School Interventions

School Interventions

Why the need for a school-wide approach to Relational Aggression?

• Dignity is non-negotiable for every student, staff person, administrator, and parent. (Wiseman, 2007)
• You are teaching your students to educate themselves about the consequences of power and privilege, oppression, personal accountability, and bearing witness when others oppress and discriminate against those who have less power. (Wiseman, 2007)
• A school-wide policy also provides the opportunity for students to benefit from positive role modeling.
• A school-wide approach – school, classroom, and individual – sends a consistent, coordinated, and strong message that relational aggression is unacceptable.
• A school-wide policy acknowledges that if students are to learn and achieve to high standards, they must feel safe and secure at school.
• Without question, the most effective means of addressing bullying is through comprehensive, school-wide programs (Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Garrity et al., 1997; Skiba & Fontanini, 2000). Although teachers, counselors, and parents may be able to deal with individual cases of bullying as they come up, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on the incidence of bullying in the school (Banks, 2000).
• Bullying often goes undetected by both teachers and parents (Skiba & Fontanini, 2000). …adults typically identify less than 10 percent of bullying incidents. In addition, many teachers and administrators fail to understand the dynamics of bullying. Without adequate training, some educators may actually endorse bullying behavior, either by sending students the message that bullying is “part of growing up,” or by simply ignoring the behavior (USDOE, 1998).
• Perhaps the most important reason for developing a school-wide anti-bullying program, however, is to engage and empower “the silent majority”: the large percentage of students who regularly witness bullying at school but don’t know what they can do to help (Atlas & Pepler, 1998). Programs that teach students to recognize and intervene in bullying have been found to have the greatest impact on curbing incidents of bullying and harassment at school. (Rigby, 1995).

Steps to creating a school-wide policy

• Assess your school’s needs and goals.
  During the initial phases of program development, survey students, teachers, and parents about the occurrence of bullying in the school (USDOE, 1998). This will not only provide information about where, when, and between whom bullying occurs at your school, but will also allow you to examine any disparities between student, teacher, and parent perceptions (Saufler, n.d.). You will then need to spend time discussing which of the issues identified in the survey are the most urgent and how best to address them, given available, staff, funding, resources, and time (American Federation of Teachers, 2000).
• Develop an anti-bullying policy.
  Using the findings of the needs assessment to guide discussion, work with parents, students, administrators, teachers, and other school staff to develop a comprehensive, school-wide policy on bullying (Hoover & Oliver, 1996.) The policy should include a clear definition of bullying and a description of how the school will respond to bullying incidents (Rigby, 1995), as well as a discussion of program philosophy and goals.
• Provide training for teachers, administrators, and other school staff.
  Set aside time during the school year to share and discuss information about bullying with all school employees (USDOE, 1998). If possible, make an effort to include staff members who are likely to be present in places bullying tends to occur: Playground monitors, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodial staff, and so forth. Training should include definitions of bullying, indicators of bullying behavior, characteristics of bullies and victims, ways to integrate anti-bullying material into curriculum, and strategies for addressing bullying behavior. Quality training and opportunities for discussion are essential if all staff are to buy in to anti-bullying policies and programs.
• Involve parents.
  Invite parents to provide information for program assessments, share survey results with them, offer them training and information, and keep them abreast of program developments.
• Identify resources for bullies, victims, and families.
  Efforts to address bullying behavior are not over when the bully is caught and disciplined. (Students involved in bullying may need anger management strategies or individual therapy.) Anti-bullying programs should clearly identify resources for students and families that are available both at school and in the community.
• Provide increased supervision in areas where bullying tends to occur.
  Identify places on school grounds where bullying is more likely to occur, and work with the school staff to ensure there is adequate adult supervision in those areas. Playgrounds, bus stops, hallways, and school bathrooms often provide easy opportunities for bullies to isolate and intimidate their victims (NRCSS, 1999: USDOE, 1998).
• Integrate anti-bullying themes and activities into curriculum.
  Classroom teachers play a central role in the way that bullying policies and programs are presented and delivered to students. Curricula should include definitions of bullying, discussions of how bullying affects everyone, ways students can help others, and assertiveness training (Fried & Fried, 1996; Kreidler, 1996). Depending on the age of the students, you may want to provide students opportunities to role-play, and/or involve students in strategizing specific ways bullying can be addressed in their school (Pirozzi, 2001). Most important, though, bullying curriculum should emphasize to students, the difference between tattling and telling on someone, and encourage them to report to adults any situation in which a peer is being bullied or abused.

Additional Ideas

• Kick off your campaign by having an administrator or facilitator visit each classroom or with an informational assembly to introduce the concept of bullying, the roles involved, and that your school will be embarking on a campaign to “create a bully-free school.”
• Hold a staff meeting to explain various elements of the program, including any surveys, forms, rules, consequences, etc.
• Send an informational letter home to parents about the campaign.
• Form an after school anti-bullying (anti-RA) group.Group activities can include informative sessions that teach about bullying, activities that foster friendship/relationship skills, writing and producing role-plays to be performed in an assembly or in individual classrooms, learning about respect, participating in activities that increase students’ self confidence, watching relevant documentaries or movies, participating in community projects or service, doing lesson activities from a chosen book.
• Hold your first annual anti-bullying poster contest.
• Have each class create an anti-bullying pledge that has the chance of being adopted school-wide.
• Create a bulletin board dedicated to themes of being an ally to others by challenging bullying and promoting acts of kindness.
• Have students create a box in which any student can put something in writing on a piece of paper about a problem he or she is having dealing with bullying.
• Hold parent workshops that deal with bullying (RA)

What parents & counselors can do

• Probably the most important thing adults can do is to listen (NRCSS, 1999)Too often, children and young adults are told to “toughen up” or “ignore it” when they attempt to talk about bullying encounters at school. This kind of response makes students who are already socially isolated feel even more alone and helpless to prevent the harassment. It also sends the message that bullying in not taken seriously, and may even be their fault (USDDOE, 1998).
• Initiate conversations with students about bullying.
  Don’t wait for them to bring it up, or assume that because you haven’t heard about it, that it’s not happening. The vast majority of bullying behavior is never detected by adults, and many students are either too embarrassed or scared to talk about it. Conversations about specific bullying incidents may be held with individual students in private, or the subject can be dealt with more generally in whole-class discussions (Fried & Fried, 1996).
• Be prepared to intervene.If you observe that a student is being bullied, step in immediately (USDOE, 1998).
• Don’t expect students to solve things themselves.
• Encourage students to report incidents of bullying.
• Express strong disapproval of bullying when it occurs or comes up in conversation. Be sure students know that you don’t condone any kind of harassment or mistreatment of others, whether it be teasing, social exclusion, or physical violence (Kreidler, 1996).
• Work with students on developing assertiveness and conflict resolution skills. This is an important step in helping both students who are victimized and students who witness bullying learn ways to diffuse the situation.
• Focus on developing empathy and respect for others.
  Create opportunities for students to learn to work together, such as assignments that require sharing and collaboration (Hoover & Oliver, 1996; Rigby, 1995). Praise students, especially those who tend to bully others, for acts of kindness and respect (Kreidler, 1996; USDOE, 1998). (This demonstrates to students that everyone is valued and respected in your classroom.)
• Deal with bullying incidents consistently, in a manner appropriate to the situation.

Potential Pitfalls

• As with any new program, avoid creating a great deal of extra paperwork for teachers or other school staff.Anti-bullying programs are more likely to succeed if the are not seen as a burden, or as just another set of hoops that teachers and students must jump through.
• Before moving forward with an anti-bullying program, secure administrative support at both the school and district levels. (…This many mean soliciting funding, release time, and/or support new policies and curriculum.)
• Be careful that the bulling program does not result in students being stigmatized-either as bullies or as victims. Placing a label on a student may ensure that he or she gets help, but it may also work to reinforce the bullying dynamic and make it more difficult of students to escape those roles.
• Remember that the most effective anti-bullying programs are ongoing throughout the school year, and are integrated with the curriculum …A handful of isolated lessons is unlikely to produce significant change (Pirozzi, 2001).
• And finally, don’t expect change overnight. Effectively addressing bullying behavior takes time, and will require a sustained and conscious effort to change the overall culture of the school. In order to accomplish this, the entire school community must be engaged, committed and involved.

Works Cited

• School-wide Prevention of Bullying by Cori Brewster and Jennifer Railsback, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
• A Step-By Step Approach to your School-wide Anti-bullying Campaign by James Burns, May 30 2008