- Bullying among children is aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength.
- Bullying can seriously affect the emotional, physical, and academic well-being of children who are bullied.
- Dealing with discipline problems related to bullying incidents can take a good deal of administrators’ and educators’ time during a school day.
- Bullying can contribute to a negative climate in schools.
- Bullying is more prevalent than many adults suspect.
Everyone in the school environment will benefit from implementation of an effective bullying prevention program.
Before implementing any efforts to address bullying or other violence at school, keep in mind that
- Effective programs require strong administrative leadership and ongoing commitment on the part of the adults in the school system.
- Those programs that show the most promise are comprehensive in approach. They involve the entire school community, including families, and can take the forms of school-wide interventions, classroom activities, and individual interventions.
- Bullying prevention efforts should begin early–as children transition into kind–and continue throughout the children’s education.
- Effective bullying prevention programs should have no “end date” but should instead become part of the life of your school. Ongoing staff development is important to sustain bullying prevention programs.
Source: U.S Department of Health and Human Services