A word from Ali Roshankish (founder/owner of the Roshankish Martial Arts Center in Boston)

We’ve been teaching children and adults martial arts at the Roshankish Martial Arts Center for over twelve years. Even though our children’s Tae Kwon Do program is recognized as one of the best of its type in New England we realized that we might be failing to address or offer support and training to those children who are being bullied or are at risk of being bullied. This is when we decided to look for (and eventually adopt) a specific anti-bullying program that we could offer to Boston's children and families.

As a parent of three (two who are of school age) myself, I have seen the serious effects of bullying and am concerned and committed to doing something about it in Boston.

We looked at several anti-bullying programs and courses but eventually settled on the SEPS (Situation Effective Protection System) anti-bullying program for the following reasons.

School Bullying Program At Roshankish Martial Arts (Boston)

We wanted a program that didn’t just offer support and training to children but also involved the parents as well. We thought this was important as many parents of bullied children are confused as to the best way to help their child. The SEPS anti-bullying program offers specific advice to parents and families about how they can best offer support to a bullied child.

We were also very impressed that SEPS undertook their own research into the causes and effects of bullying and used this research to help design their program.

We also wanted something that would help educate children, whether they were being bullied or not, to understand why some children bully and how everyone is affected by bullying, even if they are just a bystander or witness to it. The SEPS program identifies three roles that children adopt in incidents of bullying (bully, bullied and bystander) and educates each role as to the best way to act and behave.

The other thing we looked for was an anti-bullying course/program that could be taught quickly and would start to empower both the child and the parent in the shortest possible time. The basic SEPS course is just 5 weeks and in that time it attempts to address the core issues surrounding bullying and offer practical advice and strategies for dealing with incidents of school bullying.

5 Step Approach to Dealing With Bullying in Boston

The SEPS anti-bullying program takes a 5 step approach to school bullying:

1. Give education as to why bullying happens

2. Explain the different roles children play in bullying incidents

3. Give back confidence to the bullied child

4. Give coping strategies to deal with the “trauma” of bullying

5. Give practical advice to children and parents about how to deal with bullying

We are now proud to offer this program alongside our traditional children’s and adults martial arts program. For details about our school bullying courses in Boston, please click here.

Alternatively, you can email us using our contact form, which can be accessed by clicking here or call us on 781-393-8811.

Ali Roshankish (Founder of Roshankish Martial Arts)

To read more about the Roshankish Martial Arts Center in Boston please, click here.