At my childrens’ elementary school, they implement an anti-bullying program. From the time my boys stepped foot onto that campus, at the ripe age of 4, my boys were taught we do not bully. Young children need to be taught that being kind is always superior than being the villain. The earlier young children are taught that bullying is wrong and cruel, the more effective the intervention will be in the long-run.
These days, bullying has become a matter of life and death. This topic hits home for me because a family friend lost her son to a bully. He was only ten years old when he hung himself in his room. He was being bullied at school and did not tell anyone about it. His mother had no idea nor did the rest of his family. Had they have known, I am sure that sweet boy would still be here with us today. If only school staff could have said something to make mom aware that there were issues going on at school.
Teachers and other school staff are aware when a child is being bullied. They need better training on what to do and who to notify. Many times these bullied kids go ignored. Teachers can see and hear when students are being bullied. Teachers need to intervene but I have seen several look the other way. The main focus of the teacher is not the child being verbally abused in the middle of class. Their main focus is teaching the lessons to their students. They are not adequately trained how to help a student with their mental health.
Educators are trained to listen to the victims but they do not know how to proceed from there. There are social workers are psychologists on campus to further assist with these types of issues. Educators mainly use avoidance strategies to maintain the class lesson and avoid as much disruption as possible. Avoidance strategies use “cognitive or behavioral distraction or withdrawal” (Gruman et al, 2016). I have experienced with my own eyes, middle schoolers being viciously bullied and teachers simply telling the victim to ignore it. How does the problem of bullying go away if we just ignore it?
References
Limber, S.P. (2004) Implementation of the Olweus bullying prevention program in American schools: Lessons learned from the field. Bullying in American schools: a social-ecological perspective on prevention and intervention. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ch. 17. pp. 351-363.
Agatston, P. W. et al. Students’ Perspectives on Cyber Bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6, Supplement 1). Dec. 2007. pp. S59-S60.
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology : Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.