Monday, May 28, 2007

Do Not Tolerate Bullying in Summer Camp

As summer vacation approaches and you arrange for your kids to go to summer camp, please beware! Improperly supervised campers are at a high risk for bullying. For a great synopsis on summer camp bullying, copy and paste following link into your browser for an article by Dr. Joel Haber, PhD.:

http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2006/Feb/html/camps-raisingawareness.htm

Camp can be fun but lets face it: camp is generally very spread out and kids who are mean have more opportunity than at school to bully. Young campers are usually directly supervised by a Counselor who is a teenager. Teen Counselors may not be very invested in preventing bullying behaviors among their small group of campers and may even consider it as innocent teasing or "kids being kids."

Keep the lines of communication open with your child. Ask questions! Review the day when they get home and specifically ask how they like their counselor. If a problem occurs do not hesitate to contact the camp director. Use the Bullystoppers.com reporting tool to report camp bullying if necessary. Summer vacation should be fun - don't let bullying make it a nightmare for your child.