Here is some media coverage of the Bully Conference.

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, August 15, 2010

By TRAVIS HUDSON / The Dallas Morning News
thudson@dallasnews.com
Facing a standing-room-only crowd at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Kendra Emerson introduces herself and recounts how she became a victim of bullying.


Photos by RON BASELICE/DMN
Top: Kendra Emerson, 15, talked about being the victim of bullying at the 'The New Age of Bullying' conference Saturday at Children's Medical Center Ambulatory Care Pavilion. Five other teenagers shared their experiences. Left: Beaux Wellborn, co-founder of the Bully Suicide Project, listens to Pedro Calderon, 18, answer an audience member's question during the victims' segment
"Girls can be catty!" said the cheerful 15-year-old, describing how she was targeted by other girls at her Central Texas high school.

Kendra then passes the microphone down a diverse panel of six teenagers, illustrating that bullying affects all races, demographics, ages and sexual orientations.

The teens spoke Saturday morning at "The New Age of Bullying," a half-day conference put on by the I Am Here Coalition's Bully Prevention Committee in response to recent high-profile youth suicides linked to bullying in North Texas and beyond, said Diana Weaver, executive director of the coalition.

Nearly 100 people from varying professions – educators, administrators, counselors, foster parents and others – from as far away as Houston attended the event, which included panels about managing online bullying, bullying laws and the long-term effects of bullying.

Kelly Ayala, a therapist from Fort Worth who works with adolescents, was hoping to learn how schools are combating bullying. The student panel made it clear that some schools' efforts are more effective than others.

The students recounted tales of school administrators ignoring instances of bullying, blaming the victims and in one case telling a student to "grow up."

Kendra noted that some teachers don't take cyberbullying seriously, even though it can be more hurtful than traditional bullying.

"Bullies are more likely to be mean over text than face-to-face," she said.

Much of the focus Saturday was on cyberbullying, in which the bully's weapon of choice is the Internet, mobile phones or other devices.

The demand for education about bullying, online or otherwise, is growing along with the problem itself: Nearly a third of 12- to 18-year-old students reported being bullied at school, according to a 2007 study by the National Center for Education Statistics.

In the worst cases, bullying can have fatal consequences, such as the suicide of 9-year-old Montana Lance, a boy from The Colony who hanged himself at his elementary school in January.

Beaux Wellborn, the co-founder of the Bully Suicide Project and moderator of the student panel, emphasized that bullying is far different for the youth of today because it extends beyond the school day and the school yard.

"Giving somebody a Facebook [account] today is like giving somebody the license to drive or a loaded gun because handled improperly ... you will lose your child," he said.

The anonymity of cyberbullying can create an imbalance of power, said Kate Dodd, director of Youth Education and Prevention at The Family Place in Dallas. She also said such bullying can begin unintentionally through videos or pictures one person may find funny, but others find degrading.

Chris Rebuck, dean of Students at Bishop Lynch High School, said that teachers need to continue to familiarize themselves with technology in order to stem cyberbullying.

Much of the discussion focused on parents and teachers not being educated about the problem.

"We need parents to know that bullying today is nowhere near what bullying was when we were in school," Wellborn, "So the old adages of 'boys will be boys' and 'girls will be girls' – those sticks and stones did not kill as many people as it is today."