May 05, 2011
St.
John’s Office of Postgraduate Professional Development Programs
hosted a successful daylong conference on April 29 at the
University’s D’Angelo Center on its Queens campus to address the
issue of bullying, including cyber-bullying as well as the more
traditional forms such as child abuse, abuse perpetuated among
siblings, domestic abuse, abuse against women, and abuse against
immigrants.
The "Bullying and Its Consequences – In Search of Solutions"
conference was held as a result of widespread responses to an
urgent call to the educational, professional and academic
communities to come up with better understanding of this phenomenon
and provide clear and effective guidelines as to how to address the
issue in our school, at work, and our home.
Rafael Javier, Ph.D., ABBP, Professor of Psychology at St.
John’s University coordinated the event which attracted students,
educators and community members.
Photo Gallery
"Bullying in all its forms is creating havoc in many parts of
our society. Yes, we hear the pleas from those involved in human
services, from teachers, from school administrators, from the many
families affected – rather we need to find solutions to eradicate
bullying in all its forms," said Javier. "Today, the increasingly
more urgent call is to find ways to better understand the issues
and provide clear and effective guidelines of addressing ways to
suppress bullying in all sectors of our society."
Dr. Javier enlisted the following noted professionals (listed
below) in their respective fields of expertise to lecture at the
conference. Highlights included topics on:
Understanding bullying and its consequences: A developmental
and socio-ecological analysis/perspectivegiven by
Professor Dorothy Espelage,Professor, Child
Development Division - Educational Psychology, University of
Illinois – Champaign, Urbana
Bullies, Victims and Bystanders - What We Know and Need to
Learn about the Cast of Characters,Yeshiva
University
Keynote Address:Underlying
factors in bullying: Anger and Anger expressiongiven by
Ray DiGiuseppe- Chair of the Department of
Psychology - St. John's University:
Panel Discussion:Cyber-bullying: Strategies for Preventions
and Intervention,Patricia
Cathers, Director of Program and Volunteer Services for Child Abuse
Prevention Services in Roslyn, NY.
Faculty bullies in academe: A problem in need of remedy
given by Rivka Bertisch Meir, International Expert on
Bullying & Harold Takooshian, Professor of Psychology
and Urban Studies, Fordham University
Promising effective prevention and intervention strategies that
work. Who and what should be the target? given by Rona
Novick and Dorothy Espelage
In
addition, Youth Voices: Visions of What Our Schools Could Look Like
– an "Interactive" Mural by graduate education students from St.
John’s University was on display at the 4th floor lobby area of the
D’Angelo Center. Students Inais Vazquez, Sophia Khan, Regina
Constantin, Shivon Carrington and Anthony Mincone were responsible
for the content and mural presentation.
This Interactive Mural grew out of conversations between
Graduate teacher education students and youth ages 11-16. Youth
were asked to talk about their views on schooling on a range of
issues related to life in schools.
These youth-generated ideas connect to themes and conversations
that were widely covered during the Bullying Conference. The youth
speak about their desire to be a part of a community where they are
known and respected, and a place where bullying, of course, would
not exist, and where all children are accepted and seen as unique
and vital members of their community.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact Dominic
Scianna, Assistant Vice President for Media Relations at St.
John’s, by calling (718) 990-6185, or by e-mail to sciannad@stjohns.edu.