A local principal and students will discuss how to decrease bullying on high school and college campuses.

The first session of called “Bridging Voices in Our Community”-The Bullying Project” will be on Tuesday.

“Bridging Voices in Our Community” was started to help the discussion of bullying and how to decrease the amount of bullying on college campuses.

Mildred Pearson, an associate professor education and professional studies, said the first session will have guest speakers from the Mattoon High School, Altamont High School, students and faculty from Eastern and members of the Charleston Police Department.

Todd Bean, the principal from Altamont High School, will be talking about ways bullying can be dealt with at the presentation.

“I will be telling the administrative point of view and how to handle it at the high school level,” Bean said.

Bean said the main points he will be discussing on deal with bullies is talking, listening, educating, acting and dropping it.

“Bullies come in all forms-teachers, bosses, peers- and learning how to deal with those issues is important,” Bean said. “Bullies are everywhere in life.”

Bean said one of his students will also we speaking during the session.

Paige Logan, a junior at Altamont High School, will be speaking about her experiences of being bullied.

“Kids have gone to the point of suicide,” Logan said. “When we tell our stories, sometimes they realize how hurtful bullying is.”

Logan is a national spokeswoman on the issue of bullying and will be telling the Eastern community about a program that helps raise awareness about bullying, “The Great American NO BULL Challenge.”

Logan said this challenge allows high school students to make a three to five minute video about the topic of bullying.

“The ‘No Bull Challenge’ is a way for kids to put a positive outlook onto bullying,” Logan said.

Logan said she hopes to encourage schools to bring the “No Bull Challenge” to their schools.

“I want to bring awareness to everyone about bullying and this helps,” Logan said.

Bean said there are a lot of reasons such as jealousy, the need to fit in and some just learn to be that way. Bean said it is important for teachers and future to know how to handle that.

“To be a good educator you need tools in your tool box,” Bean said. “By going to the event, you can pick up the tools just makes stronger educators.”

Pearson said she started thinking about the topic of bullying after some of her students presented presentations on the topic.

“One night, there was not a dry eye in my class,” Pearson said. “My students were extremely emotional as they were attempting to get through their presentations. Needless to say, bullying became the overarching theme as it seemed to be in the media every two days.”

Pearson said that after that, she started teaching about these issues to her classes and then started “Bridging Voices in Our Community”-The Bullying Project.

“Our classroom no longer remained in the four walls of Buzzard Hall, but we continued class via the discussion board, sharing, defending our arguments, or at times in awe about the number of bullying cases and suicides that were happening daily,” Pearson said.

Pearson said the session will help educate future teachers about bullying.

“It is our job as an institution to prepare (future teachers) for these issues, we have to give them strategies for handling this,” Pearson said.

Bullying is different to everyone, Pearson said. It is important to define what it is in order to educate people.

The session will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Buzzard Hall Auditorium.

Pearson said it is important to educate students on these issues so that they can become better educators in the future.

Pearson said this will help bridge the voices of everyone, from the victims to the bullies, to the students and administration.

“When we all come together we can do great things,” Pearson said.

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or

[email protected].