October is National Anti-Bullying Month, which has everyone talking and thinking about this important issue. But bullying is much more than just an issue ... it's a real problem facing schools and their students today.
Schools have tried no-tolerance policies, suspensions, peer coaching, assemblies and so many other methods to address it. But what really works, and what makes things worse (peer coaching, I'm looking at you!).
What's the right way for schools to combat bullying?
It doesn't have to cost much
The good news is that implementing good bullying prevention doesn't always mean spending money. Check out this EdWorld story on how student advocacy groups are making a difference.
Elementary School Gets Flak for ‘Slavery Simulation’
The story quotes Kristin Gilbert, assistant principal at Waterville Junior High School in Waterville, ME, who said the school is home to several student-led advocacy groups.
“We have a civil rights team and a student leadership team, and we just formed a student ally team,” Gilbert said. “The student ally team’s focus is supporting sexual minority youth, and the civil rights team focuses on what most civil rights groups do—civil rights for all students, with a focus on harassment and bullying.”
Gilbert said that the groups’ efforts have led to an overall attitude shift in the school, to the extent that students will call out teachers or peers if they feel something inappropriate is being said or done.
The sad thing....
The sad thing is watching schools spend so much time and money on things that don't work. How do you get schools to divert efforts from programs that make a splash, but have no long-term benefits in favor of ones that actually work well?
So what works?
Thought I would jump in here with some of EducationWorld’s collected wisdom over the years, in terms of what research, and schools, tell us really works to prevent bullying:
What does NOT work to prevent bullying:
Poster and slogan campaigns (Stomp Out Bullying, and the like) by themselves
Suspending bullies without also putting in place a long-term “safety plan” for the target
One-size-fits-all, zero-tolerance punishments, especially when not accompanied by support services for the bully
Telling targets to ignore the bullying or say “stop bullying me” (or anything that makes kids responsible for solving their own problem; adult intervention is ALWAYS necessary)
Encouraging targets to “fight back”
Encouraging witnesses to confront the bully
Using peer mediation to address bullying (or any approach that puts bully and victim in the same room to “work it out”; bullying is an abuse-of-power dynamic, not a disagreement between equals)
Any adult-dictated approach that neglects youth leadership on the issue of bullying
Approaches that the entire school community has not “bought into”
Overemphasis on the words “bullying” and “bully” (better to emphasize what specific behaviors are inappropriate and why…teasing, put-downs, name-calling, homophobic language, tripping, pushing, gossiping, social exclusion, etc.)
Creating a virtual “police state” around bullying (focusing on investigation and punishment to the exclusion of teaching positive behavior)
Blaming parents (calling their child a bully is often counterproductive; better to focus on why the child’s behavior harms the school community and enlist parents’ support in changing the behavior)
What DOES work (if done well):
Clear rules and policies in place, and school community is well aware of them
Teacher supervision of known “hot spots” (e.g., bathrooms, cafeteria) where bullying frequently occurs on school grounds
Student training on what to do when they witness bullying (mainly REPORT the incident and SUPPORT the target in a safe way); peer intervention, if done right, can be more powerful than adult intervention
Student training on which specific behaviors are inappropriate…teasing, put-downs, name-calling, homophobic language, tripping, pushing, gossiping, social exclusion, etc…without over-emphasizing the term “bullying,” which is trickier than it seems to legally define
Creating an environment where students feel that if they are bullied, they will receive support from adults and peers; such an environment cannot be created via external mandate and must be a “grassroots” effort that grows from internal commitment (this is why laws’ effect can be limited)
Rewarding students for positive behavior, rather than punishing them for negative behavior (PBIS includes a great integrated approach to bullying prevention)
Student-led leadership on the issue of bullying, and student empowerment and leadership in general
Asking targets what they would like other people to do to help them, and then educating other people on how to do those things (even if an intervening person can’t stop the bullying, providing emotional support is crucial)
Providing counseling services for bullies to teach them better behaviors and support their healthy development (bullies do not necessarily lack self-esteem; what they lack are healthy ways of achieving personal status)
Infusing instruction on positive behaviors into the everyday curriculum (must be more than just posters and assemblies)
School committee in place that monitors annual school-climate survey data regarding whether students feel safe and supported in school
How do you?
How do you get students, teacher and others to not simply walk by the problem? If a school community does not tolerate bullying, then it will not happen -- that's pretty much the only way it can work,
Prevention through the
Prevention through the creation of an environment where everyone feels safe and protected ...
Connected and safe are the
Connected and safe are the keywords to this problem.
Nobody stepped in
Sad that no one stepped in or even provided support after the fact. Targets say the sense of isolation they experience can be worse than the actual bullying incidents. Bottom line: Everyone in the school needs to feel like if they were bullied, someone would "have their back." That includes adults and kids. Work on having everyone feel connected and safe, and bullying will decrease.
Leaders
I think that really works, though you have to be broad in your definition of leaders. Find the leaders of the outcast kids who play WarHammer or the kids who listen to weird music and bring them into it. I probably avoided being bullied despite being a nerdy loudmouth because I was an athlete (albeit a bad one) and had friends on the sports teams.
What about engaging student
What about engaging student leadherip groups like athletic team captains, student government members etc? These students are already leaders and could offer insight into what straegies could help.
Our high school has a peer
Our high school has a peer leadership group in the manner that Jay just noted and it's been a real positive as the kids get training and look for signals (and can help when needed).
Peer leadership groups are excellent
We see some of that in Stamford which has real racial and economic diversity within the same schools.
I would say
I wouldn't really say i was bullied in high school, but I had an issue one summer at camp where I was being targetted by a really aggresive kid (we were high school age in our first year with paying jobs at camp). He made comments and was physically pretty threatening, My buddy Jay (not EdWorldJay) was a big guy and when he was around I had no physical fear, so I never escalated things to a grown-up.
One day Jay was away for the day (maybe a family event) and the bully was all over me pushing things to a physical confrontation. Now, I know that other kids shuld have stepped in, but nobody did. So (and I don't suggest this course of action) I basically told hom that if he was planning on beating me up, that he should just do it. Not being one for subtlety, he began hitting me. I did my best to defend myself and he ended up chipping my tooth.
At that point, I went and told our supervisor (who may have been 22) and the bully got fired. Not my best plan. but I knew that if I hit back, it was a fight, but by just playing defense, it was him beating me up.
What helped was that my boss (now a teacher) listended and immediately corrected the problem. This was not a first incident for this kid and he deserved his punishment. I later rechpped that tooth while eating chicken wings with EdWorldJay.
Dan, you mentioned being
Dan, you mentioned being bullied in high school. What could have made it better for you?
Good resources
In efforts to promote tolerance and reduce bullying through non-punitive means, schools might find these articles useful:
Lesson Plan Booster: How Can Students Help a Bullied Peer?
This discussion guide for middle- and high-school students helps youth consider the impact of bullying on the school as a whole, and learn about safe ways to help a student who has been mistreated.
Stan Davis: Ask Bullied Kids What Helps Them
Bullying prevention expert Stan Davis reminds us that if we want to know what helps kids who have been bullied, we need to ask them. Often the typical adult advice, such as “pretend the bullying doesn’t bother you,” actually does more harm than good.
Beyond Icebreakers: Building Student Connectedness
Students need to form bonds not only with their classmates, but with the school at large. Those who do are emotionally healthier.
Bullying Prevention: What Your School May be Missing
In this excerpt from Bullied Teacher: Bullied Student, Les Parsons explains how school bullying prevention approaches fall short.
In addition to getting kids
In addition to getting kids together, engaging bullying victims may also be a good idea. Takling with them directly about what they think would help could shine the proverbial light. Expert Stan Davis has some good info on this strategy. http://tinyurl.com/6c788m2
But, be realistic
Too many schools have policies where if a bullied kid defends himself, then he is in the same trouble as the bully. If someone punches you and you "turn the other cheek." he will just punch you in that cheek. We always need to look at circumstances. In general, though, you can believe that the 90 pound kid wearing a Kermit the Frog T-shirt, probably did not start the fight with the linemane on the football team and if he throws a kick or punch to avoid getting killed, maybe he does not deserve equal punishment.
Good point...need to focus on the kids
Our emphasis is too often on what legalistic response adults need to have...what about asking kids who are bullied what helps them, and then train other kids to do those things when they see a peer being bullied? Prevention efforts will fall flat if kids aren't given a leadership role. Also, targets need to know that (1) it is not their fault, (2) they do not need to solve the problem themselves (telling them to "ignore the bully" is truly terrible advice), and (3) adults are working to ensure their safety.
I'd hope you can reach most kids
I htink Jason is right in many cases, but some kids (and some adults) just get there thrills from being mean to others. That's when you need punishment to protect everyone else. Usually, those are the kids that don't just bully one kid, but they target everybody. I went to Hebrew School (still mad at my parents about having to do that) with a kid like that. He picked on everyone, fairly cruelly. There were many attempts to correct his behavior and, eventually, he was removed from class to keep everyone else safe. (I imagine he's in prison now, but that's just a guess).
If...
If social exclusion is bullying, than perhaps I was bullied more than i thought in high school.
Perhaps schools need to work
Perhaps schools need to work harder from the getgo to create a tolerant atmosphere that encourages understanding and diversity. If we wait until the bullying starts, it will be too late for a lot of kids.
I don't know that some kids
I don't know that some kids are just going to be bullies "because." There is always a motivation, and I'm willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of the time that motivation is either fear of the unknown, or personal insecurity...both of which can be worked on through team-building exercises.
The Breakfast Club
In high school I went on a trip as a junior to Quebec with a group of people I largely did not know. There were people from a variety of the various sterotypical social groups, jocks, smart kids, dorky kids (me, I'm thinking) and the experience of an eight hour bus ride and three days of shared meals brought kids together. We weren't all magically friends when we got back who hung out, but we were all nod at each other in the halls and tell our friends, "no, he may not dress like you or like the same stuff, but he's all right."
Schools need to do things that put kids from diverse groups together. (Of course, in Swamspscott, MA our diversity did not really include much diversity).
Hard to define
An issue with the rigidity of the laws is the definition of bullying itself. Research show it's better to identify which specific behaviors are inappropriate…teasing, put-downs, name-calling, homophobic language, tripping, pushing, gossiping, social exclusion, etc…without over-emphasizing the term “bullying,” which is trickier than it seems to legally define. Also it tends to make parents of the bully angry, and then communication shuts down.
Dan makes a good point,
Dan makes a good point, getting kids together and working towards a common goal is a brilliant way to eliminate any tensions that may be between them. People tend to fear what they don't understand. That fear turns to anger and that anger quickly becomes hate. Be heading the fear off at the pass, we can avoid the hatred.
Some kids are just jerks
There are some bullies who are just bullies and maybe you won't reach them no matter what you do. But, you have to assume most kids are inherently not trying to hurt other kids and teach them how to behave.
Zero for zero
I have zero tolerance for zero tolerance policies. How do you have zero tolerance for something that is not easy to define?
Reward positive behavior
I agree that suporting development of positive behavior (e.g. by helping kids connect with each other) is far more effective than simply punishing kids who do the wrong thing. Also, punishing bullies without teaching them more appropriate behavior is just begging for them to do it again.
One solution never works
Some of the new laws are too rigid as its difficult to find out what is true bullying and what is just two kids in a dispute. I agree with Sarah that their needs to be discretion and creative soltuions. The goal of anti-bullying laws is to have kids be able to feel safe in schools. Arbitrary mandatory penalties don't accomplish that anymore than mandatory minimum sentences have ended the drug problem. Smart adminstrators and teachers need to use their heads, find the cause of the problem and take appropriate steps.
Of course, action must be taken...too many times in the past bullied kids were left to fend for themselves, but pre-fab solutions is not the answer.
Any time you make any
Any time you make any organization implement policy in a specified amount of time you run into problems. The easiest and quickest thing to do is establish a "zero tolerance" policy and those are never good as they don't address the problem.
Diversity Is Key
I work in a community (Stamford, CT) with a very diverse population and the schools have really done a lot to bring the kids together. I actually way more intolerance from the adults (where groupings tend to be ethnic and religious) than with the kids. In some ways, the best anti-bullying environments are the sports teams which are very diverse and have zero tolerance for any sort of hazing (which is really bullying wearing a different hat).
Events that cause kids to have meet different social groups and actually put a personality and a name to their pre-conceived notions seem to work well.
One of the big problems, I
One of the big problems, I think, with how bullying is handled is that authorities (whether it's the school or law enforcement) take a one-size-fits all approach to a wide variety of behaviors -- some much milder than others. It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole ... you can't have one consequence that works for everything. Also, if we really want bullying behavior to stop, we need to look at why it's happening in the first place. If we can't get at the root cause, how can we change a child's behavior?
Do laws really help?
My concern with all the state anti-bullying laws being passed is that they seem to decrease rather than increase schools' desire to make real reductions in bullying. Bullying thrives in environments where tolerance for diversity is low. So will forcing schools to conduct investigations within a specified time frame get them to inspire kids to respect diversity?