Welcome to theprotectors.org, the web home of The Protectors by author and speaker Paul Coughlin.

Welcome 700 Club viewers to Paul Coughlin’s The Protectors! The Only Faith–Based Response to School–Based Bullying.

Curriculum for grades 4 through 9 just released!
When bullying is at its worst and where hundreds of thousands of children need us the most.

Click here for more curriculum information.

 

It’s time for:

• Better Friendships
• More Confidence
• Building Courage
• Helping Others
• Being Yourself
• Better Grades
• Better Health
• Doing the Right Thing

Who We Are

The Protectors is the faith-based answer to the devastating problem of bullying on school campuses. According to the American Psychological Association, 90 percent of fourth through eighth graders report being victims of some form of bullying. It’s clear that in light of mounting school shootings that have revenge against being bullied as their motive (approximately 85 percent of school shootings) that teachers, administrators, and related staff cannot tackle this problem alone. Some within public education have asked the faith community for help. Our communities need faith-based organizations to fulfill their moral obligation to combat this injustice and bring healing to all.

Paul Coughlin does an excellent job of identifying the problems, misconceptions and solutions to bullying. The Protectors Curriculum is an effective, engaging and easy to use resource.

Steve Hiller, Host Prime Time Chicago

Moody Broadcasting Network

Our Mission

To provide churches, para-church organizations, and related institutions of faith with the curriculum they need to help stem the destruction of school-based bullying, creating healthier and happier children and parents.

Founder Paul Coughlin is the author of four books, including the best-selling No More Christian Nice Guy, which encourages adults to be more bold, loving and courageous. He is the father of three children, a high school varsity coach, and international conference speaker. He started The Protectors after counseling many men who were bullied as children and who suffered from the affects as adults. He has experience as being both the target of bullying, which robs children of dignity and fills them with humiliation and self-reproach, as well as being a bully himself, which provides a momentary rush of power and supremacy.

Our Curriculum

The Protectors focuses on four key groups that comprise the bullying arena:

Help for Bystanders. This is a key group to The Protectors training and curriculum because bullies love audiences that won’t intervene. In fact they bank on it. Christianity and other major religions tell us that it is our moral obligation to help others when it’s within our power to act (Proverbs 3:27) and to help the timid and encourage the weak (I Thes. 5:14). Unfortunately, most bystanders have never received the training they need to confidently and safely handle school-based bullying. Until now.

Eighty-five percent of school-based bullying, whether physical or verbal, takes place in front of others. Yet those who witness it intervene just 11 percent. Yet nearly 60 percent of bullying ceases when bystanders intervene. And this sizeable number is before training. Imagine how much more effective bystanders would be after The Protectors training?

A key component to bystander training is conveying the amazing power of two. Studies show that two people of conviction are able to display tremendous courage on behalf of themselves and others.

Help for Targets. The Protectors helps targets realize that they aren’t alone, and that in most cases it is not their fault. Our curriculum helps students take the action necessary to protect themselves in order to ward off the common feelings of shame, humiliation and perplexing self-hatred. Most bullying is verbal, not physical, so we emphasize verbal self-defense and a better way of presenting themselves before their peers.

Help for Bullies. We encourage empathy and prayer for bullies because most bullies are created by coercive parenting. Most are not born any more aggressive than other kids, which is a common misconception (one study shows that male bullies actually possess less testosterone than their male peers). At the same time, they must be confronted, not only for the benefit of others, but because school-aged bullies are more likely to become spousal abusers and to commit at least one other punishable crime by the age of 24. They are more likely to drop out of school and abuse drugs and alcohol than their peers. When possible, bullies should be connected with mentors to help them better handle their anti-social behavior.

Help for Parents. Few experiences are more heart-breaking than watching your child be bullied and feeling unable to help. The Protectors helps parents understand why bullies focus on select targets and what they can do today to help protect their child, as well as how to avoid bullying in the future.

Five Important Facts About School-Based Bullying

1. School-related bullying is among the most painful events in a person’s life, which for some has led to depression and related maladies. Some people never recover, even as adults. Approximately 160,000 kids stay home from school each day due to the fear of being bullied. More than 50 suicides have been linked to prolonged bullying, given us a new word contemplate and work against: Bullycide.
2. Approximately 85 percent of school shootings have revenge against bullies as a major motive. Some of the bullying they experienced lasted for years and met the legal definition of harassment. Many students who had nothing to do with the bullying were indiscriminately murdered, which was the case in the deadliest school shooting in America’s history, Virginia Tech, 2007. The murderer, Cho Seung-Hui, was teased for years about his unusually low voice and inability to speak fluent English.
3. One person who stands up for a target has a good chance of defusing the situation with nothing more than a few words. Success increases dramatically when two people behave this way.
4. Most bullying is committed away from authority but in front of peers. Many in the audience have gone to church or another house of worship that week yet failed to help. Remarkably, these children who claim to have a relationship with God actually encourage the bully to continue.
5. Children who feel safe at school suffer less physical illness, get better grades, and are healthier and happier. They have better friendships, are more confidence and more courageous. They are more comfortable with who they are and are better able to help others.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there programs that address this problem from a Christian perspective?

No other program provides the spiritual training necessary to effectively stem this problem. School-campus bullying is a great opportunity for children to develop the spiritual virtues of compassion, empathy, bravery, and courage. Today, there are few better opportunities for children to help fulfill the Bible’s instruction to admonish the careless, encourage the timid and help the weak (I Thess. 5:14). In doing so, they will help spread God’s love, justice and mercy to hurting children and communities throughout the country.

Demeaning another person is a sin. It devalues human life. Says Christian writer Frank Peretti, who was the target of intense school-based bullying as a child, “The message a bully sends is a mockery of God’s handiwork, a lie that slanders God’s nature and negates His love for us.”

Do you advocate physical confrontation between bullies and victims?

About 80 percent of bullying is verbal, not physical. So The Protectors concentrates upon the art of verbal self-defense and the many non-verbal traits of targets that make them so vulnerable to bullying.

Bullies who physically draw others into confrontation almost always pick on children who are smaller and weaker than them, so returning physical blows is almost always a losing proposition for targets who desperately need healthy solutions to their real problems.

Though The Protectors is not opposed to proper self-defense, this is not our primary goal. Instead, we teach targets how to change their response to bullies, which may include how to best avoid them, which is sometimes a very good solution. At the same time, we do recommend certain forms of martial arts training that are designed to help targets defend themselves against larger aggressors.

What’s wrong with telling a child to “just ignore the bully”?

This is one of the worst pieces of advice that we can give our children. They can no more ignore a bully at school than a parent can at work or church. This common mistake shows us how we expect our children to tolerate behavior that adults would not tolerate.

Why do kids need training on how to handle bullying outside of school-sponsored programs?

Because by law, schools are not allowed to provide kids with the spiritual training they need to be redemptive forces for good. They aren’t allowed to teach about the moral imperative that all major religions promote to create greater justice for all and our moral obligation to help those in need.

Yet remarkably, a program like The Protectors is what some in public education have considered a missing link, this according to The Bullying Prevention Handbook, written by John H. Hoover and Ronald Oliver, authors for the National Educational Service. They write:

In the end, bullying is related to our ultimate beliefs about the worth of individuals and the way they should be treated. The topics of morality, moral education, ethical reasoning, and spirituality lie at the core of society’s problems, including child-on-child aggression. As practitioners think about bullying in the future, it would be beneficial to examine the roll that moral development plays in learning to care about one another. Educational leaders may look to the world’s religions for answers to the problems of how we interrelate. For example, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic view that man is created in the image of God has enormous moral implications for how the weakest among us are treated. In the Christian tradition, Jesus stated that whatever was done to the weakest was done to him.

Also, the problem is bigger than what most school systems are designed to handle. They need communities to help all children break the culture of silence and apathy that currently surrounds bullying.

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Paul Coughlin's latest book, No More Jellyfish, Chickens or Wimps .
Contains more information about The Protectors.

So often, books on parenting stick to surface issues like potty training or instilling manners. With refreshing clarity and boldness, Paul Coughlin delves below the surface to get right to the core of what it means to parent: Raising adults grounded in authentic truth and goodness. In Jellyfish, Chickens, and Wimps, Paul goes beyond “what not to do” and offers readers practical wisdom on developing genuine – and sometimes long forgotten – virtues that will guide children throughout their lives. Parents, church communities, and anyone who works with children would benefit from his insights!

Sarah Jennings
Family Editor, Crosswalk.com

 

Purchase NO MORE JELLYFISH at
Amazon.com, ChristianBook.com, Barnes & Noble, Bethany House.

Purchase THE PROTECTORS CURRICULUM here,

For more information about The Protectors curriculum:
The Protectors
PO Box 4457
Medford, OR 97501
Email: paul@theprotectors.org

Also, visit PaulCoughlin.net for more information and to learn about Paul's other books and seminars.

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