Bullying & Social Conflict Workshop

How Can Our Community Prevent and Respond Effectively to Bullying?

Some topics to be covered include:

  • Teaching the difference between normal social conflict and true bullying, and how to respond to each.
  • Giving kids the tools to de-escalate conflict before it turns into a bullying situation.
  • How to use emotional intelligence in determining whether a friendship is healthy or harmful, and learning to choose between good friends and bad friends.
  • How to cognitively reframe bullying when it happens, in order to help protect yourself against negative effects such as anxiety and depression.
  • How to avoid a culture of victim blaming in response to reports of bullying.
  • Responding to dismissive claims of “they were just kidding” by teachers and parents of aggressors.
  • Teaching kids how to effectively ask adults for help instead of just saying, “they are being mean to me.”
  • Teaching kids the difference between tattling and reporting, and responding to the stigma of being labeled a tattletale.
  • Implementing positive interventions for the aggressor instead of punitive responses. Zero tolerance policies have failed to reduce bullying. Pro-social interventions are more effective at teaching aggressors to feel empathy and compassion for their victims.
  • Teaching students how to act as witnesses and allies instead of as passive bystanders when they encounter cruelty.

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Longer workshops offer more comprehensive coverage of each topic. Services include worksheets, follow-up lesson plans, copies of my slides, and resources.

Carrie’s work has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Fox, The New York Times, ABC Radio, cnn.com, HLN, WGN, HuffPost Live, and more. She travels around the country speaking about issues such as bullying prevention, intervention, and reconciliation; digital citizenship in an age of cyberbullying; restorative justice; resolving social conflict; sexualization, hate crimes, and the cultural effects of gender-based marketing.