Office of SAFE Schools

Resources for dealing with bullying

What schools can do

What we know about bullying prevention and intervention

Individual interventions (e.g., assertiveness training for victims or empathy or anger management training for bullies) can be somewhat effective but may not significantly reduce overall bullying behavior. Comprehensive, schoolwide bully prevention programs have been shown to have the greatest effect because they change the overall culture and climate of a school so that bullying behavior is no longer tolerated, by the adults or the students. Clearly, changing the attitudes of the bystanders so that bullying is not accepted shifts the balance of power away from the bullies.

Comprehensive schoolwide bully prevention programs typically contain the following elements:

• Comprehensive Strategy or Policy Statement regarding Bullying
• Staff Training (including paraprofessional, clerical, and custodial staff)
• Student Training
• Range of Consequences for Bullying
• Clear Reporting Procedure for Students
• Increased Supervision in Unstructured Areas
• Curriculum Integration
• Involvement of Students' Families and Broader Community
• Additional Resources/Support for Students Involved in Bullying Incidents

Below is an article from the November 4, 2003, edition of the Washington Post regarding schoolwide bully prevention:

Some Schools Take On the Classroom Bully

By Valerie Strauss

Derrick Shaver admits that he used to be a bully. At his suburban elementary school near Denver, the fourth-grader would call classmates ugly names, and he lost friends as a consequence. Then a new school program taught other kids how to tell him to stop. The 9-year-old said he got the message.

"I learned if you don't bully, a lot of good things happen," Derrick said.

The program was started two years ago at Vivian Elementary School in Lakewood, Colo., about 12 miles from the site of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School. It engages every child and adult in an effort to instill respect for others: Students are taught that bullying is not acceptable; that bystanders should get involved; and, contrary to what they might think, bullies are not cool.

Every class holds a weekly meeting to talk about the topic, letting students air their grievances. Principal Michelle Stansbury spreads the message that staff buy-in is vital, "or you might as well not do it." The school is noticeably calmer now, Stansbury said, and even the quiet kids are more involved in classes and activities because they no longer feel threatened.

This type of comprehensive strategy against bullying — generally defined as the repeated verbal or physical actions by someone intended to inflict injury or discomfort on another — is what experts say is the best, and perhaps only, way to change a school's negative climate.

Norwegian psychologist Dan Olweus, known as the father of anti-bullying research, is a leading advocate of this philosophy. "It is really important that it be a schoolwide effort," said Grace Taylor, director of the Safe Communities-Safe Schools project at the University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. "One teacher doing it in one classroom is not going to be enough."

A spate of shootings at U.S. public schools this fall has heightened concerns about bullying and its effects, an issue brought into chilling focus by the events at Columbine. Some state governments are mandating bully-prevention curriculum, and the federal government is launching an awareness program.

No longer do experts consider any type of bullying to be normal kid's stuff. Elizabeth M. Duke, administrator of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, told a steering committee of the National Bullying Prevention Campaign that "it often represents a disturbing precursor to more serious violence and antisocial behavior."

But at a time when these concerns are rising, the ability of many schools to respond is being hampered, according to researchers. Taylor and others say that state and local budget cuts, along with heightened emphasis on raising standardized test scores, are squeezing out anti-bullying efforts — particularly the time-consuming programs that appear to work the best.

Since President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative became law last year, "schools and districts are under a lot of pressure to make those [test] scores go up," said Janice Sellers, principal of Quincy Elementary School in Topeka, Kan. "We have to decide what we are going to work on. Unfortunately, those kinds of issues, like bullying, are getting a back seat."

Quincy Elementary took part in an anti-bullying study designed by the private Menninger Clinic, a nationally known psychiatric and behavioral hospital. Stuart Twemlow, a researcher on Menninger's Peaceful Schools Project, said that forcing principals to make this kind of choice "oversimplifies" the learning process. "It presumes that if you give a student a competent teacher, they will learn," he said. "The way you improve intellectual performance is to create a peaceful environment."

Another problem is the nature of funding. Many anti-bullying resources come from grants; when the money runs out, the programs sputter. With a three-year grant, Leslie Stuler of the Arlington County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources started an anti-bullying effort at Barrett Elementary School and in the department's after-school programs. It was deemed a success, but now that the money has run out, Stuler is struggling to keep the program alive. She recognizes that a lot of elements will be diminished.

Meanwhile, educators themselves have differing views on the extent of bullying and on the most effective methods of prevention.

Sellers said she has seen a big increase in bullying in the past five years, which she attributes to changes within families. Scott Henson, principal at nearby Avondale West Elementary School in Topeka, also part of the Menninger study, said bullying merely gets more attention than it once did.

As for prevention, Daniel A. Domenech, superintendent of schools in Fairfax County, said the best approach is to use "discipline codes that are enforced and show no tolerance for bullying." But Susan Limber, associate director of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University, said that zero-tolerance codes can stifle the reporting of bullying behavior because students and teachers fear the consequences.

Bill Voors, author of "The Parent's Book About Bullying: Changing the Course of Your Child's Life," said the keys to success are commitment and persistence.

Marty Gies learned that lesson in the early 1990s. He had been principal of Ross Elementary School in Topeka for less than a month when a second-grade girl was thrown to the ground by six schoolmates and sexually assaulted. Gies said he soon realized that the attack was not isolated but part of a pattern of bullying that led some kids to stay home because they didn't feel safe.

Gies sought help from Twemlow, and over time they implemented a comprehensive plan to change the school's climate. Not only were interventions worked out with students identified as bullies and victims, but the spectators — kids who watched bullies at work and did nothing to stop them — were also involved in the program, along with every adult at the school.

Academic achievement went up, and suspensions plummeted, said Gies, who moved to another elementary school three years ago and implemented a version of the anti-bullying program to fit that group of children.

"You need to teach kids respect," he said. "And you need to teach everybody that they are part of the solution. If you are in class and something is happening and you are letting it happen, you are just as much of a problem as the person doing it."

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