Bullying: West Hills Perspective
(MyNews4.com & KRNV) Reno, Nev. - For over a year, News Four has been looking into the problem of bullying.
In that time, I have received emails from viewers.Bullying is just a part of growing-up and is not that serious of a problem.And I have heard the extreme cases of kids committing suicide after being bullied and there are many cases where kids have to seek intensive professional help.Recently, I sat down with an adolescent therapist at West Hills Hospital to hear what he has witnessed from behind closed doors.West Hills is a mental health facility where children with the most serious cases of depression and anxiety seek help.Adolescent therapist Daniel Jardine told me, [Sheehan] it's alarming to see how many patients are having trouble being bullied at school. "At one period of time I had 12 kids in group therapy. All 12 kids admitted they were being bullied pretty extensively at school.” Jardine believes cyberbullying and texting have increased the incidents of bullying exponentially in the last few years. He says words or harassment can kill if they are just enough to push a child over the edge.”We've seen some kids here that we are extremely concerned about because they feel there's no other option. They plan suicide option in their head that this is the only thing i have left to do."He says West Hills Hospital has also seen a shift in the type of patients being bullied.It's no longer just the student who appears weak. "We are getting the basketball players…the football stars we have some kids who are considered very popular in school."These children are coming from all over Northern Nevada."We have rural areas; kids are coming in saying they are bullied. We had one city that had 6 kids here at one time."Jardine says the problem of bullying needs to be aggressively addressed in our schools because not only do some children think about suicide but also talk about hurting others. "We see a lot of homicidal thoughts as well...where kids are bullied so much they want to start pushing back and this is concerning to us as well."
