For Spirit day and National Bullying Prevention Month, Tickle Water, IDT911 and cybersecurity expert Adam Levin are sponsoring No Bully’s New York launch of a special after school pilot program with the Police Athletic League.

No Bully trains schools on how to activate students to combat bullying at the ground level.  The non-punitive No Bully System has created bully-free campuses for over 100,000 students. They are partnering with GLAAD to support Spirit Day, when millions of people around the world go purple in support of LGBTQ youth and against bullying.

According to No Bully’s web site, 10 million students are bullied each year in the US and around 1-6 adolescents is the target of cyberbullying. Kids spend a lot of time online and their chances of experiencing cyberbullying has unfortunately become the new norm.  Cyberbullying can be a painful experience for school age children who become the victims of harassment and “digital stoning” via social media. Kids and adolescents often find it hard to speak with parents and adults and end up feeling isolated, which can sometimes have tragic consequences.

No Bully, in partnership with the Police Athletic League, is producing a series of anti-bullying training programs, beginning with schools in New York City.  The mission is to shine a light on the importance of equipping teachers, counselors, parents and students with the critical tools to stomp out bullying and cyberbullying and to build a culture of tolerance.

“There is no place in a civilized society for those who would bully others, especially children. While it is unacceptable and dangerous to the health and safety of a child for him or her to be bullied in the classroom or on the playground, the danger grows more acute when that bullying moves into cyberspace,” said Adam Levin, founder of award-winning cybersecurity firm IDT911 and author of Swiped. “It is imperative that organizations in both the private and public sectors work together to ensure there are more stringent security and privacy protocols in place to protect children in the classroom, on the playground and after the school bell rings.”

About Spirit Day

Each year, millions of people “go purple” for Spirit Day in a united stand against bullying and to show support for LGBTQ youth. According to a 2015 GLSEN survey, more than half of LGBTQ students report being victimized based on sexual orientation, with a further three quarters of students who report hearing anti-LGBTQ remarks in school. Started in 2010 by high school student Brittany McMillan, Spirit Day now draws the participation of celebrities, corporations, media outlets, sports leagues, schools, faith institutions, national landmarks, and individuals around the world, who join together in a united stand against bullying.

Check out glaad.org/spiritday for more about how to stand against bullying and show support for LGBTQ youth. Also follow @GLAAD on Twitter to keep up to date with #spiritday news.

Spirit Day is made possible by the generous support of its presenting partners Target and Wells Fargo, official partners, NBA and WNBA, NFL, Viacom, and WWE, and supporting partners, American Eagle Outfitters, Barilla, Comcast NBCUniversal, Kellogg’s, Kirkland & Ellis, Toyota Financial Services, and Zipcar. The translation of GLAAD’s Spirit Day Resource Kit into multiple languages is made possible by a generous grant from Google supporting GLAAD’s Global Voices Initiative. Global Spirit Day resource kits are presented by Logo’s Global Ally campaign.

Past participants in Spirit Day include the White House, the Empire State Building, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Cher, Laverne Cox, Kim Kardashian, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Shaquille O’Neal, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, The Talk, The Tonight Show, MTV, the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, WWE, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, the Las Vegas Strip, and more.