Schools

Sayville Speaks Forum To Focus On Bullying

Experts to offer tips how on to prevent, deal with this challenging issue.

The old adage that it takes a village to raise a child is something that High School Social Worker Betsy Quinlan is attempting to stress with her program dubbed Sayville Speaks.

This year, Sayville Speaks will focus on bullying and cyber-bullying. Similar to last year's event, student assemblies have been scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 3, when high school students and staff will attend a presentation by Mary Pelkowski regarding the pervasiveness and risks of bullying. The students will also watch a recent episode of ABC News 20/20 that focused on the topic of bullying. Last year's Sayville Speaks presentation focused on drug use and the growing presence of heroin in the community.

The evening event will be held the same night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Middle School auditorium and will feature presentations by Detective Rory Forrestal, a 24-year Suffolk County Police Department veteran, and Daria Ferrara, who will share her personal middle school and high school experiences as a target of emotional and physical bullying.

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"We include a speaker who can provide a personal experience to illustrate the district's knowledge of its impact on students, families and education," said Quinlan. "More importantly, the primary goal of Sayville Speaks is to strengthen the collaboration between schools and parents, so the response to what threatens our students, families and community safety is strong, loud and most of all consistent."

She noted that cyber-bullying is most frequently initiated outside of school, but it also bleeds into schools as well. To help alleviate the problem, some school districts including Sayville have banned students from having mobile technology such as cell phones in school. "This year all technology was banned in the high school (some students and parents were not in agreement) with the intent of eliminating the educational distraction cell phones and iPods create," Quinlan said. "The added benefit is the reduction of bullying and the increase of face to face socialization. Limit setting and boundaries are important life skills that we can help students develop."

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But she feels that the ban on student usage of mobile technology during school hours must be supported by parents who need to also limit the amount of time their children spend on cell phones and on the Internet at home. "We encourage parents to limit tech time and maintain Internet access in a common area of the home so parents are aware of the time their child is spending online and of any negative and/or suspicious Internet activity," Quinlan said. "Parents lock their doors and windows at night to keep their family safe and then with a click of a button, kids invite a world full of strangers into their homes."

She added, "Kids are falling asleep in school and when asked why they are so tired they often say, 'I was up late texting with my friends.' Some parents feel that monitoring cell phones and Internet usage is an invasion of their child's privacy. If that's the case, parents can remove the battery from their child's cell phone or use parental controls offered by the service provider and turn off service when they go to bed or during mealtime."

For those students that may be victims of bullying, the school district offers guidance counselors, a social worker and a psychologist at each school and students as well as parents are encouraged to turn to them for help, as all meetings are confidential. "It takes a community to keep a child safe," said Quinlan. "We can work together."

The event on the evening of Nov. 3 is open to all Sayville residents. Those looking for more information may contact Quinlan or High School Principal Ronald Hoffer at 244-6600.


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