Initiative Created by ESPN and Supported by Major League Baseball and X Games Seeks to Eliminate Bullying by Encouraging Kids to Choose Kindness

Select Schools in Boston, New York City, and Oakland Join Those in Bristol (CT), Los Angeles and Pittsburgh As Well As Multiple Cities in Colorado and Minnesota

To Implement the No Bully Methodology for the 2019-20 Academic Year

Historically, Shred Hate Schools Supported by 13 MLB Clubs, ESPN (Bristol, CT) and

X Games Have Helped Significantly Remediate Bullying Instances

Major League Baseball, ESPN and X Games today announced the addition of four MLB Clubs to the Shred Hate initiative, a multi-faceted, innovative bullying prevention program striving to put an end to bullying in schools by encouraging youth to choose kindness. The Clubs that will support Shred Hate bullying prevention efforts, and have the No Bully methodology implemented within select schools in their markets throughout the 2019-2020 academic year, are the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates are returning to the initiative for a second consecutive year.

ESPN launched the Shred Hate initiative in January 2017 at X Games Aspen and has since reached nearly 90,000 students. Historically, the No Bully methodology utilized by Shred Hate has been able to remediate a significant percentage of bullying instances. Approximately 30,000 students will be reached through the program in the next academic year.

No Bully, a nonprofit that trains schools how to activate student compassion to eradicate bullying and cyberbullying, will work directly with local school districts in Boston, New York, Oakland and Pittsburgh. This is in addition to No Bully continuing its work with schools in Colorado, Bristol (Connecticut) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (Minnesota), and providing continued learning opportunities to existing Shred Hate schools in previous MLB Club markets. Previous MLB Clubs who have participated in the initiative include the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals.

Through Shred Hate, cooperating schools and youth-focused programs utilize the “No Bully System®,” a non-disciplinary, innovative model that guides K-12 school leaders, teachers, and youth sports administrators through an integrated series of leadership coaching sessions, teacher trainings and parent workshops to create and sustain a bully-free culture for the long term. The No Bully System® provides an alternative to suspension or discipline, and rather promotes an environment revolving around cooperation and respect to ensure compliance with state and federal anti-bullying laws. A No Bully facilitator, who will be assigned to each participating school and program, will travel to administer trainings around the No Bully Coaching Leadership Team Guide and be available throughout the program for support. For schools in their second year of Shred Hate programming, No Bully is focusing on social and emotional learning, and will provide schools with specific social and emotional trainings for students, school site staff, leadership teams, parents, and the community. Social and emotional resources, such as strategies and lesson plans, are also included as an integral part of the training for teachers.

An out-of-school Shred Hate­ module is also utilized for after-school and summer programs, or wherever youth may experience bullying. The lessons, available for download at www.MLB.com/ShredHate, are designed to last approximately 20-30 minutes each and are complementary to the No Bully System® in-school methodology. The out-of-school module is implemented through RBI programs nationwide as well as through the MLB Youth Academy network in multiple cities throughout the United States. The lessons have been downloaded by 475 schools and organizations with a projected reach of more than 155,000 students. MLB and ESPN will continue to collaborate with No Bully on its methodology, and will support the initiative through various multimedia platforms and other promotional activities, including public service announcements featuring Major League players and X Games athletes.

Recently, All-Star first baseman for the New York Mets and 2019 T-Mobile Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso joined five-time X Games medalist Gus Kenworthy in taping a public service announcement (PSA) to encourage young people to take action against cyberbullying, which affects 59% of U.S. teens (according to Pew Research Center). The campaign, which runs on DoSomething.org through September 15, 2019, is part of the Shred Hate initiative led by ESPN, X Games and MLB, in partnership with No Bully and DoSomething.org (DoSomething). The PSA features Alonso and Kenworthy relating their personal experiences with cyberbullying and encouraging viewers to take action whenever they see it happen in their daily lives. The PSA, which is currently LIVE on YouTube and appears across ESPN media platforms and through MLB digital channels (e.g., MLB.com and social media), can be viewed HERE. DoSomething.org, the largest tech company exclusively for young people and social change, is promoting the campaign through its digital channels – DoSomething.org, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email newsletters, and more. The campaign specifically encourages young people to report negative, otherwise known as “trolling” or “bullying,” actions or accounts on social media platforms by using available tools provided by each platform.

Program monitoring and evaluation plays a central role in Shred Hate. Key performance indicators include, but are not limited to, the following: reduced solution of incidents of bullying, reduction of severity and incidents of bullying, active student engagement in solutions, active parent/guardian and community engagement in bullying resolution, and additional positive shifts in behavior.

In a study by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Education, nearly one in four students – more than 10 million total students – report being bullied each year in the United States.