When  a child is bullied it can have devastating effects  – enough that he or she may want to completely remove himself from his school or social life, or worse yet, hurt himself. We know that more children than ever are being bullied – in school, on the playground, online  – but that few adults or school systems have a set of tools to recognize and deal with the victim, the bully and the  by-stander. So when her own son was bullied at his school, local Larchmont Blvd Psychologist, Dr. Michelle Golland and her husband, attorney Michael Golland, started thinking more specifically about a program to address bullying.
“I was doing  a ton of media about bullying in 2010-11 when lots of horrible situations where 4th and 5th graders killed themselves came to the public’s attention. Parents started to seek me out in how to deal with their schools and intervene with school administrations. She partnered with Jon Pease a fellow therapist and together they created The Big E Program: Education, Empathy & Empowerment: The Big E Program
It’s the first program to be created by psychologists and mental health experts, rather than educators, and provides a ‘wrap-around’ approach for dealing with peer aggression,” Golland told the Buzz.
According to Golland, research shows that teachers and staff witness bullying only 4% of the time. That means that they are missing 96% of confusing, saddening, angering (and sometimes) downright terrifying events in children’s lives. For some children, the scariest thing they will do all day is go to school. Each day, over 160,000 students miss school because they are afraid to tell their teachers or parents because of being embarrassed, and many times when victims tell adults the bullying is minimized or dismissed.
The Golland’s have also created The Bully News Network a web series that educates parents about the all things related to peer aggression. To raise awareness of this crisis, the public is invited to join host Nicky Whelan, the Bully News Network and Lucky Strike Live in their support of The Big E Program to that works with students, schools and parents to learn how to handle bullying.  “My Crazy Girlfriend” (Capitol Records) will perform at the event, where families can bowl, have lunch and learn a bit about the program. A positive way to spend Mother’s Day. For a family of four to eat, drink and bowl tickets are $105.  Couples  are $60 and individual tickets  are $40.
