No MOre Bullying

Bullying and Sexual Harassment Prevention/Intervention Program

Register online (coming soon)

Who should attend?
Teachers, principals, support staff, parents, counselors, community leaders, school resource officers, social workers and students can be members of a school team. Teams are encouraged to include administrators.

Purpose:
It is Missouri NEA’s goal, in launching No “MO" Bullying, to reduce, and eventually eradicate, bullying in Missouri’s schools. Convincing research indicates this goal can best be achieved by fostering the active involvement of teachers, administrators, school support personnel, parents and the community. To accomplish this goal, we are offering in-depth two-day seminars for school-based teams. These seminars will equip the team with the skills and information required to initiate a whole school campaign to change the school culture.

Objective

• To increase awareness of the bullying and sexual harassment problem.
• To learn some prevention and intervention strategies for bullying and sexual harassment.
• To become familiar with resources for creating and maintaining a school-wide campaign against bullying and sexual harassment.
• To begin developing an action plan for creating anti-bullying and anti-sexual harassment school-wide programs.

The damage this problem causes …
Bullying –Systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt and/or psychological distress on one or more students.

However it is defined, bullying is not just child’s play, but a terrifying experience many American school children face everyday. It can be as direct as teasing, hitting or threatening, or indirect as in exclusion, rumors or manipulation. During the past decade, bullying has become more lethal and has occurred more frequently than it had in the previous two decades. In our quest to provide the quality education that America’s children deserve, this problem can no longer be treated lightly. NEA’s National Bullying Awareness Campaign is designed to assist communities in developing solutions that will eradicate bullying from America’s public schools.

Bullying can no longer be explained away, as some adults are inclined to do, as a normal part of growing up. Bullying has only harmful effects on the target, the perpetrator, and even the bystander. Many children in our nation’s schools are robbed of their opportunity to learn because they are bullied and victimized daily. Bullying exacts a terrible toll on children, and the scars can last a lifetime.

Damage to the target
Students who are targets of repeated bullying behavior can, and often do, experience extreme fear and stress:

• Fear of going to school
• Fear of using the school bathroom
• Fear of the bus ride to and from school
• Physical symptoms of illness
• Diminished ability to learn

Damage to the perpetrator
If bullying behaviors are allowed to continue, they can escalate into even more serious behavior, such as sexual harassment or criminal activity in higher grades and in adulthood.

• Boys identified as bullies in grades six to nine had one criminal conviction by age twenty-four, according to one study.
• Forty percent of those identified had three or more arrests by age thirty.
• Bullies, one study shows, are at even greater risk of suicide than their targets.
• Bullies often grow up to perpetuate family violence.

Damage to bystander
Bystanders can be deeply affected:

• Feeling anger and helplessness for not knowing what to do
• Nightmare about being next target
• Guilt for not taking action
• Fear of certain areas of school

For more information, contact the Teaching and Learning Secretary at (800) 392-0236