By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — As students return to class this month, concerns about bullying remain, and the founder of Bowling Against Bullying says parents need to remain vigilant in keeping an eye on their teenage children who might be vulnerable.
“Our kids are trying to stay ahead of us and we need to stay ahead of them at the same time,” said Shaun Mudd, a patrolman with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office who works as a school resource officer with Tippecanoe MIdde School.
Mudd is also a co-organizers of Saturday’s sixth annual Bowling Against Bullying event at the Bowling Alley on North Detroit Street.
Mudd founded the event, which has grown in popularity over the years.
The event is from noon to 3 p.m. and open to the public.
Mudd offered two tips to parents. First, they need to talk with their children regularly to see how they’re doing.
“You have to ask them open-ended questions — how was your day,” Mudd said, adding that parents could add on to that by asking them to rank the quality of their day.
Mudd blames much of the impact of bullying on social media apps and says parents need to dig deeper to determine what apps their children are using.
These days, youth are using “vault apps” on their phone as a way to hide apps from their parents.
“We as parents need to be educated,” said Mudd, a father of three. “I didn’t know any of that until I got into this.”
Bowling Against Bullying is intended to be fun, but Mudd said they’ll have two speakers discussing issues directed to children who might be dealing with bullying.
The annual event has also established a scholarship program through the Kosciusko County Community Foundation and will provide a $1,000 scholarship in the spring to a student who has dealt with bullying, Mudd said.
