About 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied in school, according to the CDC. Research from stopbullying.gov shows that 57% of the time, bystanders are able to stop bullying within 10 seconds. However, a majority of bystanders do not intervene.

Right To Be’s mission to end harassment in all its forms includes a focus on addressing bullying and harassment among young people. We are bringing our 5Ds of Bystander Intervention to young people across the U.S. so that they gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to support and safely intervene when disrespect, harassment, and bullying happens. 

If you are a school or youth program interested in our curriculum, please click here to fill out our form.

And if you are interested in finding out even more about this powerful program or how to bring it to your school, program, or organization, join one of our upcoming info sessions!

We have worked with a PK12 curriculum and instruction specialist to develop a 12-lesson youth-oriented curriculum using our 5Ds methodology: Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct. Our vision is that these tools will support a generation of increasingly conscious, compassionate, and understanding young adults who are less accepting of disrespect and harassment. 

We know that people often don’t know how to respond to harassment. That is why our tools are designed to learn effective and meaningful strategies that can empower both the bystander and the person being harassed.  We are confident that this initiative will help reduce bullying and the trauma it causes and create more respectful school environments. 

Our vision for the 5Ds of bystander intervention to be as ubiquitous in schools as “stop, drop, and roll” was for previous generations. Our plan has three pillars currently in place: a 5Ds for High School Youth curriculum, 5Ds for Educators workshop (for staff and teachers at schools), and an Educational Video Series for Kids and Youth.

We concluded a successful pilot of our in-classroom curriculum for youth in June of 2023. Several classrooms at a Brooklyn, NY high school, where about 100 students in grades 9 to 12 were trained on how to safely intervene if they witness bullying. The next iteration of this curriculum consists of 12 lessons in total, and it includes different resources for teachers and students like assessments, group work, scenarios, videos, slide decks, guided discussions, teacher-facilitated lessons, and exercises for independent student learning and reflection. 

This year, we want to bring this curriculum to up to 10 high schools/youth-serving groups to further refine it and then launch it nationally in the U.S.

If you are a school or youth program interested in our curriculum, please click here to fill out our form.

If you are selected to participate in our beta phase, all resources will be free.

Right To Be has also adapted the 5Ds of bystander intervention training for teachers K-12. Scholarship on bullying and violence in schools, indicates that when teachers model bystander intervention, students are significantly more likely to safely and effectively intervene when witnessing bullying.

This 60 minute interactive training will teach K-12 teachers, staff, and administrators the methodology behind our 5Ds of bystander intervention for their unique workplace – school settings. 

The training starts by talking about the types of disrespect that these school stakeholders are facing right now at school using a tool we call the “Spectrum of Disrespect.” You’ll learn what to look for and the positive impact that bystander intervention can have on individuals, schools, and communities, by using our 5Ds of Bystander Intervention methodology: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct; and how to prioritize your own safety while intervening. We’ll have time at the end to practice school-based work scenarios with the 5Ds, and you’ll leave feeling more confident intervening the next time you see disrespect happening within the workplace of a school setting. 

Sign up for our next training here

Right To Be, AAJC and the Woori Show teamed up to create this interactive educational short video series for parents and kids to learn how kids can intervene if they witness racism or harassment.

Right To Be also partnered with AARP, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC to create a series of educational videos aimed at teaching people how to intervene if they see anti-Asian hate and harassment. Read our press release to learn more about this initiative.

Join Right To Be’s “5Ds for Youth” Interest List