# data[].attributes.body
One thing I know is mental Illness is real and  people will hide who they are to fit in with society. I feel that children K-12 need to have a true understanding of the world. We live in a time where violence, peer pressure and drugs are at a all time high. Providing the proper education on the life struggles help a child grow into their own without having to be someone they are not. Counseling groups, after school activities and family time are positive reinforcement factors that help with healthy growth. One thing we as a society need to understand, that early learning of identity and behavior starts in the home. While having outside resources help, but the quote "Train your child in the way they should go so they don't stray". brings to light how each culture brings discipline. Social media plays a huge part in selling false hope and images to make adolescents believe life has no issues. As an adults my life experiences will be another person guide! Teaching love, quality over quantity and respect can lead to an open door policy. I feel if our educators not look for a paycheck, but to be more of a mentor to their students. Some of the major problems are:

Disorganization/feeling overwhelmed.

Eating right and staying healthy.

Failing to manage money.

Failing to network.

Homesickness.

Not resolving relationship issues.

Poor grades/not studying or reading enough.

Poor sleep habits.

If I was in charge I will make sure everyone knew their self worth and have resources to use when they feel challenged by their peers. I will always keep an open mind and open door for everyone. I never want a child to feel less them great!

# data[].attributes.body
Children day in age are not getting the correct education on bullying. It is important as educators to install well educated prevention plans and individually work with children on awarenesses when it comes to bullying. I work at a daycare and our number one rule is to always be kind. We use our kind hands and words towards our friends. Especially at the preschool age is a perfect time to teach kids how to talk to other and how to treat them. If every child learned this bullying and other issues like homophobia would decrease. As children get older though I feel that school are not doing a better job at reinforcing how to be kind and treat others with respect.

Parents as well contribute to how children act among others. If parents are not putting in the effort to teach their kids how to be best person they can be, it will reflect how they act at school or other environments. My parents always taught me to be kind and if I had nothing nice to say then to not say it at all. Parent also need to start accepting their children no matter what gender they prefer to like. The LGBTQ community is a very vulnerable group. They need a lot of help and support. If they do not have the support of their loved ones, it will only hurt and damage them even more.

# data[].attributes.body
I truly think that children should understand what is going on in the world around them so when they are faced with these obstacles they can respond accordingly. I think a lot of situations could be handled differently if children understood the consequences that bullying could have on someone else's life then maybe they would make better choices as far as behavior goes. Also, I think a positive method to this is having school counselors on sight for children to often talk to. To keep children encouraged and let them know there is someone willing to listen to them. Children should be encouraged to speak their minds about how they are feeling and feel comfortable enough to open up about their fears, sexuality, and any danger they might be facing.

# data[].attributes.body
Schools need to have more of an open door policy allowing students to feel more secure in coming to talk to faculty. When it comes to bullying schools need to become more strict on the situation. A lot of situations could have been resolved if conversations were taken more seriously. I understand sometimes it may be small and petty but you never know. My school had a zero- tolerance fighting and bullying policy. Which means as soon as you hit another student you were expelled. At times it is hard to prove who is bullying and who is the bully but investigations need to at least take place.

# data[].attributes.body
I truly believe that children K-12 should be educated in a way they can understand especially when it comes to self worth and self esteem. We live in a society where bullying and gun violence is our everyday reality. I believe we have a role to play when it comes to teaching children how to love themselves and one another.  Children are very vulnerable to outside influence therefore, we have a role in helping them to treat others the way they would want to be treated. Growing up we really did not have too many classes on self esteem and bullying in fact we were only told not to bully others but SCHOOLS should educate children on the negative effects of bullying . Education does not stop at the doorstep of the school. As a society we should encourage children about speaking positive affirmations over themself and when to speak up when something doesn't feel right or when they see other children being treated cruelly.

# data[].attributes.body
Children k-12 need better education on self-esteem and self-worth. I understand that bullying and cruelty may be inevitable so I think it is important for children to develop a strong sense of self and build positive self esteem from early on to take away the effectiveness of bullying or bigotry. By focusing on teaching positive traits and rewarding children for displaying positive traits creates a school culture where cruelty among peers is not tolerated. Children grow and push boundaries. It is up to educators and those in authority to help guide them in a healthy, positive directions where they are able to push boundaries without hurting others or themselves.

# data[].attributes.body
I believe strongly that many children in k-12 should get a better understanding of what it means to treat each other as equals especially in this generation. We are in an era where there are many problems going on with not only bullying but also violence in schools. I believe that teaching kids from a young age on how to be nice or even how to give respect to one another will do good in the long run. Younger kids especially k-5th grade have the tendency to voice opinions very loudly about anyone who seems different because many are not educated on the differences in society. I think the roles in many school's are to create an environment where everyone is welcome no matter what race, gender or sexual orientation you are. For example my high school started including bathrooms for transgender kids so they could feel more comfortable where they wanted to be. But, I still feel there is more we could do as a society to help others feel equal and get the respect they deserve. If I was in charge I would try to make the environment as best fitting for everyone's lifestyle and try to bring in more caring and social counselors that fit everyone's needs.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that children should be educated on the importance of mental health pretty early in their education. I think that around 4th or 5th grade is when children should start being educated on it. Growing up, I didn't think anyone taught us about mental health and its importance. Of course, if you used violence, you would get suspended from school but I personally didn't think it helped. Suspension just kept the person out of school for a few days but it didn't teach the person not to do it again. I think that children begin acknowledging they're different pretty early on in life and they are often ridiculed or made of fun of because of that. I think once students are taught the importance of mental health then, there should be some type of policy or program enforcing rules against bullying, homophobia and violence. If I were in charge, I would enforce an open door policy as well as set aside mental health days every month for students where we bring in counselors for students to talk to whoever needs someone to speak with.

# data[].attributes.body
I think schools should play a role in reducing homophobia, violence, bullying, etc. Students spend the majority of their day at school and they have the right to feel safe and comfortable. For many students, school is more of a home for them that their actual home. First of all, schools should address that there is a problem going on today concerning homophobia, bullying, and violence. Bullying has become an epidemic over the last few years and most students will probably experience at least once in their lives, but unfortunately daily for others. Once they address and assess, they should implement programs or help to bring these problems down. Although society today has become gradually more accepting with sexuality, kids today don't understand and think it's ok to make fun of someone for their sexuality, being gay, different, etc. I think students need more teachers, staff, counselors, etc. that they can talk to when they are being targeted. It's never easy coming forward especially when you don't feel comfortable talking to anyone in a position of power. Maybe it would be helpful for the schools to implement LGBTQ clubs so that students can go somewhere they feel they fit in, or have a school wide assembly addressing buying and violence and make students aware of or share resources that are available to them.

# data[].attributes.body
As a Psychology major, I think mental health is something we need to prioritize in schools. We need to actually take the time to see what is going on inside the schools that is causing conflicts. Education and peer mentors is also a great way to teach children ways to deal with some of the difficulties that come with adolescent development. To let them know they are not alone in these feelings and they have support they can fall on. If students have a source in school, they can trust it can save a child from bullying, neglect at home, self-esteem issues etc. We also need to educate parents on adolescent development during parent teacher conferences or having them communicate with the school counselors or get reports about their child’s behavior. Schools are always quick to suspend a child for acting out without trying to investigate why that child is acting out.

Schools should also work on being inclusive culturally because we are not all raised the same and come from many different backgrounds. Understanding one’s culture can help people understand each other better and work together more cohesively.  Also providing resources for LGTBQ community because adolescent years are when one is trying to find their identity and figure out who they are and where they fit in. Finding a club or support resource that can provide that is a big help. I think our school used to have some cool clubs that fit environmentalist, feminists, different cultures, music, art etc but one that was not included was LGTBQ.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that there needs to be more early education on bullying.  Many times young children are unaware of the impact they are having on others, and sometimes they just don't know what to do in the situation.  I think that there has to be more accountability.

Children need to be taught the warning signs of bullying and learn what actions to take.  Teachers also need to be held accountable.  I remember plenty of times in my life when children were bullied in full view of the teacher and no action was taken.  Kids won't seek help if they think there is no one to help them.  Most kids won't seek help at all, because they feel helpless.

It is a known fact that teachers are often in charge of too many students at a time. It is not unheard of to have children get left behind. If we want to help, we need to lower class sizes so teachers can have more individual time with students. Then if a student is getting bullied, they have someone they know and trust to help them. Plus, the teacher would be better equipped to handle the situation.

# data[].attributes.body
I don't know if it's possible to reduce bullying because I feel like no matter how much you talk about it towards children, the more they will do it. Aggressive behavior starts when a child is young and even at the age of 3, children are capable of saying "you're not my friend." That already is the start of bullying in a sense. By the age of 5, children are teasing each other and making fun of each other. I don't think it's just schools that have to do better about bullying, but it's also the parents jobs. Each environment needs to be consistent. I believe it goes along with homophobia and violence. I think it is important to teach children that it is okay to be who they are as long as THEY are happy to be that person. I do think that children's views on LGBT is 10x better than it was when I was younger because it is more open to talk about.

My school's programs was not effective at all. They didn't teach us anything about LGBT. There were little talks about bullying, but nothing much about violence. There were more talks about smoking and drugs from what I remember. I think teachers being more aware about their students and caring about their well-being would be helpful towards making school a safer place.

# data[].attributes.body
Reducing homophobia, violence, and bullying is a big task for a school to take on. When students are constantly surrounded by an environment full of all of these things, it’s hard to throw the responsibility of dealing with this issue on schools. Not saying that schools should do nothing about the issues, but I don’t think they should have sole responsibility of solving the problem.

I do think their role as a school should of course be opening up a discussion about these issues with the students. Since they are the ones who have to go through several years of school and many are experiencing the consequences of these issues, they should be the ones who get their voice heard when trying to come up with a solution. The schools should also involve the parents as well. They should know what their children are going through and be able to also make it an open environment at home too.

I don’t recall many programs in my schools. That may be due to me not using them or the programs not being publicized, if they had them at all. We had counselors, as all schools do, and they may have helped other students, but the counselors presented itself as more the place for questions about grades and college than actually talking about things that bother them in school and life.

If I were in charge, I’d make sure there were programs in place that were also well known. I’d try to implement it in classes as well and attempt to make sure everyone’s voice is heard. Like I mentioned earlier, I’d want to involve the parents as well. When they aren’t at school, a lot of the times they are at home with their family. If parents are taught what’s going on in school and how to interact and what to talk about with their child, it could help better their school and social environment.

# data[].attributes.body
I think schools can have big impacts on children, as mentioned by Maria we are spending most of our time their learning than at home. Teachers and counselors are big factors in helping children grow and be the best version of themselves. Unfortunately, not many schools have teachers or counselors that are willing to step in when they see bullying or homophobia because they may not think it is that serious. I think overall schools should do a better job at helping children regulate their emotions from the beginning and as they get older, inform them about that there are people who do choose to identify different than what they were born as, to inform that is just society today. This can reduce the name calling to others and reduce homophobia. Bullying and violence can be shown directly to teachers or can be more secretive in the classroom, so it is important  that teachers keep an eye out for cliques, and who is not in one because they may be the ones being bullied/talked about. Overall, I think things should just be taken back to the basics- kids should be taught to be nice to everyone, play outside instead of focusing on video games and social media, and to be open minded when it comes to others. In both grammar school and highschool there were actions taken against bullies, more in grammar School though due to more cliques and outsiders during this age period.

# data[].attributes.body
I feel the best way for schools to do better in protecting their students from bullying, violence, and homophobia is to raise awareness through mandatory workshops. With the implementation of these workshops kids will learn what it feels like being on both sides of the equation, which in turn should lessen how often we see instances of bullying and homophobia. The schools I went to did a poor job of highlighting the possibilities of students witnessing these events or even being victims of them. Instead there was just a semi-harsh punishment dished out to the culprits. I feel that if students were educated on these topics and work together to see things from everyone's perspective, these events would happen less.

# data[].attributes.body
The school I attended did little to no awareness around homophobia, violence and bullying. It was briefly talked about from time to time but real change within these problems were never talked about when I attended k-12 school. I believe that MOST school systems do a poor job at teaching children about gender identify and sexuality while they are going through the school system. Some schools may have groups that support the LGBTQ community but the school system itself doesn't bring enough awareness to it. I believe that just having "groups or clubs" ran by students to support the change of homophobia, bullying and violence and isn't enough. If i was in charge of how school systems were ran I would make it required for teachers/facility members to be apart and show their support with these clubs. I also also make it required that students have to have taken at least two classes to graduate that are either about psychology and human development because I believe that is important to learn while growing up and also to be aware of the different types of sexuality and gender identify.

# data[].attributes.body
I think schools especially in middle and high school don't do a good job of touching on people are homosexual or lesbian or whatever sexuality or gender they identify as. When I was growing up one of my best friends told us (the neighborhood group) he was gay when we were walking home from school one day and we made fun of him and he thanked us a few years later cause he was worried we would see him differently, but in reality he was still just a good friend of ours and that was it. Granted not everyone is going to be accepting and open to people coming out especially at younger ages. But if more awareness is raised it may cause younger people to be more accepting and open minded especially with young boys.  During my second combat deployment to Iraq one of the Marines I was in charge of was openly gay and we treated him just like we did everyone else nothing different and he is now one of my dear friends. If he survived being openly gay in the Marine Corps infantry I think coming out sooner rather than later will definitely help the youth of this country and by showing others the courage to come out as well. When it comes to bullying I agree with Jana about having more severe punishments for kids that are bullying others. Letting these kids that think its okay to bully, that there are consequences for their actions. I also agree with Alex about taking phones away during the school day to force more face to face interactions and building more interpersonal skills among young people.

# data[].attributes.body
I believe that the school system should begin teaching students from a young age because of the ideas we learned about last week (Kohlberg and Gilligan's theories) it would be easier to deter bullying. Homophobia is a hard one to tackle, because that would in turn educating young children about different sexualities. While I have no problem with that, I have seen parents who get angry about episodes of television shows, such as Arthur, who begin to display these different sexualities. I think it would take a lot of work to be able to teach young children about homophobia, simply because of some parents who may be homophobic themselves and do not want their children "exposed to those ideas." Generally speaking, I think that educating children early on is beneficial.
If I were in charge I would do just as I said but also  have harsher punishments for those who do decide that they want to bully. Most schools do not take bullying allegations seriously. I just read about a 13-year old boy who died from bullying related injuries and get this - his mother and him had both talked to the school about the bullying but the school let it get it too far. Therefore, bullying allegations, including those of cyber bullying, need to be investigated early on and dealt with. My own bullying experience was similar to how I would solve bulling because, luckily, the staff at my school back in sixth grade were very attentive when I mentioned it to one of the teacher's assistants.

For anyone who wants to read about the 13-year old boy that I mentioned earlier, I hyperlinked an article in pink!

# data[].attributes.body
Schools are our home away from home. Half of our days were spent around our classmates or friends. Many schools need to figure out how to raise awareness  among all the students, faculty and family. They need to start of by educating parents because that is where many learn about society. If they learn a certain way of behaving and accepting people at home the parents might have a different perspective. In my schools they all lacked awareness for bullying, violence, and homophobia. Growing up I was bullied by many girls because of boy situations. There was a day they made me and my two brothers leave early because they had heard there was many girls trying to fight me. I always wondered why they didn't address this with the students that were trying to fight me instead of making me leave school early. The behavior was never acceptable but they did not know how to approach everyone. This means educating your faculty would be great, understanding who to go for situations like these. While I attended high school I remember that my friend was always hiding that she was a lesbian and once she came out her parents were so harsh and did not want to accept it. She went through such rough moments just trying to understand why her parents could not just love her the way she was. Even when you educated kids to be nice or respectful to each other they will still do as they please. Schools need to come up with ideas  such as, kids having someone to come up to when they know they are being bullied, people who are found bullying should be given an hour education class that shows what happens to those kids who are being bullied. Those kids also need support because many times the bullies have a reason why they are who they are. At the end of my senior year many people started to feel more welcomed by students since we were raising awareness towards violence, bullying, and homophobia. We are learning to love everyone for whom they are as each century goes by, but some of the things that may hold us back is having those people who do not allow their children to  be okay with the changes happening around the world. While I do understand for many it may be religion we also need to accept that everyone should be loved for whom they choose to be. Implementing groups that can hear out students and family is a great way to start. Implementing awareness of stories of others who have been affected by such harsh experiences because many will be touched to hear what happens tho each individual and to avoid the situations each can lead to. Also telling students if you are aware of a friend being bullied or a friend going through hard moments due to their gender preference, or due to them being part of the LGBTQ community to seek out for help. The change begins when we accept that there is something wrong going on and we want to fix it. Schools need to raise awareness with themselves and students since grammar school.

# data[].attributes.body
I agree with Alex. I feel like by educating kids from the beginning (when they enter kindergarten), this would decrease bullying, violence, and homophobia. However, I feel like schools do implement the whole 'be nice to others,' yet kids still bully. So, maybe schools could come up with better ways to discipline students who bully and don't take the rules seriously. I feel like school's tend to brush it off when students are bullied, which leads to greater issues. As for my high school, we didn't have any support groups, or safe spaces. I have a couple gay friends from high school who were afraid to be themselves and come out because of how bad the bullying was towards them. Their only safe space was their immediate friends. With how big my high school was, I wish there would have been more for people who were dealing with bullying, coming out, and violence. If I were in charge, I would implement support groups for students to go to if they were having issues with these problems. Also, I think making it a priority for everyone to get to know each other instead of staying in the cliques where they are most comfortable would be effective. Whether you have a buddy for a week and then have to write a paper about one another on what you learned about them and how having this buddy system for a week changed their perspective on issues that person may have been dealing withand vice versa.

# data[].attributes.body
I think an important way schools can do better at decreasing bullying, violence, and homophobia is by educating their students about people with differences from the time they enter kindergarten. This would help because kids would be less likely to bully people they grew up knowing about. Also, my high school had a safe space for gay kids to come together which I thought was very beneficial. It helped make kids who may have been bullied not feel alone.
If I were in charge I would implement school clubs at the end of every day with people with different backgrounds to come together and just talk to one another for 45 minutes. I think this will help people be able to communicate and understand other people's experiences. Another thing that I believe could help is having children who are bullying others to have to write a paper on bullying and what it can do to a person. Lastly, I think banning cell phones all together in schools would help students because they would be forced to talk face to face instead of through a screen.