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Uliana Sisombath, a master’s student at Albuquerque’s Webster
University, said bullying has always been a problem in schools.
She said she was bullied growing up in the 1960s.
“My first language was not English; it was German. At that time, people thought that if you were German, you must be a Nazi,” Sisombath said. “There was this abrasive attitude that they would call you that, and it was very bad.”
Sisombath said although bullying hurt her as a young child, she learned how to fend for herself.
“I guess I had enough sense to realize that I’ve had enough of being bullied,” she said. “So by the time that I was in eighth grade, I chose to stand up for myself against the bullies.”
Sisombath, who has volunteered with UNM’s Agora Crisis Center, was one of the participants in the Bullying Prevention Symposium held at the SUB Friday. About 100 people attended the event.
At the symposium, anti-bullying advocates from all over the state conducted workshops on how to prevent bullying in schools effectively with educators and students in the state. The symposium was organized by Albuquerque Public Schools and UNM’s LGBTQ Resource Center.
APS Program Manager May Sagbakken said that with support from the Bernalillo County government, APS and UNM have been cooperating to prevent bullying in schools for three years. She said the event was the state’s first anti-bullying symposium.
“This is becoming more and more identified and it’s an ongoing issue,” Sagbakken said. “It’s not only about now. It’s about now and continuing doing it to prevent bullying and make sure kids can go to school and go home safely.”
Sagbakken said that according to a survey conducted by APS, 46 percent of middle school and 19 percent of high school students in Bernalillo County experience bullying in school. The survey polled 39 middle and high schools around New Mexico, totaling 5,875 students.
She said about 160,000 students nationwide are scared to go to school because they are being bullied.
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“It’s tragic that we live in a world where bullying is so prevalent. Personally, I think we all need to figure out how we can take a stand, whether it’s to support children and schools or go to trainings like this,” she said.
Sagbakken said APS has begun initiatives to prevent bullying in schools, such as the Safe Schools Ambassadors program. She said the program has hired an anti-bullying coordinator and has trained staff in bullying prevention.
She said APS contacted UNM’s LGBTQ Resource Center in order to reach out to younger anti-bullying advocates about the issue.
LGBTQ Resource Center Director Alma Rosa Silva-Banuelos said her organization decided to participate in the event because LGBTQ students are one of the communities that are affected by bullying.
“Bullying does happen in schools,” Silva-Banuelos said. “We’re really trying to shift it because it’s a power dynamic … so we can really shift our culture. If the most affected community is at the forefront of what you’re organizing, then everybody would be taken care of.”
Silva-Banuelos said preventing bullying in schools will improve the state’s educational system.
“If you’re being bullied in school, you’re not going to want to go to school,” she said. “We have so many smart young people in the state, and we want school environments to be comfortable so students could go to school and graduate.”
But Silva-Banuelos said the symposium does not aim to merely decry bullies as menaces in schools. She said that in addition to encouraging students who are getting bullied to take a stand, the symposium also aims to emotionally help those who bully.
“If someone is perceived to be a bully or an aggressor, they also may be dealing with something outside of school,” she said. “They may be getting aggressive behavior at home or somewhere else, and that is acting out in school.”
Silva-Banuelos said she is optimistic that the symposium will help prevent bullying in the state. She said she expects it to be an annual event.
Sisombath said she encourages students who experience bullying to send a message to their aggressors that they will not tolerate bullying anymore.
“Don’t just put up with it,” she said. “You’re not going to be a better person if you just suck it up and take all the abuse. If you start standing up for yourself, people wouldn’t touch you.”
