Sandlapper Elementary School

Tomorrow, I will be working with my good friend, Mrs. Barbara Jennings, who is a guidance counselor at Sandlapper Elementary School, which is located in Richland Northeast, Columbia, South Carolina.

I will be working with two 5th grade classes, teaching the boys and girls anti-bully strategies that focus on non violent ways to deal with bullies.  The workshop is designed to empower the boys and girls in a way that will effectively combat bullying without resorting to fighting.  Much of what I cover, works to give them the confidence to stand up for themselves.

I teach the children the three "R's":

Recognize
Refuse
Report

As many of you know, bullying is a serious issue in our schools today, with estimates ranging as high as 40% of the children being bullied throughout the school year.

I will follow up my visit with the children and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, if you or someone you know is being bullied, please don't hesitate to contact me as I am here to help.....that is what I do!



Sensei Chris Feldt 
Samurai Karate Studio 
2000 Clemson Road
Suite # 9
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
samuraikaratestudio@gmail.com

Accusations of Bullying After Death of Teenager

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times


Keith Cummings said bullying “definitely played a major role” in his niece’s death.


By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: January 3, 2012

Amanda Cummings was not shy about her interests: animals and poetry, shopping and Katy Perry music, summer afternoons by the swimming pool and excursions to Manhattan, where she hoped to live some day.

Amanda Cummings, 15, died six days after a witness saw her jump in front of a bus.


But in the days and weeks before her death, her family said, Amanda, 15, often concealed what some friends seemed to know: she was being bullied, in person and on Facebook, by peers from her Staten Island high school.


Amanda died Monday at Staten Island University Hospital, six days after being struck by a southbound Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills, Staten Island. A witness saw her jump in front of the bus around 7:30 p.m., and she was carrying a suicide note in her pocket, the police said.


“It definitely played a major role in it,” Keith Cummings, Amanda’s uncle, said of the bullying. “There’s only so much kids can take.”


Deirdre DeAngelis, the principal of Amanda’s school, New Dorp High School, declined to discuss specifics, but warned against drawing hasty conclusions. “Don’t believe everything you read,” she said.


Mr. Cummings made similar comments in The Staten Island Advance on Tuesday.

You can read the rest of this sad article at The New York Times.

If you, or someone you know is having problems dealing with a bully, please give me a call or email me and I will devote some personal time to helping you learn non violent ways of defeating the bully.

And if you can't afford it.....I will do it for free!

Sensei Chris Feldt

Samurai Karate Studio

Columbia, SC 29229

803-462-9425@gmail.com