Parents and educators learned how to be proactive against bullying by learning more about it through a program hosted by the Georgetown County School District.
Bullying that before was just restricted to the playground or school hallway, can reach the masses, says bullying and violence prevention expert Mike Dreiblatt.
"With the press of a keystroke, I can send that message out to 50 or 500 people," he said. "The social media now promotes spontaneity, and a lot of times we hit send and then we think, 'Uh oh, I probably shouldn't have done that.'"
Dreiblatt taught for 16 years before becoming a motivational speaker.
Tuesday at Waccamaw High School, he spoke to the group about not just preventing bullying, but also cyber bullying and social aggression.
"Social aggression that's that do that or I won't be you're friend, do this or I won't be your friend. The weapon of choice is the friendship itself."
And it can often times happen in silence.
"It's not so much that we even say anything. Sometimes that student comes over and we all just walk away," said Dreiblatt. "Sometimes we just use the power to include or exclude someone."
The majority of bullying happens between 4th and 9th grade, said Dreiblatt, and he said the average bullying incident only last 28 seconds if the bully is not confronted.
If a third party steps in, the bullying lasts, on average, only seven seconds, said Dreiblatt.
"What we're trying to do, from the students point of view, is get the student bystander to get involved to do the right thing to tell the bully to knock it off without risking their safety," said Dreiblatt.
Sherry Strickland came to the seminar because she wants to communicate with her two children about bullying. One of her kids goes to Waccamaw High and the other is at Waccamaw Middle.
"With the school shootings and the kids committing suicide over things like this, I think the kids don't really understand what bullying is," said Strickland.
Dreiblatt hopes his talk changes that. He's scheduled to give another bullying seminar Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Carver's Bay High School in Hemingway.
