Bullying Paper

Be Smart, Don’t Start: Bullying Prevention Program

Ed Gendreau
Juvenile Delinquency
Professor Booth
December 11, 2014

Surveys indicate that bullying may now be the most frequent form of school violence. Statistics indicate almost one quarter of students have experienced cruel interaction with peers on a consistent basis. Bullying has been going on for many years but has more recently been brought to the forefront of school violence. Much remains to learn about bullying prevention and the best practices to be utilized. In 2010, Massachusetts passed the Bullying Prevention and Intervention Law (Johnson 2). The law defines the legal responsibility and provides an opportunity for public schools in Massachusetts to enhance efforts to prevent and stop bullying.
There are several types of bullying one being direct bullying which is characterized by a relatively open attack on a victim that is physical (hitting, kicking, pushing, choking) and or verbal bullying (name calling, threatening, taunting, malicious teasing). The second and subtler type of bullying that is more difficult to detect is indirect bullying. This involves forms of relational aggression that might include social isolation of the victim, intentional exclusion, rumor-spreading, damaging someone’s reputation, making faces or obscene gestures behind someone’s back, and manipulating friendships and other relationships. All this can be done over a period of time building to a point where the student victim is often afraid to come to school. Lastly bullying can occur in-person and or through technology. Electronic aggression or cyber-bullying is bullying that happens through email, chat rooms, instant message, a website, text message, or social media (Bullying Research).
My program, Be Smart Don’t Start, will target grades K-8 and include both males and females. Research has reported that 24% of elementary and secondary schools report daily or weekly bullying (Arsenio 2). The frequency may be even higher since adults are often unaware of the bullying and do not adequately respond to the problem of the victim and or bully. Research does indicate that bullying begins to decline at the end of the elementary grades and picks up again in middle and high school grades (Arsenio 5). An area that should be reviewed and targeted could be when students transition from grade five to middle or junior high, there appears to be a resurgence of bullying, a transition year where those that bully want to reestablish dominance or achieve a position of leadership (Arsenio 5).
Parents and or teachers should note that a child that is bullied might show signs of emotional distress. For example loneliness, anxiety, and depression as well as a change in performance at school may occur. Attendance may decline due to the fact that the child may have a fear of being bullied at school repeatedly. Their confidence is shaken and their social status is usually affected. The consequences of bullying can be very long lasting and is carried over many times into adulthood with higher levels of depression and anxiety.
One out of every 4 kids will be bullied sometime throughout their adolescence noted by The American Justice Department (Bullying Statistics). Statistics show that about 77% of students have admitted to being the victim of one type of bullying or another (Bullying Statistics). 46% of males followed by 26% of females have admitted to being victims in physical fights as noted in one report of bullying statistics by the Bureau of Justice School (Bullying Statistics). As these bullying statistics indicate, bullying is just getting worse in American schools. Many studies have shown that increasing domestic violence at home is leading to an increase in bullying online and at school.
Be Smart, Don’t Start is based on the Social Learning Theory; “social learning theorists view juvenile delinquency as another pattern of learned behavior that some juveniles are taught through social interaction with the family, peer groups, and other major agents of socialization” (Thompson and Bynum 115). Bullying is not prewired, harmless, or inevitable; it is learned, harmful, and controllable. Left unchecked it can spread and involves bullies, victims, and bystanders. With the right tools and education it can be effectively stopped and possibly entirely prevented. The bully is about the abuse of power. They deliberately and repeatedly use their power to hurt others. Some characteristics of a bully are that they are hot tempered, do not like to follow rules, and are overly confident. Their lack of empathy may allow them to actually enjoy inflicting pain on others. They want to dominate and control the victim. The bully may have been exposed to many of these traits in their home environment and may be a result of how they have been treated. The bully may at one time been bullied themselves and have made a decision not to let that happen again and in turn they become the aggressor (Önfer & Yurtal 827). Learned behavior turned against the victim.
The focus on my bullying prevention program will include grades K-8 in all schools in the state of Massachusetts. With an open-ended budget the plan would employ a dynamic team of professionals that would assess schools with the highest rate of bullying and attack those problem areas first. The team would do sight visits to speak with the superintendent of schools and their teams and conduct interviews to determine the specific types of bullying that has occurred and the number of incidents. Upon completion of a statewide assessment, the team would go on to create a very comprehensive mission statement and an anti-bullying policy so that each school can establish a solid bullying reporting system. The policy would establish a zero-tolerance for bullying. The establishment of the mission statement would create a safe school environment for all students, promote tolerance and respect for all students, and reinforce positive interactions and inclusiveness within the student body. The anti-bullying policy would include the education of students assisting them in recognizing what bullying is and giving them the tools and positive reinforcement to help them deal with being bullied. It would also address the person that does the bullying by providing them with positive reinforcement and attempting to determine a cause of their actions.
Another aspect that needs to be addressed in the education of students is to make all students aware that they cannot be bystanders when they hear or see bullying occur. They should not provide an audience for the person that is bullying a victim by cheering them on. They need to feel comfortable to report the altercation when they either see or hear about bullying. Education and positive reinforcement by the school system would be a major factor in helping preventing bullying.
Most importantly the program should include periodic training and educational programs for those that work with the students everyday and that interact with them on a variety of levels. The teachers, school staff, the bus drivers, as well as all monitors need to be aware of the mission statement, the anti-bullying policies, and provided with skills to recognize and intervene when they feel that bullying may possibly occur or actually has occurred. With an open-ended budget, ideally there would be a sufficient amount of school psychologists available to both students and staff to assist them when necessary.
In an effort to bring education and awareness to the students, the program will start in kindergarten by including in the curriculum stories or poems or art that would begin on a lower level to bring awareness of what bullying is and to slowly teach the youngest of children to feel comfortable to talk to their teachers or parents when they think there might be a problem. As the children go on to the higher grades the curriculum should be inclusive within a variety of subjects such as U.S. History, illuminating the abuse of power, the characteristics of historical events that include bullies, current events that may provide discussion material within the classroom about an event that may have been viewed on television where bullying has taken place. Teachers play an important role in setting the classroom climate. By providing professional development learning communities for teachers and all staff members on a constant basis in both the educational aspect and social learning aspect through a multifaceted approach that is inclusive throughout the school system from grades K-8 (Veenstra et al 1137). No child will be exempt or excluded from this all-inclusive program at any time. This will capture the youngest of students by layering in the program at each age appropriate level right up to and including grade 8. This will provide a strong foundation to go forward with awareness and power to help stop bullying. Another way to assist any at risk children would be to create a “buddy system” where a more well-adjusted and socially competent peer would help a less socially and emotionally competent child develop skills to protect them from victimization by a bully (Arsenio 13).
An important and sometimes overlooked factor in bullying prevention is the interaction, awareness, and education of the parents/guardians of both the student that is the bully and the student that has been bullied. In order for a bullying program to be successful it is absolutely necessary that the parents are apart of the program because the school alone is not enough. Without the parents the process would, more than likely, be unsuccessful. Parents should be fully informed of what bullying is and then they should be made aware of the warning signs that may arise when their child has been bullied. Parents should be instructed to talk with their child’s teacher(s) and principal. They need to be sure to listen to their children and not just consider that the problem is “just another kid thing.” Parents should ask for details, listen carefully, and reassure the child that reporting the incident is not considered tattling. If the child is not willing to speak to the parent then they should be aware of signs and signals that may indicate their child has been bullied. For example: torn clothes, bruises, dislike of school/refusal to go to school, physical complaints, change in behavior, etc. (10 Steps to Stop and Prevent Bullying).
The ultimate goal of my anti-bullying program is to design a multifaceted, all-inclusive, approach to reducing bullying in schools. This would include a comprehensive mission statement, a detailed anti-bullying policy that can be referred to; this would include a detailed bullying reporting system so that future statistical information can be compiled and reviewed. In order for the program to be successful, the entire school system, including parents/guardians, educators, and bus drivers have to be working in unison toward the same goal of preventing bullying. To monitor the program to see its success or failure, a review of the program would be done on a semi-annual basis to determine whether the incidents of bullying have increased or decreased. At that point changes can be made to improve the process. The success of the program is based on capturing the student and educating them at the proper level starting in kindergarten and layering the social and emotional learning skills so that by grade 8 they will be more equipped to recognize and prevent bullying in the school system. Ideally, with an open-ended budget, and the semi-annual audit, detailed information for a long term empirical study would gather both qualitative and quantitative information to assist professionals in designing a program that would be beneficial to school systems throughout the state of Massachusetts.
Be Smart, Don’t Start would assist students by helping them stand up to bullying, to teach them it is unacceptable, and give them the tools and support to recognize when they are bullied they should feel secure enough to report the act and not feel any retribution. Education and services will be provided for the student who is the bully. People are not born to be a bully and there are usually extenuating circumstances that cause a child to act in an antisocial fashion. Social learning theorists view juvenile delinquency as another pattern of learned behavior that some juveniles are taught through social interaction with the family, peer groups, and other major agents of socialization (Thompson and Bynum 115). The goal of my anti-bullying program, Be Smart, Don’t Start is based on the premise that addressing bullying in schools will help prevent the bully from eventually turning to criminal activity that will lead to juvenile delinquency. The cycle needs to be broken.

October has been designated as:
National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month

References
10 Steps to Stop and Prevent Bullying. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.nea.org/home/51629.htm
Arsenio, W. (n.d.). Social and Emotional Learning and Bullying Prevention. Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://static.squarespace.com/static/513f79f9e4b05ce7b70e9673/t/5367958ee4b0dbc1364dbb7b/1399297422536/3_SEL_and_Bullying_Prevention_2009.pdf
Bullying Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics.html
Featured Topic: Bullying Research. (2014, October 22). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/bullyingresearch/
Johnson, C. (n.d.). Bullying Prevention: A Guide for School Personnel and Parents. Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/82/general_brochure_web_11-4-11a.pdf

Önfer, F. C., & Yurtal, F. (2008). An Investigation of the Family Characteristics of Bullies, Victims, and Positively Behaving Adolescents. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 8(3), 821-832
Thompson, W., & Bynum, J. (2010). Sociological Explanations of Juvenile Delinquency. In Juvenile delinquency: A sociological approach (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Huitsing, G., Sainio, M., & Salmivalli, C. (2014). The role of teachers in bullying: The relation between antibullying attitudes, efficacy, and efforts to reduce bullying. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 106(4), 1135-1143. doi:10.1037/a0036110

References: 10 Steps to Stop and Prevent Bullying. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.nea.org/home/51629.htm Arsenio, W. (n.d.). Social and Emotional Learning and Bullying Prevention. Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://static.squarespace.com/static/513f79f9e4b05ce7b70e9673/t/5367958ee4b0dbc1364dbb7b/1399297422536/3_SEL_and_Bullying_Prevention_2009.pdf Bullying Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics.html Featured Topic: Bullying Research. (2014, October 22). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/bullyingresearch/ Johnson, C. (n.d.). Bullying Prevention: A Guide for School Personnel and Parents. Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/82/general_brochure_web_11-4-11a.pdf Önfer, F. C., & Yurtal, F. (2008). An Investigation of the Family Characteristics of Bullies, Victims, and Positively Behaving Adolescents. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 8(3), 821-832 Thompson, W., & Bynum, J. (2010). Sociological Explanations of Juvenile Delinquency. In Juvenile delinquency: A sociological approach (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Huitsing, G., Sainio, M., & Salmivalli, C. (2014). The role of teachers in bullying: The relation between antibullying attitudes, efficacy, and efforts to reduce bullying. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 106(4), 1135-1143. doi:10.1037/a0036110