Be a Buddy, Not a Bully

This post is written by Carolina Gutierrez.

Carolina serves as a Health Promoter at Heartland Health Center - Hibbard.

When I started serving at Hibbard Elementary School in Heartland Health Centers I felt very much out of place. I did not know if I would fit into the environment of the clinic inside the school. The idea of a clinic being in a school was very new to me! I had never seen this before, but as my first week went on I realized just how important it is to have a school-based clinic and just how much my service here at this site would help/benefit the students and the community of Albany Park.

Just as I felt out of place at the beginning of my service term, many students today are made to feel out of place in their schools by bullies. The suicide rate increases each year in the 5-18 yr old range due to bullying.
I feel fortunate enough to serve the students here at Hibbard Elementary school by promoting a Bully Free Zone. Parents are being offered a Bully Prevention Workshop on January 22, 2015 at 3:30 pm in the Library. This workshop will allow parents to learn and see the dangers of bullying. As technology advances so does the way bullying moves from the classroom to social media. Meaning that students never really are away from the bully itself. This workshop will hopefully teach parents what to look out for if their child is being bullied, what to do if their child is being bullied, and ways to teach their child to be more than a bystander to bullying. We hope many parents are able to come out and learn about this issue .

Many do not realize just how much bullying affects one's life until they see how far some children go because of the idea of not being liked, wanted, or appreciated by their peers. I do not remember much about my time in elementary school but I remember the times when the other girls would not talk to me because I was too smart or I did not have the right things (for example, clothes). I always felt very down on myself in elementary school because it felt like I never had friends. It was not until one day I came home crying that my parents actually asked me what was wrong. They never noticed that I came home sad or that I never went over to play at a friends house. They just assumed I was shy.

Having my parents actually ask me how my day was and why I was crying truly made a difference in my self-esteem. I realized then that those girls who said mean things to me, who laughed at me, who thought I was weird really did not know me they just assumed. Now that my parents know what to look out for if their child is being bullied has actually helped them with my younger siblings. That is my hope for this workshop -To prevent bullying before it happens and to guide parents to give their children the proper support and tools to move forward and realize they are not alone; the way my parents did for me.