School Safety Tips - Bullies and Bullying

Part six in my short series on school safety. Since we're all heading back to school, or already have gone back I thought it might help to remind us as parents of the extras we can do to keep the kids safe. A lot of this reference information comes from the Florida Department of Education Office of School Transportation Management, Office of Safe Schools. Please review them with your children and have a happy beginning of school this year!

Bullying

Everyone in and around the school is responsible for creating a culture of positive behavior. A frequent problem is bullying. Discuss with your child how this might affect them.

What is Bullying?

Unwanted and repeated written, verbal or physical behavior, including any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture by an adult or student that is severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment, cause discomfort or humiliation, or unreasonably interfere with the individual's school performance or participation.

Wow - that's one long definition above! Basically behavior that is interfering with an other's school performance or participation seems to fall into the above category. I know we've had problems with this with Butterfly every year in school. One year it was a child who picked on her because she was smart. Last year it was a boy with assumed ADD who interrupted the class and Butterfly constantly to "entertain" and then would poke and push her everyday.

Where Does Most Bullying Occur?
As with most harmful behavior among children, in general bullying occurs wherever there is the least structure and adult supervision. Most incidents occur on the playground, bathrooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, cyberspace (My Space, Facebook entries, emails), at bus stops and in the bus.

What Can Parents and Students Do?
Tips for Parents:

1. Encourage your child to talk to you. Praise your child for positive communication and behavior.
2. Provide/ensure adequate supervision.
3. Teach your child to be assertive rather than aggressive or violent when confronted by a bully.
4. Verify that consistent messages about rules and safety are practiced in the school and that staff is trained in bullying prevention.
5. Build a relationship with your child's teachers and administrators.

Tips for Students:

1. Stay away from bullies.
2. Tell an adult.
3. Avoid bad situations.
4. Make friends.
5. If bullied, tell the bully to stop, then walk away.

Did you know that research shows that half of all bullying can be prevented? Direct physical bullying increases in elementary school, peaks in middle school, and declines in high school.