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Bullying can be prevented and stopped if enough adults take
action. Everyone deserves
to feel emotionally and physically safe at school, at home, and
in the community. Reducing
violence in schools is a major concern of educators, parents,
and legislators.
Bullying is a behaviour that has to be addressed and stopped.
Sending teachers to
workshops on bullying does not usually trickle down to an impact
on student behaviours. And
telling students to walk away or ignore it is bad advice. The
steps to prevent bullying in schools
require major changes to the educational system. The most
effective approaches for preventing
or minimizing bullying in schools involve a multilevel strategy
that targets bullies, victims,
bystanders, families, and communities. Strategies to prevent or
minimize bullying in schools
must include school-level interventions designed to change the
overall culture and climate of
the school; classroom-level interventions targeting teachers and
other adults in the school; and
student-level interventions that target individual or small
groups of victims and bullies.
School-level interventions should aim at clarifying and
communicating behavioural
norms. Developing classroom and school wide rules that prohibit
bullying and promote adult
modeling of respectful and nonviolent behaviour. Intervention
efforts are to be successful
unless school staff recognizes that bullying is a problem.
School principal should send strong
message to the entire school that bullying is taken seriously
and will not be tolerated.
Moreover, school administrators must enlist the help of
teachers, parents, and students in
developing policies that address school bullying. A written
bullying prevention policy that is
distributed to everyone in the school can send a clear message
that bullying incidents will be
taken seriously and that action will be taken in response to
them. The policy should include a
clear definition of bullying (with examples) and a reporting
procedure. A confidential reporting
system may encourage students to report if they are victimized
or have witnessed bullying. It is
important that teachers and other adults in the school model
appropriate behaviour.
Classroom-level interventions include encouraging teachers to
integrate bullying
prevention material into their curriculum. This can be
accomplished by holding regular
classroom meetings to discuss bullying. These classroom meetings
can help increase students'
knowledge of how to intervene, build empathy, and encourage
pro-social behaviours. Teachers
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should also discuss the importance of bystanders in stopping
bullying. Teachers can also involve
the class in establishing and enforcing class rules against
bullying. Students should be taught
that they have a responsibility to intervene if they observe
someone being bullied at school.
Student-level interventions develops social competence by
changing students'
knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, or behaviour by using
interactive teaching techniques i.e.
Role play and practice with peers. Have a class meeting
periodically in which students gather in
a circle and compliment or express appreciation to a classmate.
Allow only positive comments
and make sure that all students are acknowledged at least every
other meeting. Students can
be taught how to interpret social situations and can be helped
not to cry or run away at every
taunt. It is important that children understand that by staying
calm in bullying situations, the
bullying may subside, whereas responding aggressively or acting
helpless may worsen the
situation.
To Summarize, School social workers should make every effort and
encourage other
school personnel to make similar efforts to protect children who
are victims of bullying .It is
important that bullies receive clear messages from school
personnel that bullying will not be
tolerated and will end. Get the students parents involved in a
bullying prevention program. If
parents of the bullies and the victims are not aware of what is
going on at school, then the
whole bullying program will not be effective. Stopping bullying
in school takes teamwork and
concentrated effort on everyones part.
