Bullying seen as persistent problem, Catholic educators told

ATLANTA, Ga. - Bullying is such a serious issue that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta monitor it as a "child risk behavior," according to Lynne Lang, a school community health educator in St. Louis.

To illustrate her point, she said 160,000 children stay home from school each day because they're afraid of someone at their school. Among the easiest targets for bullying are overweight and obese children -- a group whose ranks are swelling as a result of America's dietary habits, said Angela Sheer, a dietitian who works with Lang at Barnes Jewish Christian HealthCare. The percentage of overweight children and youths ages 6-19 in the United States tripled from 5 percent to 15 percent between 1980 and 2000, Sheer said, and CDC figures indicate the current obesity rate at 17 percent of youngsters in that age group. Lang and Sheer presented a workshop, "Tipping the Scales on Childhood Obesity and Bullying," April 19 during the National Catholic Educational Association's 103rd annual convention being held in Atlanta. The average weight of a 10-year-old boy jumped nearly 11 pounds between 1963 and 2002, Sheer said, rising from 74.2 pounds to 85 pounds. "Out of a class of 25 kids, four or five would be obese," Sheer told educators at the workshop. Kids today consume 500 percent more calories from fast-food restaurants than they did in 1970, she added. "Is it overweight that causes kids to suffer depression, or vice versa?" Lang asked. Kids are bullied for being overweight until they turn about 15 years of age, she added. "In high school it flips, and they become the bullies." One in six kids identified as bullies by age 8 will be in the criminal justice system by age 24, Lang added. One in eight will be linked to domestic violence by age 30. That is, of course, if they live that long. Lang said 2,700 kids ages 10-19 commit suicide each year. "Forty-six percent of kids bullied think of suicide," she said. "Only 7 percent of nonbullied kids do." Bullying can come in many forms, according to Lang. It can be verbal, physical or emotional, it can be gender-based, she said, and there is also cyberbullying -- bullying in cyberspace. "Parents are as clueless today about what goes on with computers as they were about drugs in the '60s," Lang said. Gender-based bullying can be extremely harmful, she added. Of the 37 school-based attacks in the United States between 1974 and 1999, "nearly every attacker had been bullied as a kid. One of the first bullying words was 'gay.'" Bullied kids then try to prove they're not gay "in a very inappropriate way," Lang said. "It's up to you to protect the dignity of every kid in your classroom." "For every hour of TV watching the prevalence of obesity went up 2 percent higher," according to a 20-year-old CDC study, Sheer said. She noted how she and Lang got a grant from the General Mills Foundation to take a child wellness program into public schools in St. Louis County. After participating in the program, only 7 percent of the students reported eating more green salad and 2 percent reported higher dairy intake, but 23 percent said they were walking more. In policing bullying at recess -- which Lang said was the most common time for bullying -- she suggested the "New Games" approach of having concerted group activities to achieve goals rather than letting children figure out for themselves what is amusing. New Games, a concept developed more than 30 years ago, are noncompetitive, cooperative activities such as group juggling and verbal rhyming contests that promote fun and have no winners or losers. "New Games are that good. Every school should get them," Lang added.

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