Indy 6th grader takes proactive approach to prevent bullying in local schools

INDIANAPOLIS -- For Constantine Kaminski, he’ll tell you he knows firsthand the challenges that elementary school students face on a daily basis. “I’m a 12-year-old boy who likes tennis video games and basketball,” Kaminski said.

Whether it’s peer pressure, the daily tasks that comes with being a sixth grader who’s going into 7 ^th grade or being bullied, he says he seen it all firsthand.

“I remember when I was in first grade when I was getting bullied and I didn’t understand why,” Kaminski added. When it comes to the topic of bullying, he says he’s experienced it at school, and has also witnessed his classmates experience it as well. “I didn’t want to go to school,” Kaminski told WRTV.

There are number of schools around Indianapolis using a program called Building Dreams . “It is a solution for this time that we are in with our youth,” Founder & CEO of Fight for Life Foundation Marlin Jackson said. Building Dreams is a cornerstone program of Fight for Life Foundation.

That solution is called Building Dreams. The computer program helps to give students a platform to reports issues anonymously like bullies.

“A lot of these kids don’t know how to ask for help and they don’t know what to say or they and they don’t want to be considered a snitch – so essentially, they are suffering in silence,” Kayla Wood, City Connects site coordinator said. School leaders say Constantine has been a leader in helping other students in knowing what emotions they maybe facing. Kaminski attended Phalen Leadership Academy.

“There was this time when this kid was having a tough time and he didn’t want to talk about it and I told him to use the Building Dreams App,” Kaminski. Which is the goal of the program – to help teach kids how to work through emotion.

“It makes me feel good because I’ve, had a bad past and I know I can change it,” Kaminski concluded.