By Gary Lloyd
The Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama will offer a program Feb. 23 at Camp Coleman in Trussville aimed at curbing the problem of bullying in schools.
The program, under an initiative called Power Up!, seeks to educate girls on how to deal with bullying incidents as well as encouraging bystanders to intervene in such situations.
The program will last from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost is $16 per girl for members and nonmembers pay $12 annual membership fee
. The price includes lunch. The registration deadline is Friday.
Eighty-five percent of physical and verbal abuse in schools happens in front of bystanders, according to a fact sheet released by the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama. The organization will be setting its sights on that 85 percent to encourage them to get involved.
“Power Up! encourages the 85 percent of the population who are bystanders to bullying (rather than targets or bullies) to recognize the strength in those numbers and use it to intervene when they see something wrong,” the Girl Scouts said in a news release. “One common theme of individuals involved in school violence is all perpetrators have reportedly experienced some sort of bullying or demeaning treatment.”
Power Up! was started by the Colorado Girl Scouts after the shooting at Columbine in 1999. The motto of the program is “Doing nothing is not an option!”
For more information or to register, contact Laura Elliott at 205-655-3782 extension 2000 or lelliott@girlscoutsnca.org.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.