The best way to prevent bullying at school

I bring up this issue because about three weeks ago, I saw one student bullying his friend. I told their teachers about this and I was quite surprised because the teachers told me that things like this happened before. The boy being bullied did the same thing to a different child before.
Bullying is like a bad chain that we must break and teachers have important roles in handling this matter.
Could you share your experiences about bullying and what do you think the best way to handle this issue, thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Pinard on February 21, 2008 at 9:47pm

Bullying is a hard subject to do alone! A school and community have to work together to get the ball rolling in a different direction. In Kansas, the state has required that schools implement a bullying policy, which is a good thing because my experience has been that everybody has a different idea as to what bullying is exactly. What one person thinks is bullying is not the same definition as what another person thinks it is. I hear from parents all the time, oh you know how boys can be, or Oh little girls are like that. That's the problem, I DO KNOW how kids can be and they can be mean as ever!! I also know that kids learn this behavior from all the environments they are exposed to.

As bad as the bullying is, the "innocent" bystanders are even worse because their inaction helps to promote the bully behavior. Sad, but adults are even guilty of this - because we don't want to get involved and we teach our children to not get involved. Like I said it takes the WHOLE community to get the program started where you will actually start seeing results.

I would check with your local schools, community centers, and churches to see what programs they have in place concerning bullying. If they don't have a policy in place, which I bet they do, go talk to the school counselor and see how they deal with bullying.

There are a lot of good programs out thereI I personally like the program "Don't Laugh At Me" http://www.dontlaugh.org/ I think I like this one because they offer a video that has a popular song that the kids in my rural area really relate to. Warning, you are liable to cry when you see the video though!

I think community awareness is a starting place and someone has to start - even if it happens to be you! Good luck and hope I helped you out a little.

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Permalink Reply by Erlin on February 23, 2008 at 6:47pm

Thanks for your reply to my discussion. I checked out "Don't laugh at me" website and it has a lot of great programs. I will recommend the website to the other teachers and parents. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Durff on February 22, 2008 at 7:56am

The laissez-faire attitudes about online and offline bullying by many adults really puzzle me. We are talking about children. Aren't we morally bound to protect them?