot about bullying and reminds students that bullying is a power move or that the bully is hurting and lashing out.
The message has been received by the INAM members.
“If you just laugh about it and agree with the bully or snub them, then it shuts them down,” Swanson said. “Don’t feed into it.”
“Once kids learn that bullying is not about them and understand the reasons why someone bullies, it will decrease the emotional impact of bullying,” Dippold concluded.
One of the first INAM events happened at Easter.
INAM got colorful Easter eggs and filled them with candy and a positive message.
“I had a lot of people say, ‘Oh! Thank you,’” Brockway sophomore Lainee Swanson said. “It brightened my day.”
“The goal was to let them know that, if they’re being bullied, it’s not about them,” Katherine McMeekin said.
Pisarchick said that more people are being bullied than most students realize, and the hope of INAM is to help those students rise above it.
“We’ll probably do more things like this next year,” she said.
INAM is already planning a summer seminar for incoming seventh graders at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School.
The other events will be scattered throughout the school year.
