Dear editor, I would like to thank your reporter, Arieanna Crowson, who wrote 'Light in the Darkness, Bullying and its Effects on Self Worth.' Arieanna, thank you for your vulnerability and sharing your personal experiences with bullying as a child. This is a perfect example of how 'Adverse Childhood Experiences' can impact us even into adulthood. Even experiences like parental divorce are considered an adverse childhood experience. If you are not familiar with 'ACES', I encourage you go do a bit of reading up on it. I work in two elementary schools in our District and we continuously seek to educate children and employees about how to prevent bullying, what bullying is versus conflict, to report bullying, and to learn and practice communication skills and conflict resolution. It happens most often outside of the classroom, when children are on the playground, in the halls, in the cafeteria, etc. While they are still supervised, staff do not always hear everything. Parents, please remind your children they must report it to their teacher or other trusted school staff. We cannot help if we do not know. Arieanna, I will not forget your story and I will share it with our students. I hope that you can one day soon, you find that confident, bully little girl in you, and love yourself more each day.
Beth Armstead School Counselor and Clinical Counselor