By Santee Ross, University of Montana

April showers don’t just bring May flowers, it also brings bullying awareness. April marks the National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Indian Health Services has taken part by releasing a anti-bullying video.

The video shows three young Native girls at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. sending the message that “Bullying is not Native.”

Bullying is an issue for any person, not matter what their background is. Unless you’re not human, you come to learn the hard truth that bullying and teasing are part of growing up. Sorry kids everyone has to pay their dues.

However that doesn’t mean that it should be left to escalate to the point where children don’t feel safe. When things have gone too far is when children are driven to suicide from subtle aggressive or even cyber-bullying.

Public schools have adopted different ways to deal with bullying. But from experience, I’ve found some anti-bullying programs in public schools further victimize the bullied rather than correct the behavior of the bully.

Which is why I dealt with bullying by less democratic means. A slap on the bully’s wrist for calling me racist names is not what I would call fair. So I settled things on my own terms but this isn’t how I would want my nieces or nephews to deal with bullying.

I wouldn’t want them to deal with bullies at all but according to IHS statistics, Native American children are ranked the third highest to be victims of bullying.

Indian Health Services is taking steps to prevent bullying but I believe half the battle rests with the effectiveness of the school systems and their bully policies. The other half is educating the youth on how to deal with bullies. Which I am probably not qualified to teach.

Santee Ross (Hopi/Lakota) is from Lander, Wyo.