1. Help our kids and grandchildren develop inner strength and well-being – stop self-bullying.
2. Teach them how to protect themselves from vicious kids.
3. Intervene as guardians; be m0odels of the strength and skill you want the kids to have.
4. Organize to make legislators create good laws and to force principals and school district administrators to create and implement effective “stop bullying” programs.

Best wishes,
Ben

Here we have the loss of young girls who no doubt were full of hope and dreams and no doubt had much to offer others. With some wrong choices and then the attack by others all of us lost the opportunity to see them grow up and flourish.

As parents and others who have influence on young people, we must not wait until there are bad choices and consequences to step in and make a difference. Whether we are parents, coaches, school personnel or community leaders - early teaching of kindness, compassion and respect are key to successfully helping our children resist the poor self talk and harassing of others. These attributes must be applied to both ourselves and then to others.

We must not wait till the children are in crisis mode to approach these issues. Yes it is time consuming but important for us to tackle before they become issues. Parents need the help of the whole community and must take advantage of community to help them teach their children characteristics they want to see them have as they go to middle school and beyond.

Of course then as parents we must model these characteristics too, because our children follow our example more than our words.