Paul Coughlin hugs Melody Hutson on the first day of the Courageous Community Conference at Silverdale Baptist Church. Coughlin first met Hutson, now a home-schooled 10th-grader, after she stood up to another girl who was bullying smaller children on the playground when Hutson was a fifth-grader at Silverdale Baptist Academy. “If it hits home with others, my story can be shared with as many people as it needs to be,” Hutson said afterward.Speaking to a packed house in the sanctuary of Silverdale Baptist Church, nationally known bullying expert Paul Coughlin said the solution lies in turning bystanders into “stand alongside-ers.”
“Your child is far more likely to join the bully than to help the target,” Coughlin said, citing studies that show just 13 of 100 students will intervene in instances of bullying. “We’re here to help you change that.
“Calls for resignations, resignations themselves, they’re common in situations like the one you just dealt with. But I am here to tell you that they will not diminish bullying. I hope that together we can deploy your anger and indignation towards something truly prudent. And that is to diminish bullying.”
Coughlin was in town last week for the Courageous Community Conference, speaking during the community meeting at Silverdale, in addition to holding targeted sessions with youth pastors, school counselors and principals and administrators.
The alleged December rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman basketball player by teammates does not mean schools here are unique or necessarily more prone to bullies, Coughlin said. Bullying goes on everywhere. Last year, the suicides of two students in Polk County were blamed on alleged bullying.