Diverse Learners CoP:

Preventing and Responding to Bullying in Your School

Facilitator: Donna LupatkinGuest: Leslie F. Hergert, Ed. D.

Education Development Center, Inc.Date: February 23, 2009

Source Material

Definitions in this presentation are taken from the following Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) publication written by Leslie F. Hergert & Christine Blaber (project directors):

MetLife Foundation Read for Health Program: Taking Action to Stop Bullying.

Agenda

• Welcome and Introductions

• Defining Bullying

• Scope of the Problem in Schools

• Roles in Bullying Situations

• Schools Responding to Bullying

• Resources

• Next Steps

• Future Calls

Meet Leslie Hergert

About Leslie

Dr. Leslie F. Hergert is the co-developer of Taking Action to Stop Bullying, a middle-grades curriculum that teaches skills in both positive decision making and literacy. She also served as Contributing Editor of a special issue on Bullying in the School Community of the journal Health in Action. She has presented workshops on the topic at several national conferences. A specialist on middle grades reform and school transformation, Dr. Hergert has developed and led school change programs and taught graduate courses in educational leadership and action research.

Goals

– Describe the nature and scope of bullying in schools and the roles of people involved

– Understand the school’s responsibility to respond and identify strategies for reducing and responding to bullying

– Reflect on information for my school and take away at least one idea to try

Defining Bullying

Bullying is deliberately aggressive or hurtful behavior toward another person that is repeated over time.

Examples of Bullying

Bullying can include:– Pushing, hitting, kicking, hitting, tripping– Name-calling, taunts, and threats– Saying things to hurt someone’s feelings– Excluding someone– Spreading nasty rumors about someone– Cyber-bullying, sending hurtful messages or

images over the Internet

Scope of the Problem

From the NICHD study (Nansel et al., 2001) of 15,686 U.S. students in grades 6-10:

– Bullying occurs most commonly in grades 6 to 8.

– 19% of students report sometimes or frequently bullying others.

– 17% report being bullied sometimes or frequently.

– 8-9% are bullied one or more times a week.

• 70% of middle-grades students are not regularly involved, either as aggressors or targets.

• Physical and verbal bullying are most common among boys.

• Verbal aggression (taunting, spreading rumors, social isolation) is most common among girls.

Scope of the Problem

Discussion Question

Everything you always wanted to ask regarding what “counts” as bullying-now is your opportunity!

• Children in kindergarden are lacking social skills so they tease. Is this considered bullying?

• Parents of children with special needs often note that their children are perceived as bullies instead of being bullied. Why?

• Do schools have policies around bullying; e.g., zero tolerance for bullying. – Leslie: Not recommended by the field. It can get too complicated to

enforce. You might prefer more individualized responses to a behavior.

• What are the boundaries of bullying? – Leslie: Sometimes it might just be annoying behavior. This might reveal

the need to focus on social skills.

Roles in Bullying Situations

• Aggressor: Intentionally acts aggressively or hurtfully toward another person & repeats behavior over time

• Target: Is physically attacked, excluded, or made fun of by aggressor

• Bystander: Is nearby during a bullying situation. Can make the situation worse or better.

Who are the Aggressors?

• They tend to be impulsive; need to dominate; believe that aggression is best solution to conflict.

• They have poorer academic achievement than other students.

• 60% of boys who bullied in grades 6-9 have court conviction by age 24 (Olweus).

• Bullying interferes with the aggressor’s learning and friendships.

Who are the Targets?

Targets tend to:• be more anxious, insecure, and sensitive than other

students.

• often react to bullying by crying and/or withdrawing.

• report greater loneliness, more difficulty making friends than classmates.

• by their 20s, be more depressed and have lower self-esteem than others (Olweus)

Bystanders

• In 88% of bullying situations, bystander peers are present (Hawkins, et al.)

• Bystanders intervened only 19% of time.

• They often don’t know what to do or say.

• They may be fearful of becoming victimized.

Discussion

Have you seen examples of bystanders making bullying worse, or better?– Rivka: I have seen both in operation. I modify a published

curriculum for use in my day school.– Rivka: What about using the term “target” instead of “victim?”– Howie: We use the BRAVE program, with adaptations.

I would be happy to speak with others about this. I will publish my contact information on Google Groups.

– Leslie: We don’t ask a child who is a target to change his or her behavior because he or she is at fault. Rather, we find ways to empower the child to react differently in the bullying situations. We try to counter balance how we address the problem from the point of view of the target and the aggressor.

Schools’ Responses

• Students report school staff rarely intervene (Craig et al.).

• Bullying often happens out of view of staff. Targets and bystanders often don’t tell adults.

• Some adults tell targets to “fight back.”

Young people need adults to correct

the power imbalance of bullying!

How Bullying Affects the School

• Bullying increases students’ anxiety and fear.

• Bullying hinders learning.

• Bullying interferes with children’s social and emotional development.

Olweus: “No student should have to be afraid of going to school for fear of being harassed or degraded.”

Discussion Points

What three core values or behavioral expectations would you identify for your school having to do with bullying?

Participant: We teach the children that we are responsible for one another.

• Derech Eretz—respect for others. We have the student body sign a “covenant” that they need to abide by.

• Being a mensch—treat others the way you want to be treated—always treat others with respect.

• B’Zelem Elokim: We are all created in the image of God.

Discussion

How does teaching at a Jewish Day School influence these core values or expectations surrounding this issue?

– We can use Jewish texts to support these teachings. It gives credibility to the blueprint for how people get along with one another.

– We use shared texts and shared values across the school curriculum and population.

– It is integrated within both the secular and Torah values parts of our curriculum.

– It can be integrated with other subjects; e.g., literature. It can articulate the core values about how we live together and treat others.

– Leslie: Lots of children and young adult literature have bullying as a core theme.

Comprehensive, Schoolwide Approach to Bullying Prevention

• Leadership

• Policy

• Schoolwide survey

• Faculty training and study groups

• Schoolwide rules, with clear and fair consequences

• Coordinated student supervision (student leadership teams)

• Parent education and support

Discussion

What outcomes would you want to achieve?– Students can learn to tell aggressors to “stop.”– Students can learn that they can self-advocate.– We can create a culture where students have a

sense of group responsibility.

Discussion

What types of bullying strategies can help you meet those outcomes?

– Teach explicit social skills. We can use a ‘game-like’ approach, a lesson, to teach students how to use words to tell others to stop.

– Practice with students. We can use realistic scenarios and teach assertive language.

Cyber Bullying

What about the issue of cyber bullying?• For information, try to Google Nancy Willard • Teach children that text and pictures become a

permanent document in cyber space. Discuss the implications for this permanence.

• Educate parents about Internet safety. Just because children are alone in their house (or room) does not mean that they are safe when they are online.

• Some students think that email is different from saying something to someone’s face.

Resources and Contact Information

• MetLife Foundation Read for Health Program: Taking Action to Stop Bullying

www.thtm.org

• Stop Bullying Now! Campaignwww.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov

• Project on Teasing and Bullyingwww.wcwonline.org/bullying

• Olweus Bullying Prevention Programwww.clemson.edu/olweus

PEJE wishes to thank Hidden Sparks for their generous

support of our CoP