Rosalind Wiseman has been writing and lecturing on unethical behavior, including school bullying, for 15 years. One of her books, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence, was the foundation for the 2004 movie “Mean Girls.”
She’s coming here to train teachers, who she says are not born knowing what to do if a student complains of being bullied. “Teachers aren’t trained for that so it feels overwhelming, and so they say things to kids that aren’t very helpful, like just ignore it, just turn the other cheek, it’ll go away, they’re just doing this because they’re insecure, and that kind of stuff doesn’t help,” she said.
She says teachers and administrators also struggle to finger the correct perpetrator of bullying, especially when all the facts are difficult to ascertain, but doing nothing is not a good option either.
Wiseman will be giving four seminars this week, put on by the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents. Each one is 9 a.m.-noon.
- TODAY (Monday) – Bellwood, West 40 Intermediate Service Center No. 2, 2701 W. Washington Blvd.
- TUESDAY – Rockford, IBEW Hall, 6820 Mill Road
- WEDNESDAY – Normal Community High School West, 501 N. Parkside Road
- THURSDAY – Carterville, John A. Logan College, 700 Logan Road, Building F104