Obese, GLBT, or otherwise different from the crowd are just a few of the reasons children and teens are being bullied — sometimes to death — in America’s schools, with some even taking their own lives this year alone.
Intensified by the inescapable internet, bullying has spun out of control. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University. These growing numbers prove that bullying has become a freighting epidemic in communities and schools across the world. This epidemic causes 160,000 children a day to stay home from school because they are afraid of being bullied, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Teen Nation Tour is a yearlong anti-bullying campaign made up of teen musicians that travels the US and visits over 10,000 kids a week in schools. The Teen Nation program has been proven to be effective in raising awareness. In an effort to improve upon an already effective program, we brought in The Bully Doctor. Here’s why we chose him…
Since 1999 Tim (The Bully Doctor) Hutchinson has worked to stop bullying through hundreds of presentations to thousands of students, and working with parents, education officials, juvenile detention centers, law enforcement, and other outreach efforts. Along the way he’s stopped four school shootings and prevented over fifty teen suicides. He developed a program for youth called the Bully Proof system and has a goal of putting it in the hand for free to every student in America. This is the program that will now be featured and shared at all Teen Nation Tour assemblies.
What is Bully Proof? It’s a proven system which shows students EXACTLY what to do & how to respond, step-by-step, in detail when being bullied, (before, during and after an encounter), and EXACTLY how to stand-up, step-by-step, to help others being bullied.
The Bully Doctor has taught this system at hundreds of schools to thousands of students resulting in bullying being reduced an average of 80%. This system has been thoroughly researched, time-tested, and proven over and over again for more than a decade. Combined with our awareness campaign, the net effect will prove to be a powerful and unique resource to stop bullying. In celebration of this new partnership The Bully Doctor will giveaway a download of his Bully proof system to every student at every school the Teen Nation Tour visits this year.
The Teen Nation fall tour kicks off on September 8th in Raleigh, NC and will visit cities and towns throughout North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas through the end of 2014.
For more information on Teen Nation or The Bully Doctor please go to www.teennationtour.org and www.askthebullydoctor.com
About the Teen Nation Tour:
The Teen Nation Tour was founded by Lee Wilson, whose son was badly beaten due to bullying. Afterwards Lee made it his personal mission to stop bullying among teens. He recognized the importance of reaching our youth through a peer-to-peer program for schools. With this idea in mind, Wilson created the concept for The Teen Nation Tour assembly. The assembly combines well known teen musicians that share their personal bullying stories and share their love of music on a peer-to-peer level that is having a major effect on the bullying problem. Some teachers are calling it the “Anti-bullying program that finally works.” The Teen Nation Tour’s peer-to-peer community service program and campaign educates youth about bullying in a way students can relate – through music.
About the Bully Doctor and Bully Proof System:
Who is The Bully Doctor? Since 1999 The Bully Doctor has worked to stop bullying with students, parents, education officials, juvenile detention centers, civic groups, and other outreach efforts. He is the author of several books, has been a consultant on teen issues with the United States Department of Justice, MTV, the Sharon Osbourne Show, and seen on NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News. After traveling to hundreds of schools and seeing firsthand the devastating effects bullying has on students, The Bully Doctor is committed to making sure the Bully Proof system is available for free to all students nationwide.
