One mention of recent school tragedies and the
potential consequences of bullying become
frighteningly clear. We feel so strongly about the
importance of this issue that we are providing the
information contained here and urge you to visit and
read the resources on
Stop Bullying Now. This material is excerpted
from that site.
Recognizing the
signs of bullying
Bullying is
aggressive behavior that is intentional
and that involves
an imbalance of power or strength. Often, it is
repeated over time and can take many forms.
Best Practices in
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
Focus on the social environment of the school.
To reduce bullying, it is important to change the
climate of the school and the social norms with
regard to bullying. It must become "uncool" to
bully, "cool" to help out students who are
bullied, and normative for staff and students to
notice when a child is bullied or left out. This
requires the efforts of everyone in the school
environment.
Anonymous questionnaire to students about
bullying.
What are the possible benefits of conducting a
survey of students? Frequently we are quite
surprised by the amount of bullying that students
experience, the types of bullying that are most
common, or the "hot spots" where bullying
happens.
- Data can help administrators and other
educators tailor a bullying prevention strategy
to the particular needs of the school;
- Data can serve as a baseline from which
administrators and other educators can measure
their progress in reducing bullying.
Garner staff and parent support for bullying
prevention.
- Bullying prevention should not be the sole
responsibility of an administrator, counselor,
teacher-or any single individual at a school. To
be most effective, bullying prevention efforts
require buy-in from the majority of the staff and
from parents.
- Form a group to coordinate the school's
bullying prevention activities.
- All administrators, faculty, and staff at your
school should be trained in bullying prevention
and intervention. Training should not be available
only for teaching staff, but for ALL staff,
including lunch room aides.
Establish and enforce school rules and policies
related to bullying.
- Although many school behavior codes implicitly
forbid bullying, many codes do not use the term or
make explicit our expectations for student
behavior.
- It is important to make clear that the school
not only expects students not to bully, but that
it also expects them to be good citizens, not
passive bystanders, if they are aware of bullying
or students who appear troubled, possibly from
bullying.
- One comprehensive program, the Olweus Bullying
Prevention Program (see resources section on the
Web site) recommends that schools adopt four
straightforward rules about bullying:
We will not bully others.
We will try to help students who are bullied.
We will make it a point to include students who
are easily left out.
If we know someone is being bullied, we will tell
an adult at school and an adult at home.
4. Supervision in hot spots where
bullying occurs.
5. Intervene consistently and
appropriately in
situations to deal with bullying.
6. Focus some class time on bullying
prevention.
7. Continue these efforts over time.
There should be
no "end date" for bullying intervention activities. |
