Cherylle Chapman is a psychotherapist at Liberation-Based Therapy and is pursuing her doctorate in Mental Health Counseling from Pace University. Her specialty is working with youth, teens, and adults including parents on relational dynamics. 

Bullying and harassment of students of color in K-12 schools is a form of racial trauma and is an ongoing issue that warrants our attention. Bullying is a broad phenomenon and experience; however, racial bullying is very distinct and has unique outcomes for individuals of color—especially adolescents. What are the impacts of racial trauma? Racism, discrimination, microaggressions, and other forms of hate (physical and non-physical) are linked to negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Additionally, these experiences may lead to feelings of isolation and invisibility for students of color. Not feeling heard or seen.

Although schools are equipped with school counselors, psychologists, and other trained staff—students of color often report feeling unheard, misunderstood, and ignored, due to the lack of knowledge and competence of their schools to address and remedy their concerns. 

What can be done to solve this dilemma? There is a significant lack of resources and programs available or developed in K-12 that directly address this issue.

Although the New York Board of Regents recently released an initiative to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity across all public schools in the state, there is currently no unified framework that schools can refer to implement change. Additionally, this initiative does not call for specific resources or programs to be developed for students of color to utilize (e.g. support groups, safe spaces, multicultural counseling, or anti-racial bullying policies). Instead, the initiative focuses on implementing social justice and diversity into the curriculum and ensuring workforce diversity among staff. The lack of resources and programs geared toward students of color is extremely detrimental to this population and more must be done.

So we know racial bullying is a major issue, but how do we fix it and where do we even start? 

While anti-bullying programs have been found to be generally effective in schools in reducing bullying and its effects, the main flaw that research has found is that these generalized programs are not as effective for students of color experiencing racial bullying. 

Additionally, while there are anti-bullying programs already implemented in schools, there do not appear to be any school-wide anti-racism bullying programs that exist. 

The current action plan proposes to develop a program specifically geared towards addressing anti-racism and racial bullying in K-12 schools. This plan proposes the following: 

1. Call for the implementation of anti-racial bullying policies in K-12 schools nationwide,

2. Develop specific programs anti-racial bullying programs for students, teachers, staff, and parents, 

3. Develop and implement a peer-support group for students of color based on evidence-based research, 

4. Evaluate and assess program outcomes and effectiveness. 

This plan should be implemented and mandated in all schools, especially in schools that have reported high racially based incidences of bullying and violence.

Advocating for this type of specific plan would involve reaching out to schools, district administrations, and the school board directly through various efforts: email communication, letters, phone calls, and attendance of school board meetings. Mental health counselors can help in this regard by providing schools with training and ongoing consultation.

It is important for parents, teachers, and school leaders to advocate and spring into action for children and students of color who are experiencing racial bullying. 

What can parents do?

Signs for parents to look out for are changes in mood and/or behavior including eating habits and lack of interest in activities and friends. Becoming more secretive, reluctance to attend school and other signs of distress are all things to look out for as well. It can be hard having open communication with your children; especially because children often feel ashamed when they are bullied (or are the bully).

To be proactive, parents can be on alert for these signs, attend school board meetings, and reach out to mental health providers in order to start having discussions and heal from racial trauma in our schools. 

Resources:

U.S. Department of Education, 2016

New York State Education Department, 2021

By: Cherylle Chapman (s/her), MHC-LP