No MOre Bullying

Bullying and Sexual Harassment Prevention/Intervention Program

Who should attend?
A four to eight person school team interested in leading the work in their school building should attend. The team could include teachers, counselors, principals, support staff, parents, community leaders, school resource officers, social workers, bus drivers, school board members and/or students. The inclusion of an administrator on the team is encouraged.

Purpose:
No “MO" Bullying was created because Missouri NEA members want to dramatically reduce 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.

Is bullying a problem in your school?
Conduct a student survey using the instructions and survey questions below.

If you are a classroom teacher, this assignment should be easy to complete. If you do not have your own classroom, ask a teacher or two in your school if you can have some time with their class to complete this survey. The activity need not take more than 15-20 minutes. You should not do a school wide survey until your school has begun a plan to deal with survey results.

You may want to have a face-to-face discussion with the class and record the answers they give you on chart paper. Or, you may duplicate the questions on a sheet of paper and have the class fill it out. In this instance it is IMPORTANT to follow up with a brief discussion with the class. The trainers have found that workshop participants have been moved by the answers they receive in a face-to-face discussion with a class of students. In addition, the students learn something from listening to each other. However, you should avoid making promises of dramatic improvements or immediate changes. Your goal now is to listen. You will need to involve others before you will be able to effect real change.

Student Survey Questions

1. What is a bully?
2. Why do some people bully others?
3. How do people feel when they are bullied?
4. What can you do to stop a bully?
5. What is sexual harassment? (for appropriate ages)

What happens at the workshop?
School teams attending a No MOre Bullying two-day in-depth workshop will leave with knowledge, activities and a customized plan to begin implementing a school-based program to reduce bullying and sexual harassment. Team members will be engaged as they participate in activities they can use with staff, students, parents, and the community when they return to their school. Each participant receives a resource notebook and one of three curriculum books.

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