VIDEO: Putting An End To Bullying

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- Chances are you know someone who’s been bullied or even been bullied yourself.

Families First for Mississippi is working to fight the crisis. On Thursday they held a program in Tupelo to raise awareness and educate people about the signs and types of bullying.

“I believe that a lot of people nowadays don’t understand how it can affect a person and I believe it’s a big issue in our society today,” said Olivia Knight, who was a guest speaker at the program.

Knight is the reigning Miss Junior Teen Mississippi USA.

She wears her crown proudly, and uses her platform to help raise awareness about a topic she wants to see come to an end.

“I feel blessed to be given the opportunity to be able to go speak to people, because when I was in kindergarten all through second grade I was both physically and verbally abuse, and so it hits home for me,” Knight recalled. “It has caused me to be very sensitive to things and it caused me to lose my confidence for a while.”

Many times people think of bullying as face-to-face interaction, however cyber-bulling is becoming a bigger trend.

“The main issue is that they are also being bullied at home online, and so when they are trying to get away from being bullied at school, they are still being bullied at home online,” said Edward Begonia, the positive youth development coordinator at the Family Resource Center in Tupelo.

Begonia believes the advancement of technology and social media has a big influence on cyber-bullying.

“We can reach any platform on our cell phone, any social media website on our cell phone, it’s right there in our hands,” he explained. “If I kid just happens to just think of something, right there he can get on Twitter and say, somebody looks this way today, it’s very easy for them to do so.”

Statistics show that 15 % of high school students have reported they’ve been bullied electronically.

Begonia said those numbers are alarming and he’s working to cut them down.

He believes continuing to awareness and educate people is the only way to help resolve the problem.

“The state of Mississippi does have, set a bill that says each school must have a bullying prevention program program at the schools, and we just need to make sure that they are actually making them do that,”said Begonia.

“I want younger people and people that are my age as well to know that they are not alone and they can overcome this,” said Knight.

Begonia said Families First of Mississippi will continue to host events all month long including going into schools to raise awareness about bullying.