Dayton hosts Ohio Department of Education's bully forum

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Dayton Public Schools is taking more steps to stop bullies.  Local teachers and parents attended the Ohio Department of Education's anti-bullying forum at Sinclair Community College in hopes to help break the cycle of violence.

During the forum, members showed the group a YouTube video titled "It Gets Better, I promise!"  It was created by a Buffalo, New York teen, Jayme Rodemeyer, after he opened up about being bi-sexual.  In it, the teen talked about being bullied, but expressed gratitude to his family and friends who supported who he was.  However, despite his optimism, months after making this video, Jayme committed suicide outside his home.

"After he was found dead, his sister went to a dance and people went up to her and said, "We are so glad he is gone."  The bullying continued after the boy was already dead," said Ann Bohman, who is an Educational Consultant with the Ohio Board of Education.

Bohman said the board is teaching parents and teachers to better intervene when it comes to bullying.

"We need to learn to intervene, to ask for help, to listen and to communicate," said Bohman.  "And we can't just do this verbally, we need to physically check our children's phone, text messages, what they are doing online."

Andrea Kaminski said bullying isn't the same as it was when she was a kid and she worries for her son who is in the 5th grade.  She and other DPS parents attended the forum and learned how to get more involved and better identify signs of bullying.

" I've learned cyber bullying is really taking off and we have to really watch our kids on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, everything. We have to know their accounts. We have to know what they are doing online," said Kaminiski. 

Teachers also received a lesson on how to better prepare their students to handle the issue of bullying.

"We need to make sure the students know what to do," said Toni Perry Gillispie with Dayton Public Schools.  "How to report a bully. How to report it anonymously and what the process entails."

The district hopes to have another forum and said they encourage all parents to attend.