The Anti Bullying Council of America recently interviewed Karmell Clark, Vice President of BRIM Anti-Bullying Software of Anderson, South Carolina. BRIM has made a name for itself over the last 17 years as the top-rated anonymous reporting app for students, parents, and teachers in the US and abroad. Clark said BRIM is being used in seven countries and it is offered in Spanish and French besides English.
BRIM is an intuitive app that can be downloaded for free to personal electronic devices such as cell phones and tablets by students and parents once a school purchases a membership.
An interesting comment Clark made concerning educators: “Teachers and their attitudes toward students can significantly impact the student’s self-confidence and success inside the classroom. This is especially true for students that are shy or have low self-esteem.” Not surprisingly, teachers who ridicule students in the classroom can be a catalyst for student bullying. Students often take their cues from teachers and see them as a guide in social interactions. Bad and unsupportive teachers can trigger bullying, some unknowingly and some knowingly. “At BRIM, we do receive reports of teachers bullying students which often comes as a shock to administrators and principals”, Clark said.
According to Clark’s experience, one unsupportive teacher can negatively influence a large number of students when they bully someone in their class; this is seen as “acceptable” because it came from an authority figure. This can translate into a hostile environment for the bullied student, and even when reported through BRIM, it is often overlooked by administrators and principals who cannot fathom teachers being bullies.
“At BRIM we have even received anonymous bullying incident reports from teachers that are being bullied by other teachers! These reporters do not feel comfortable going to the administrative staff directly in person because like many students being bullied, they fear reprisal,” Clark stated. Clark shared that because BRIM is very easy to use, the company has clients ranging in size from less than 100 students to over 250,000 students!
The Anti Bullying Council of America is very impressed with BRIM, and we will follow up later this year with additional interview(s).
