Hundreds of parents and children have a better idea of how to respond to bullying. They learned it first hand from a mother who watched bullies tear her daughter down until she killed herself.
Tina Meier is on a mission to help parents save their children from bullies. Wednesday night she brought her message to Highland High School. Her daughter Megan was a victim of cyber bullying. It got so severe, Megan ended up taking her own life. Now Tina Meier is making other parents aware of where to look for bullies, and it's not just at school. Because of technology, they can reach your children anywhere.
Tina Meier said parents can only do so much to console their kids when they're being bullied. She said parents need to take an even bigger role because bullying isn't just happening at school anymore.
"This technology has advanced so quickly that as parents we have really lost track I mean we are far behind so trying now to go in and say hey listen I want to know the passwords, who you're talking to it's almost this thing where kids feel it's their birthright," she said.
And that's why Meier travels the country to help parents reach their kids. She says they need to know who their child is talking to online and who their friends are and what they're saying. Highland High School Principal Alan Koch said bullying isn't just happening in school hallways anymore.
"With today's day and age, with the computers and all the social media and Facebook, those are issues that we now have to address," he said.
That makes it even more difficult for schools to monitor bullying because it's found at home online. With more research being done...Meier said constant bullying can have severe consequences.
"Brain scans in soldiers who have been in combat who have post traumatic stress syndrome show same similarities as brain scans with children who have been repeatedly bullied over a few years," she said.
