Warwick Heart-to-Heart: PAYS Test Results on Bullying and Cyberbullying

The recent Warwick School District test results of the PAYS (Pennsylvania Youth Survey) showed several areas of concern, and one of those results was students experiencing bullying and cyberbullying.

You can view the results of PAYS here: https://www.warwicksd.org/website/news.php?id=3211

According to many scientific studies bullying, including cyberbullying - causes significant emotional and psychological distress. Just like any other victim of bullying, cyberbullied kids experience anxiety, fear, depression, and low self-esteem. They also may experience physical symptoms, and struggle academically.

We’ve also experienced a lot of that as adults recently.  Rumors were spread due to disagreements, people were looking for the other “side” to make a mistake or attempted to dig into a person’s past seeking what could be portrayed as a mistake or potential problem, people in leadership roles focused on their ego over everything else, adults were making Instagram accounts and petitions to target others in the community, people jumping on the bandwagon of swarming a business to give negative reviews, and so much more has taken place.  And when the community opened up the door to that, it made it all too easy for everyone to become very suspicious of one another and worry about who would become the next target.  Many people who had good hearts and intentions quickly fell into a never-ending and vicious cycle.

We formed Heart-to-Heart hoping to build real bonds and connections with the community and to better understand each other so we could work together, instead of against one another, when we disagree.  Until we make that change in ourselves and how we treat and view other people, we know our children won’t be able to make that same decision too.