What Should You Do? Inclusion - Epsiode 29

As we wrap up the month’s theme of inclusion, we are excited to share another installment of “What Should You Do?” In this week’s episode of PACERTalks About Bullying, we have elementary school students think about ways to respond to a situation involving a new student. They have some amazing insights and advice to share!

Transcript

Hey everyone! Welcome back to PACER Talks About Bullying. I'm Bailey. We're glad you're here.

Today we're wrapping up our monthly theme of inclusion. In this week's episode, we are so excited to be at Meadow Ridge Elementary School for another installment of What Should You Do? Just to give you a quick recap in What Should You Do?, we give students real life scenarios about bullying and have them think through what options they could take and what's the impact for everyone involved. Now imagine this. Several months into the school year a new student named John joins your class. After a few days, it's obvious that your classmates aren't being very nice to him. One day during group activities you see that John is being left out on purpose. One student is even going up to your other classmates saying, hey, don't let him join your group. This really bothers you. You want to invite John to join your group but are worried that other kids in your class will then exclude you as well. So what should you do?

So the first option is decide that it's not your problem and do nothing. John will be ok.

It'd probably make him feel bad because he already has a lot of people that are excluding him and one more would just make the problem worse.

I think it would make him feel worse that nobody is going to help him. If I, it would like make the other kids feel even more powerful.

As we can see from these great responses in option one, when you do nothing, nothing changes and it can potentially get worse. Now let's see what students have to say about option number two.

Next option is that you could talk privately with your teacher and explain how John is being left out on purpose. How do you think this would help John if you talked with a teacher about it?

I think John would feel welcomed.

Mm-hmm.

And he might have a friend. I think that would be ok with the teacher because then the teacher is a teacher so they should help others.

It could help John by giving him people to be in groups with and then your friends won't not like you because the teacher probably wouldn't go ahead and say this exact person said this.

Involving an adult can be another great option because they can help get support for John. Now let's see what students have to say about option number three.

So option three is you could decide that even though it bothers you, it's just easier to go along with everyone else. You tell others not to let John in their group. So how do you think this would make you feel?

I think I would feel like really, like sad about myself and I would be disappointed and I would, because if I were John then I would literally feel so sad and frustrated and lonely.

If I didn't join in, then John wouldn't have any friends and he just, it, and the playground sure not play with anybody while he watched other kids play with each other. Then I would feel disappointed on myself and not helping John.

This scenario really shows that bullying has an impact for everyone involved, especially those that are witnessing it. Your actions can make a difference, not only for those involved in the scenario but for you as well. Now let's see what students have to say about option number four.

So option four is even though some kids might make fun of you or try to leave you out, your invite John to be in your group. How do you think this would make you feel?

I would let John play with me and my friends and really get to know him and like tell other people that he's not, that he can still play like, and imagine what if you were the new kid and you were left out. I would like help him and convince other kids to be nice to the new kids and treat them as you want to be treated.

It would make me feel happy and because I included John and it would just feel so much better than to not include him in the group and just leave him and just like not do anything about it. I would rather include him in the group and be happy about it. I think John would feel happy that now he has a group to go in and he can play and he doesn't have to like be the person who you had to go away from and like not bother about, and yeah.

As we've heard from these amazing students, it's not always easy to do something, but there are so many benefits when you do, everything from supporting a student experiencing bullying to making a new friend. Now to wrap this video up, we want to hear from you. What do you think you should do? Comment down below. This wraps up the month of March and our videos about inclusion, but we have some really exciting things planned for April as our new theme is students with solutions. We'll see you right back here next week. And remember, together we can help create a world without bullying. See you!