The first, most enduring responsibility of any society is to ensure the health and well being of its children. Every citizen must assume a measure of responsibility for helping to reduce and prevent youth violence. Information is a powerful tool. Intervention strategies exist today that can be tailored to meet the needs of youth at every stage of development, from young childhood to late adolescence.
I hope that our school administrators and community leaders as well as parents, students, teachers and bus drivers will be able to use this information as a starting palace, to help stop the bullying and violence in our schools.
Bullying is not a rite of passage that must be endured. Bullying is a key health and safety issue that can be a critical barrier to student success. Parents and educators need to work together to ensure quality education for every child. We must not tolerate bullying in our schools. Bullying is a behavior that our schools must address because it harms victims, bystanders, and the bullies themselves.
Bullying has a detrimental effect on all students. It negatively impacts the social, physical, psychological, and academic atmosphere of our schools. It interferes with students’ connections with school, their engagement with the curriculum, and their overall ability to learn. Bullying prevention is critical to building a school environment that supports academic achievement and makes students feel safe at all times.
Research from the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education on 37 school shootings, including Columbine, found that almost three-quarters of student shooters felt bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others. In fact, several shooters reported experiencing long-term and severe bullying and harassment from their peers. Therefore, it is extreme negligence, for a school to not assist students in conflict resolution regarding bullying and violence.
The most effective strategies to stop bullying involve the entire school as a community to change the climate of the school and the norms of behavior. In order to accomplish this, input is needed from educators, parents, students, health and mental health professionals and the community.
Many psychologists agree that to have an effective bullying-prevention and intervention program, they need to understand that a child's tendency toward bullying is influenced by individual, familial and environmental factors. Many principals are looking at alternatives to having children sit in rooms by themselves as punishment for misbehaving. This form of detention removes the student from the learning process and doesn't address the root of the behavior that landed him in detention in the first place. A more productive approach is to have the troublemaker see a counselor.
Programs that teach conflict resolution, anti-bullying, anger management and emotional intelligence will fundamentally improve school safety. There should be no tolerance for serious infractions, but there should be a range of interventions available for behavior problems. A young person needs to learn how to use social-skills to respond to difficult situations rather than an aggressive response. When a student experiences some success using these skills approaches to deal with conflict, the student usually becomes motivated to learn more.
The above is an adaptation from the 2002 American Psychological Association.
The best way to combat bullying is having a school community where the message is clear: Bullying simply is not tolerated. Teachers, students and administrators are all very aware of the policy. If an incident occurs, the teachers respond immediately. The students know that the behavior is unacceptable, that there are trusted adults they can confide in and that there will be consequences that bring resolution. Comprehensive school and community-based interventions hold the greatest potential for preventing bullying and violence. Programs involving family, school, and community are most effective in minimizing factors that contribute to serious violence.
K12 Associates in Madison, Wis., have surveyed and continue to study 20,000 public school students- as well as teachers, parents and administrators- on issues including the prevalence and incidence of bullying, teasing, locations of bullying, school climate and respect for diversity. After survey data are entered and analyzed, reports are given to individual schools so that they can design prevention and intervention programs based on their own data.
President Clinton, in response to a school shooting, asked the government to produce a guide for schools and parents on how to prevent school violence. As a result, two comprehensive guides were published:
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list...tss.html?exp=0
Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide
http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety...ide/index.html this guide emphasizes early intervention and prevention, and the importance of teamwork among educators, mental health professionals, parents, and students. According to this publication, a safe school will have three major components:
· A school-wide foundation for the well-being and success of all students
· A system for identifying students with acute behavior problems
· A system for providing interventions and therapies for at-risk students
Below are some of the warning signs that a student may pose a threat. If you observe any of these indicators in a student, it is recommended that you report your concerns to school staff. Helping the child, and the entire school community, should be the paramount concern.
However, many students and parents currently feel that reporting their concerns brings no results or that after some form of discipline for the bully; the victim is victimized further as a direct result of “squealing.” Several children have expressed that when they report a problem or concern during recess, either nothing is done or the bully is made to stand at the wall. This has been causing the bullying and violence to continue and/or escalate at the following recesses. This needs to change immediately. Students need to feel empowered by a consistent course of action for bullying and violent behavior. This will assist in ceasing those behaviors rather than contributing to further retaliation.
On May 10, 2007, a parent who was at their child’s school witnessed a physical fight between several boys on the playground. She alerted staff. She requested that someone do something. No adult stepped in to stop it. When she left, the fight was still going on. This is unacceptable and irresponsible. As parents, we entrust our children to your care.
A potentially violent student usually exhibits more than one of the following behaviors:
Early warning signs
· Difficulty eating or sleeping
· Abuse of animals
· Unusual attraction to violent entertainment
· Withdrawal from social interaction
· Feelings of rejection and/or persecution
· Unusually intense or frequent violent content in personal writings or artwork
· A pattern of bullying
· Intolerance or prejudice against certain groups of people
· Drug or alcohol abuse
· Membership in a gang
· Threats of serious violence
· Imminent warning signs
Imminent warning signs require immediate intervention and may include:
· Physical fighting with others
· Destruction of property
· Intense anger for minor reasons
· Detailed threats of violence
· Possession of weapons
· Threats of suicide
Web Sites That Offer Resources for Parents and Educators
School and Community Interventions What Works -What You Can Do in Your Community
http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/jjbu.../contents.html
Center for the Prevention of School Violence
http://www.ncdjjdp.org/cpsv/ this web site provides a myriad of information on school violence.
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
http://cecp.air.org/school_violence.asp
This organization exists to support collaboration among the various levels of government in order to help children with emotional disturbances. They have a special section on school violence with extensive Web links.
Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence
http://www.hamfish.org/ this site provides information, research, and support to make schools safer for high achievement.
U.S. Department of Justice
http://www.usdoj.gov/whatwedo/whatwedo_pyv.html This site offers a resource page with information and downloadable guides and programs.
Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/librar...ce/report.html
The preceding is a compilation from many sources, including those listed and cited above. The addition of a few individual experiences, ideas and suggestions has been included. You may reproduce this for distribution to friends, neighbors, co-workers, local officials, etc.
Many people who have been victims of or involved with school shootings, including their families and communities always ask, "Why? How could this happen?" Now, you know why and how this happens. Don't fool yourself into believing that this only happens in other schools or to other people. It's up to us to make a difference in our community.
From K-12 my sister and I underwent a grueling schooling career. At one point we were begging our parents to be educated through Home Schooling. :cry: For 12 years we hated our classmates except for a few loyal friends, then the day we had been waiting for so long happened...Graduation. I remember it like yesterday...while everyone was crying, my sister and I were laughing. We were FREE of bullies. :P 
