Maine’s Best Practices in Bullying

and Harassment Prevention

A Guide for Schools and Communities

 

Maine Children’s Cabinet

“Working Together for Maine Children and Families”

170 State House Station

Augusta, Maine 04333-0170
Phone: 287-4349 Fax: 287-7233

 

Dear Superintendent, Principal, Guidance Counselor, Teacher, Parent, Community Member, and Youth:

 

This Best Practice Guide to Bullying and Harassment Prevention was developed in response to LD564 and with the leadership and insights of Representative Carol Grose.

 

“An Act to Amend the Student Code of Conduct”

 

Sec. 3. 20-A MRSA §1001, sub-§15, ¶H is enacted to read: H. Establish policies and procedures to address bullying, harassment and sexual harassment.

 

Pursuant to the request of the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet’s Ad Hoc School and Community Climate Committee was charged with implementing the work defined under this comprehensive legislation.

 

This Guide is directly linked to Maine School Management Association’s Sample Policy and reflects the legal content related to Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, section 1001, subsection 15 (Attached in Appendices).

The Climate Design Team for LD564 (Biographies listed in Appendices) donated their expertise and time over the past 12 months to bring Maine schools and communities this Guide offering specific, effective training and implementation strategies to assist Maine schools and communities in reducing bullying and harassment and its lasting trauma, thereby improving the academic, social, physical and emotional lives of Maine youth, while reducing school liability.

 

In addition, LD564 directs the Children’s Cabinet to provide initial workshop opportunities to better understand the key elements of effective bullying and harassment prevention and intervention outlined in this Guide.

 

Finally, the Department of Education will offer a free-online web-based tool starting in September 2006 and which includes the Guide, additional resources and training opportunities to support your work to reduce bullying and harassment in your community and schools.

 

Table of Contents

1 Overview: School Climate and School Culture 1 Through the Students’ Eyes ... 1

Climate ..................................................................................................... 2

Culture ..................................................................................................... 2

How Adults Respond ............................................................................... 3

Adults As Bullies ...................................................................................... 3

Consider Relationships .............................................................................. 4

Community Impact .................................................................................... 4

Policy At Large ......................................................................................... 4

2             Creating the Infrastructure for Best Practices Bullying and

Harrassment Prevention 6 Review and/or Enhance Polices .......................... 6

Assess the Climate of Your School or Organization ...................................... 6

Committee Logistics/Functioning................................................................ 7

Development of Rules/Sanctions/Positive Supports .................................... 7

Supervision Plan ....................................................................................... 8

Training and Professional Development ...................................................... 8

Implement Classroom Meetings ................................................................. 9

StaTh Discussion Groups .......................................................................... 9

Evaluation ................................................................................................ 9

3 Creating Safe, Fair, and Responsive Schools 10 Helping Youth Change Aggressive Behaviors  12 What’s the DiTherence Between Teasing, Bullying, and

Harrassment .......................................................................................... 16

Youth as Bully Prevention Leaders ........................................................... 17

4 Teacher to Parent Communication                                                                                                   19

5 Guidelines for EThective Discussions About Bullying 22 What Does Work?..... 24

What Actions can Bystanders Take? ....................................................... 24

What are Those Other Strategies? ............................................................ 25

How do We Help Bystanders Become Active? ........................................ 26

6 Appendices 36 Maine School Management Association Sample Policy . . . . 36 Reference List for LD564        41

Books, Articles ...................................................................................... 41

Curricular Materials ................................................................................ 44

Websites, DVD/Curriculum, On-line Resources ......................................... 45

LD564 Best Practice Guide Design Team .................................................. 48

Survey Tools ......................................................................................... 52

School climate is the key factor that determines whether young people will be bullied or not. After an overview of school climate and culture, we will present specific interventions to create a school climate that fosters positive school culture and encourages respect for all.

In the first few minutes of entering any school, you will develop a “feel” for the school. What you see on the walls will influence your feeling.

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·    Are there displays of student work, pro-social slogans pasted everywhere, posters announcing upcoming community-building events?

Or are the walls devoid of student work and instead there is a poster with 15 rules of

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conduct displayed?

Do each begin with the word, “Don’t”?

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·    How you are greeted (or not) by students and adults in the hallway impacts your “feel” for the school.

Are they helpful and interested in whom you are and how to help you get where you

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want?

Or do they walk by trying not to make eye contact?

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This “feel” you develop is indicative of the school climate. Through the Students’ Eyes

A new student on his first day of classes walks into his homeroom, looks across the aisle and says to another student, “What’s this place like?” The other student proceeds to tell the new student who the nice teachers are, who the mean teachers are, areas of the school to avoid, which cliques are in power, what events are fun to attend, and what the sports program is like. He is describing the school culture to an outsider.

The strongest inThuence on how young people treat each other is the culture of the school.

School climate and school culture are two distinct but highly interrelated and interactive dimensions of school life.

Climate

School climate is created by the attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms that underlie the instructional practices, the level of academic achievement and the operation of a school. School climate is driven by how well and how fairly the adults in a school create, implement, model and enforce these attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms.

 

Climate is largely created by the adults in a school and has been
described as the “feel” of a school’s general atmosphere.

 

In schools with strong school climate the adults model behaviors that strengthen climate, such as learning student names and greeting them by name.

 

Adults showing a genuine concern for individual students and consistently reinforcing them positively and responding to negative behaviors in a respectful manner also strengthens the climate.

Culture

The product of good school climate is a strong school culture. School culture is “the way we do that here”. The “that” can reflect any attitude, belief, value, norm, procedure or routine including “how we do relationships at this school”. In a school with strong culture any staff or student will be able to explain and demonstrate “how we do that here”.

 

Culture and climate are aspects of an interactive system, in that changes in one produce changes in the other. For example, two schools can have the same stated rules, values and norms. However, the school cultures may be very different because of how the adults in these schools enact those rules, values, and norms. If, in one school, adults demonstrate that all students are valued and academic expectations are high, and the other school demonstrates a lack of caring and concern for some students, the school cultures will differ tremendously and have different effects on the respective school climates.

 

School culture feeds back to climate and climate to culture.
Climate is established by the actions of the adults and sets the
“tone or feel” of the school. Culture is how students and staTh
behave in the context of the climate created by the adults.

How Adults Respond

One example of how this is played out in many schools has to do with harassment. All schools have a policy forbidding sexual harassment by students. If a student reports harassment to one adult at school they may get a wide variety of responses from the adult including being told to, “Ignore it”, or “Tell them to stop”, or worse, “Boys will be boys”. Or, if they report to another adult they may get a swift, direct response including intervention with the perpetrator and protection for the victim from further abuse. Inconsistency or lack of staff response creates a climate of uncertainty and undermines trust between students and staff. This message is instilled in the school culture. Undermining trust affects the culture by creating a less dependable environment and less trust between students and staff.

 

Another example that is all too common in middle schools and high schools is differential behavior on the part of staff toward different subgroups or cliques of students. This is often exemplified by permissiveness on the part of staff toward athletes or other “preferred” students and lack of tolerance and rigid adherence to the “letter of the law” with less “valued” students.

 

This unfair treatment does not go unnoticed by students and

has a powerful detrimental eThect on school culture. It reinforces the belief that some students are more valued and privileged than others and its okay to treat less valued students unfairly.

 

As damaging to school climate as these examples are there is another adult behavior that is worse. That behavior is to not respond to obvious aggression. Whenever an adult in school walks past an obvious act of verbal or physical aggression and does not respond, three very clear messages are sent into the school environment. First, the targeted student is devalued as someone who does not deserve the protection of the adult. Second, the aggressor is given tacit approval by the unresponsive adult thereby empowering the aggressor even more. Third, any bystanders or witnesses to the event are made to feel that school is unsafe because the adults allow aggression and don’t protect the students. This lack of response on the part of adults destroys a positive school culture.

Adults As Bullies

The only thing worse than an unresponsive adult is a bullying adult. Adults bullying students is defined as a pattern of conduct, rooted in a power differential, that threatens, harms, humiliates, induces fear, or causes students substantial emotional distress.

 

Adults modeling this kind of behavior in school
create a climate of fear and disrespect.

It takes a whole school commitment to a set of common values, with a persistently vigilant and proactive staff, to prevent these dynamics from developing in the school climate or to correct them if they already exist.

Consider Relationships

At the heart of school culture are the relationships that exist in three specific domains: staff to staff, staff to student and student to student.

 

The nature and quality of these relationships deThnes the school culture and signiThcantly impacts school climate.

 

If any of these relationship domains are dysfunctional or negatively compromised by climatic issues, the impact reverberates throughout the entire culture of the school, negatively affecting the school climate. This negative cycle is self-perpetuating and requires proactive staff involvement to correct.

Community Impact

This process does not operate in a vacuum. It is part of a larger system that is impacted by (among other things) community norms, values, attitudes and beliefs. Community impact on school climate and culture cannot be left out of this equation.

 

When a community demonstrates that it values students and education, it can have a very positive effect on climate and culture in the school.

 

Likewise, when community values and norms differ from those of the adults in the building it creates dynamics that make it harder to produce a positive school climate.

 

Effective schools exert positive influences on student behavior despite conditions in the home, community, social status, gender, race, or ethnicity. This is the influence of positive school climate on school culture and is the responsibility of the adults. When this happens it actually has the potential to plant the seeds of cultural change back into the community because students from the school culture interact with the community culture when they are not in school.

Policy At Large

A part of the bigger picture is the influence of state and national politics on school climate and ultimately school culture. When there are legislatively imposed processes that many adults in school find intrusive and personally demeaning it affects their attitudes about working in education in negative ways. Attitudes drive behavior and in some cases may impact a person’s general demeanor and affect their relationships with other staff and students in negative ways that effect the school culture and climate simultaneously. It takes strong leadership to maintain a positive staff outlook in the face

of such impacts from outside of school.

 

It is important that we understand the interrelatedness of school climate and culture and their association to a larger system of positive and/or negative influences. None of this happens in isolation from other system dynamics. Strong school climate acts as a buffer between school culture and local, national and state cultural issues which could affect it. Just as school climate can buffer a school’s culture from negative community influences a community’s culture can protect the school climate from negative national and state influences.

 

The interrelatedness of these factors must be recognized and addressed in order to create eThective system’s interventions.

 

The rest of the material will address how to achieve a positive school climate and culture.

 

© Chuck Saufler, M.Ed., Lead Trainer, USM Bullying Prevention Education Program http://www.usm.maine.edu/law/mlce/bully.htm

In order to achieve a school or community culture in which attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms reflect and actively support academic, social, emotional and physical health and excellence thereby accomplishing the mission of the school or community organization in which youth are served, an infrastructure must be in place. Based on the research and practices of both state and national experts, the following elements should be included and executed:

Review and or Enhance Policies Strategies:

Ensure that sound school board policies are in place to address:

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Bullying

0

0 Sexual Harassment

0 Harassment, including harassment based on race, color, sex (gender), sexual

orientation, disability, religion, ancestry, or national origin

School board policy is essential to your school system’s efforts to prevent bullying. Your board is elected to govern the school unit and its schools. It accomplishes this by adopting policy that sets goals, establishes direction, provides support and emphasizes accountability.

 

Maine law does not specifically define bullying. Definitions of bullying, some developed by researchers in the field and others by state legislatures attempting to address this issue, vary in their language and scope, but they typically reflect two common themes - repeated harmful acts and an imbalance of power between bullies and their victims. Bullying may be physical, verbal or psychological. Bullying includes, but is not limited to: assault, tripping, intimidation, demands for money, destruction or theft of property, destruction of another student’s work and pervasive taunting or name calling. Some behaviors that are otherwise prohibited by law, for example, sexual harassment, are also recognized as forms of bullying.

The determination whether particular conduct constitutes bullying requires reasonable consideration of the circumstances, which include the frequency of the behavior at issue, the location in which the behavior occurs, the ages and maturity of the students

involved, the activity or context in which the conduct occurs, and the nature and severity of the conduct.

Bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are not the only considerations in developing a safe and welcoming school climate. Teachers and school administrators should be supported in their efforts to set and enforce rules for civility, courtesy and/or responsible behavior in the classroom and the school environment.

Assess the Climate of Your School or Organization Strategies:

Survey your population - There are a number of bullying and climate surveys and

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measurement tools you can access by reviewing the resource listing in this Guide/web site. In general, however, it is critical to understand the current behavioral and climate realities as perceived by both staff/adults and youth/students in order to know the impact of intentional and enhanced policy and programming efforts.

Committee Logistics/Functioning

Strategies:

Recruit and form a committee involving Administrators, Teachers, Non-Teaching

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Staff, Parents, Students, and community coalition members that reflect the full range of school community’s diversity (e.g. gender, race, religious faiths, orientation, single parent, two-parent/family, foster parents);

Schedule regular monthly meetings for the committee;

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·    Determine the logistics of future meetings of this group and the roles within the committee.

Determine how information/feedback will flow between the Coordinating

•

Committee and teachers and staff.

Development of Rules/Sanctions/Positive Supports

Strategies:

Formulate consistent and specific school rules against aggression, bullying, and

•

harassment and make them visible and available to all students and staff at the beginning of the school term;

·     Examine how rules fit in with the school’s existing behavior plan and support school’s goals;

·    Discuss ways to encourage and support positive behaviors and the positive actions of bystanders, both students and adult;

Discuss possible sanctions to use when bullying/harassment rules are violated.

Discuss general principles/criteria to use in applying sanctions to both adult and

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youth incidents based on CLEAR differentiation of: Bullying

0

Sexual Harassment

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·       Bias-based Harassment (Sexual orientation, race, disabilities, etc.) Gender

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Age

0

·      Cultural Sensitivities

•    And other aggressive behaviors Ensure Youth and Staff

1. Know the differences between bullying, sexual harassment and bias-based harassment.

2. Be aware of the gender and age as factors in the frequency of bullying at different grade levels.

3. Understand that not all aggressive or hurtful behaviors are bullying, but may still constitute unacceptable conduct in the classroom or the school environment. Supervision Plan

Strategies:

Develop a supervision plan that reflects the needs of your school- that provides

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increased supervision in locations where your school survey data indicates bullying is most prevalent. Possible locations for increased supervision might be hallways and stairwells, bus, playground, cafeteria, and in the classroom. Decide how this plan will be effectively communicated among all staff.

Training and Professional Development

Strategies:

Train staff about the roots of bullying and harassment, effective and ineffective

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interventions, the school’s policies and plan, prevention strategies, and strategies for dealing with bullying incidents.

Develop mechanisms for informing all staff (including bus drivers, cafeteria workers,

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etc., who may not be able to attend the staff training) about the Bullying/Harassment Prevention Program, updating them on activities, and soliciting their input into the school’s anti-bullying/harassment effort. (Consider working through your Coordinated School Health Team/Program).

Develop mechanisms for informing all parents about the Bullying Prevention

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Program and involving them in planning and activities.

Discuss ways of involving students in planning efforts for Bullying Prevention

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activities such as through a Gay Straight Alliance, Civil Rights Teams, Peer Leadership, etc.

Determine a means of informing all students early in the semester about the

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Bullying/Harassment Prevention Program (e.g. Consider a school assembly, grade­wide meetings, school television, etc.)

Invite experts in the field of bullying/harassment prevention, gender, cultural

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competency, hate crimes, etc. to work with both adults and youth. Use presentations that are designed to lead to action rather than just awareness.

(A list of Maine-based experts/presentations attached/linked)

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Focus on bystander actions that can make a difference rather than on programs

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that try to convince youth not to bully or that try to convince youth to stick up for themselves. Placing responsibility for making change onto the victim is unsafe and can cause further damage.

Implement Classroom Meetings

Strategies:

Implement regularly scheduled classroom discussions that relate to bullying and

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harassment and its impact on student physical and emotional safety and health.

Staff Discussion Groups

Strategies:

Implement regularly scheduled staff discussion groups to discuss issues related to

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bullying. Setting up a book study is one good structure for these discussions. Evaluation

Strategies:

Measure the Climate and student reports of bullying annually against where you

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started and make adjustments as needed based on student and adult feedback to include parents and non-teaching staff. (Note: Please see resource listing for evaluation information).

Some materials were adopted from a variety of bullying and harassment resources such as Olweus, Schools Where Everyone Belong, and research from members of the LD564 Design Team.

Students at risk for bullying include those who “don’t fit in”, such as those who are or are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning, those who differ from the majority of their classmates with regard to race, ethnicity, or religion, those who have differing social or physical abilities, and those who are economically disadvantaged.

 

Students are more likely to feel safe and connected to their schools if the school reflects their realities, if they think that they are being treated fairly, and if they believe that teachers are supportive and approachable.

 

Yet too many published bully-prevention programs do not address how cultural norms and stereotypes differently impact children’s sense of safety and fairness, feelings of connectedness to school, and teacher support or approachability. If bullying is largely about the imbalance and abuse of power, educators need to move beyond targeting student-to-student bullying and appreciate the ways in which gender, race, class, sexual identity, religion and ability position some children as more powerful and privileged in schools than others. Schools can feel especially unsafe and unsupportive when informal norms and/or formal rules unwittingly enhance the power or advantage of some children and youth over others. Since students take their cues from the adults in the school and learn how to treat one another through school norms and rules, such inequities can have a direct effect on the degree and nature of school-based bullying.

 

Schools that are safe for all students:

Have an explicit commitment to social justice and teach, both formally and

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informally, about the dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that impact all students. Such a commitment is reflected in an inclusive curriculum that teaches critical thinking, and a school environment that encourages and supports the

development of active and effective student groups that reflect this commitment, such as Civil Rights teams and Gay/Straight Alliances.

·     Appreciate the social context of bullying and how power differences between cultural and social groups give rise to bullying behavior. For example, what looks like bullying from a white middle class student may be a sign of self-defense or survival in a hostile or unfair climate from a white working class student or a student of color. The behavior needs to be addressed in both cases, but the response must consider these differences in social and cultural realities.

Offer diversity training to all school staff to increase awareness of the differing needs

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of students and appreciation of culturally different communication styles and social interactions.

Develop clear social norms and rules that respect all students and consistent

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consequences and interventions that challenge staff and student homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism.

·     Provide opportunities for students to participate in the development of such school norms and rules and offer creative strategies for helping all students think critically and to feel safe, respected, supported, and comfortable approaching an adult with problems.

Educate staff about the motivations behind different forms of bullying, distinguishing

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relational aggression (more often used by those with less power) from physical

forms of aggression, and help educators respond to indirect as well as direct forms of bullying.

Do not use bullying as a euphemism for sexism, racism, and homophobia and make

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clear distinctions between bullying and illegal sexual or gender harassment, racial harassment, criminal hazing or assault. A gender neutral re-labeling of violence and victimization in schools (bullying) can undermine the rights of students to a school environment that is gender-safe by stripping victims of powerful legal rights and remedies, particularly federal law Title IX.

·      Educate staff about the role gender plays in bullying or harassing behavior and how gendered behavior varies with social and cultural context. For example, the ways boys across all social classes feel pressure to conform to a conventional form of masculinity that includes a need to define oneself as “not gay” or the ways middle class girls feel pressed to hide their anger and aggression to conform to conventionally feminine notions of nice girls, whereas working class girls are more likely to express their anger openly and directly.

•  Offer media literacy to staff and to students at every grade level. Children learn physical violence and relational aggression, as well as every form of “ism”, from media they watch and interact with. Just as they develop critical skills for interpreting the written word, so should they develop the skills to critically interpret the 3000 media images they confront daily. Moreover, bullying among girls can be motivated by competition over media ideals of beauty and female perfection.

·      Examine (through self-study) school practices that unwittingly support unfairness, competition, and divisiveness among students, such as the uneven distribution of resources, and eliminate or alter practices that privilege some students more than others.

Social class differences are often subtly exacerbated in school functions and

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sometimes small changes can help poor and working class youth feel less vulnerable and exposed: schools that issue and publicly celebrate yearbooks should ensure that all students receive a yearbook; school functions that enlist students to raise

funds by selling products to their families and friends can eliminate public “selling contests” that underscore the haves and have-nots; special “school-wide” events tied to monetary contributions (such as special celebrations for those children who

contribute a library book), should be eliminated unless they are, in fact, subsidized and available to all students. Tracking systems, if they must exist, should be examined for the over-representation of poor or working class students or students of color.

Courageous school leadership at all levels (school board, superintendents, principals,

•

teachers, etc.) that shows a clear willingness to stand firm on behalf of fairness and justice for all students.

Copyright: Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D., 2005

Professor of Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901 Co-creator, Hardy Girls Healthy Women: www.hardygirlshealthywomen.org

Helping Youth Change Aggressive Behaviors

The word “discipline” comes from the same root as the word “disciple” and means “to teach.”

We are most likely to succeed in helping young people change their aggressive behavior when we use the principles of good teaching in our discipline interventions.

We start with the ABCs:

A. Respect young peoples’ Autonomy. We can’t make them change. We can increase the cost of their existing behavior by following through consistently with consequences. We can build supportive relationships so they want to be contributing members of the school. We can recognize their positive actions. They will choose their behavior; we can help them see they have a choice and help them find the best choices for themselves.

B. Maintain young peoples’ sense of Belonging. When we welcome youth to school each day; when we build mentoring relationships; when consequences are seen as being earned instead of being given in anger or rejection; when we avoid taking their misbehavior personally; and when we maintain positive feeling tone in the discipline process, young people are more likely take responsibility for negative behaviors and to change.

C. Teach Cause and Effect thinking and promote conscience development. We help young people see the connections between what they do and what happens to them through using predictable, transparent, consistent discipline approaches. We can use praise to help them connect their positive behavior with positive outcomes. We can help them discover the positive and negative effects of their actions on others

through observation and reflection. We can use questions instead of statements whenever possible so young people learn to think about their own goals and about their behavior.

 

The following steps help us set up effective interventions to encourage young people to change aggressive behavior.

1. Create a school bullying prevention committee to oversee efforts to reduce aggression. This group can arrange staff training, oversee the effectiveness of the program, suggest changes, and monitor the consistency of interventions.

2. Train all staff. Staff behavior is the key element in effective behavior interventions. All staff members, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, and educational technicians, serve as models for respectful behavior. Consistent staff response to aggression tells young people which behaviors are unacceptable. Consistent staff reporting is necessary to make discipline effective. Staff schoolwide should encourage students to report aggression rather than focusing on reducing ‘tattling’. And when staff avoid blaming the targets of bullying they send a clear message to bullies that they are fully responsible for their own actions.

3. Maintain positive feeling tone and strong staff-student connections. When young people know they belong and are welcomed, they are more likely to try out new behaviors and to learn from consequences. When they see all adults modeling respectful behavior, they are more likely to show respect to peers. Use a variety of mentoring strategies to build staff connections for all students. Because we help young people when we maintain optimism and the belief that young people can change, staff and administrators should avoid the use of anger as a discipline strategy. Bullying by staff and administrators should also be addressed in any intervention.

4. Address gender issues. Lyn Mikel Brown’s book Girlfighting and Michael Kimmel’s work on homophobic bullying among boys are good resources for action.

5. Use frequent descriptive praise for positive behavior. Praise is important when an aggressive young person breaks his or her pattern and acts responsibly and kindly­or even when aggression is less frequent or less intense over a period of time. Descriptive feedback (“I notice that you have been playing without fighting.”) is more effective than trait-based praise (“You’re so kind”) or I-messages (I’m so happy you are acting better.”) Praise that names the result of the improved behavior helps young people see the positive effects of their changed behavior.

6. Develop staff-wide consensus about specific rules. Unacceptable behaviors are often grouped by level, based on potential harm. For example, three categories might be: teasing and exclusion, hitting, and severe harassment and physical aggression. Except for clearly accidental behavior, focus rules on actions or words rather than intention.

Maintain one behavior standard whether the target ‘minds’ or not, or whether or not the aggressor and target are friends. Avoid the search for “who started it” and focus on the choices each student made- and on the alternative choices that were available.

7. Maintain a schoolwide reporting expectation for verbal and physical aggression. All staff report peer-to-peer aggressive behavior to one central person (often the principal or assistant principal) to emphasize the importance of this behavior and to allow for consistent administration of consequences. Note: this does not mean that other behaviors such as class disruption or failure to complete work are handled this way- these behaviors are often best handled by the teacher unless they become chronic.

8. Use a schoolwide behavior rubric - that is, a set of predictable escalating consequences - for aggression. The school outlines specific, predictable, and escalating consequences for each category of peer-to-peer aggression. Students with behavior Individual Education Plans (IEP) may have different consequences, but will have the same expectations. More severe behaviors will sometimes lead to more severe consequences, but make every effort to keep consequences predictable and consistent when possible. Within this rubric, remember that policy and law will mandate other consequences for legally defined harassment, criminal threatening, assault, and other crimes.

9. Administer consequences for aggression centrally. To ensure consistency and

to make it clear that safety is a high priority, it works best when the principal or assistant principal is the one to receive reports of peer-to-peer aggression, carry out a brief interview of aggressive youth (focused on helping the student take responsibility for the behavior and look up his or her consequence on the rubric), and investigate when necessary. The administrator sends a letter home outlining behavior, consequence, and consequence next time. Copies go to teacher and file.

10. Support reflection and development of empathy after consequences are known. During consequence time (inside recess, quiet lunch away from peers, detention, or in-school suspension), the person supervising this time can help young people to complete a reflection form in which they write about what they did, how that behavior affected the target, what goal they were trying to reach through those actions, and how else they can reach those goals in the future. This reflection is often done by several young people in parallel, on clipboards or at desks, with the person on duty moving between them the way a writing teacher will edit with one student after another. Ask open- ended questions that promote reflection (“What did you do” “What was wrong with that?” “What goal were you trying to reach?” Next time you have that goal how will you reach it without hurting anyone?”) Avoid questions like “Why did you do it?” or “How would you feel if someone did that to you?” as they may provide the youth with an opportunity to blame the target, give excuses, or trivialize the behavior.

11. Involve parents. Let parents know about both positive and negative behaviors relating to the aggressive behavior. Tell them when young people tell the truth about their own actions, when they show concern for the effects of their actions, and when they are respectful during the discipline process. Help parents find roles in the school’s intervention (for example, praise or reward at home for positive behavior) and give them credit when things change. Invite them to suggest better interventions (“What would you like us to do next time?”) rather than reacting defensively when they criticize our interventions. When there are consistent issues between parents and the school, meet with parents regularly (not just when there is a crisis) to strengthen working relationships. Involve parents in community-wide efforts to reduce cyber-bullying and limit young peoples’ exposure to violent media.

12. Involve community partners. There are many potential partners whose collaboration will help a bullying prevention effort. Working with domestic violence prevention programs and sexual assault prevention programs can be especially helpful; the United Way and other community coalitions can also help mobilize resources. Local businesses may wish to help spread the word, support programming, and sponsor special events.

13. Support peer bystanders. Encourage students to speak up in safe ways about bullying, to tell staff what they see and hear, and to befriend isolated peers. Thank and protect young people who report aggressive behavior toward themselves or toward others. Train and support a self-selected group of bystanders who want to be more effective at stopping bullying and exclusion in real-life situations.

14. Show parents, students and staff that the program is working and what they are doing to make a difference. Specific positive feedback to parents, staff and students about declining rates of aggression help them continue changes. Feedback about what they are doing to make a difference is also important.

What’s the diTherence between teasing, bullying, and harassment?

This question comes up often in my trainings. Some people working in bullying prevention emphasize the importance of making a distinction between ‘fun and friendly’ teasing and ‘hurtful’ teasing; between normal aggression and bullying; or between teasing and bullying. When we make the distinction, they say, we can advise young people not to let the normal behavior bother them, and apply consequences and increased supervision to the more serious behaviors.

 

The three criteria that most people making these distinctions
depend on, in my view, are power diTherential, intent, and impact.

 

Actions by someone who is more popular, older, or otherwise has more power are seen as more likely to be bullying. Actions that involve a clear intent to hurt are seen as bullying. And actions that are unwelcome are seen as bullying.

 

In my experience, it is quite difficult in practice to understand the power hierarchies in a classroom or a school. Another factor that makes this distinction difficult is the skill some aggressive youth have in covering up their intent to hurt. Young people who bully often describe their aggressive actions as ‘an accident’ or ‘a joke’, or say that they are ‘just teasing.’ They often assert that they did not know their actions could cause harm. To make this distinction more difficult, some targets of bullying cover up their emotional reactions for fear of being thought weak or fear of retaliation if they ‘get someone in trouble’ by telling. On the other hand, some targets of low-level normal aggression over­react to the smallest insult or push. I am convinced that we often cannot distinguish between ‘normal’ aggression and bullying with any certainty. When we make this distinction a central feature of our discipline interventions, we risk giving too much power to bullies who are skilled at hiding their intentions. We risk reinforcing the over­reactions of anxious youth by letting them define bullying as ‘anything that bothers me.’

 

School discipline interventions are most effective when they focus on actions rather than focusing on the aggressor’s intention or on the effects of the behavior, unless the action was clearly accidental. We can say: “We don’t allow those words here,” or “we don’t allow hitting,” instead of “You are bullying.” A similar idea was created in sexual harassment policies, when instead of just prohibiting behavior that was unwelcome to the target of the behavior we focused on actions that are likely to create a hostile work environment. Some words and some actions are likely to create a hostile learning environment. When we define those unacceptable actions school-wide and enforce those expectations consistently, we are more likely to be able to change behavior.

 

Harassment, on the other hand, is a clearly differentiated subcategory of bullying. It involves apparent intent, power differential, and specific content defined by law, which may be sexual, race-based, or disability- based. Depending on the evolution of state and

federal laws, other categories of bullying may be defined as harassment.

When bullying is also harassment, it is important to call it harassment because that determination provides the target with speciThc rights and the intervention with more power.

 

This diagram shows bullying as a subset of peer-to-peer aggression. We reduce bullying behavior when we use consistent, non-hostile, and slowly escalating consequences for peer-to-peer aggressive behavior that we have decided has no place at school. To be effective, any use of consequences has to function within the context of positive modeling by staff, frequent use of praise, positive feeling tone, and strong staff-student relationships. Harassment is a subset of bullying and should be treated as harassment because that identification further protects the rights of targets.

Harassment based on gender, race, ethnic origin, disability, or sexual orientation. Sexual harrassment. Other types of harassment as defined by law.

Stan Davis http://www.stopbullyingnow.com © 2006

Youth as Bully Prevention Leaders

In Maine, we honor and respect the involvement and voices of youth, as central to good policy and programming. Without significant youth involvement in the every­day infrastructure to improve youth to youth and adult to youth communication and relationships, we can never hope to positively change school and community climate.

 

Below is a list of what YOUTH can do, as active participants in creating emotionally and physically safe climate and reduced bullying and harassment.

Request training in bystander empowerment; ask your school for practical ways to

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intervene in situations where peers are being bullied or harassed.

Request diversity training to increase awareness of how gender, sexual orientation,

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race, social class and sexual identity impacts students’ experiences of school.

Join your school’s Civil Right Team or other youth leadership or social justice focused

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If your school doesn’t have one, start a Gay-Straight Alliance.

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Talk with faculty and staff about concerns you have about school climate, bullying, or

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harassment.

·     Become familiar with your school’s sexual harassment and bully-prevention policies. Request that media literacy be addressed in appropriate academic and health courses.

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·      Request student involvement in school-wide committees or plans to initiate bully­prevention efforts and programs. Ask to participate in the creation of school policies and rules designed to reduce bullying and harassing behavior.

·      Speak up when you see unfair school practices or treatment of students by school staff.

Find other students who share your concerns and brain-storm student-initiated events or social actions that address safe climate or communication across social groups. Here are some ways to educate your school community and improve the school climate for all

kids!

1. Help to create a diverse school library

2. Create safe spaces in your school

3. Produce a documentary of student life

4. Create a school climate survey

5. Brainstorm safe ways for students to speak out and feel supported 6. Start a Diversity Day

7. Initiate a school-wide forum or conference, with student speakers and diversity pan­els

8. Write editorials to your school newspaper or local city newspaper

9. Initiate educational “Theme Months” that inform students about different social groups

10. Bring in guest speakers

11. Create handouts & information boards

12. Educate your peers about school non-discrimination & anti-harassment policies

13. Organize a movie and discussion event

14. Provide outreach to middle schools

15. Create brochures that educate about cyber-bulling or sexual harassment 16. Initiate a Teach the Teachers event

Students perform better in school when teachers openly communicate with parents, when parents become actively involved in their children’s education and when a healthy school climate is maintained. Close communications with parents and strong leadership skills from the teacher can significantly improve the school climate, educational experience, and follow the students throughout their lives.

 

There are a number of ways that teachers can communicate with parents rather than relying on the scheduled parent-teacher conferences or waiting until a bullying or harassment situation occurs. Creating clear boundaries, ground rules and strong respectable relationships will foster positive and committed strategies when problems arise. Teachers and parents must create positive behaviors and clear expectations students can obtain and comprehend. The teacher-parent relationship must set a good example by following the same expectations used for the students and with the same values outlined in the school’s rules. The following guidelines will assist and facilitate positive, clear expectations for all involved while contributing to a safe school climate. These tips for communication and organization are the first steps in the prevention of behavioral issues, school climate control, bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, bias­based harassment, discrimination, age, gender and cultural sensitivities.

 

Key points to effective teacher to parent communication

Open the lines of communication: Teachers should welcome meeting their students’

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parents early in the school year. Making an effort to do this will help the teacher better understand the student and parent. Understanding the families’ dynamics positively supports the education of the student. Inform parents how you teach

and manage your classroom. Clearly and kindly set your classroom boundaries. Be tactful, flexible, clear and honest. Being respectful, honest and direct will help set the atmosphere and expectations of your parents.

Outline communication expectations: Begin the year with both an open house and

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welcome letter. Sponsor a school wide open house where everyone can meet and hear from all the departments in the school. Principal, teacher, unified arts teachers, school

organizations, bus and lunch programs. Communicate both verbally and also in a hand out that parents can refer to at a later date. Include contact information such as email address, school telephone number, address, website, key personnel, the best time for contacting and who they should contact for specific issues. Discuss and outline appropriate times and desired ways of contact. Inform parents when guest speakers like bully prevention programs are going on, encourage parents to talk to the student about the program at home. Make classroom expected behavior ongoing conversation with students and parents.

Consistent and organized communication: Supply consistent, scheduled and

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organized communication such as written, newsletters, teacher’s website or email

on a weekly basis. Clearly outline to parents and students the school and classroom expectations. Inform parents what organizations and policies are available and make them accessible. Along with frequent classroom newsletters include: Principal’s newsletter, PTO/PTA newsletters, school websites, email addresses, year at a glance, changes in the schedule, how the grading system works and school homework hotlines/websites. Parents and students need to understand how and where to get their questions answered. Lines of communication must always be practiced so when parents and students have a concern, they do not become frustrated searching for an answer or trying to understand how to communicate with the teacher. Defuse defensive behavior by clearly stating your intentions, rules and process.

·     Initial and ongoing face to face meetings and encounters: Parent-teacher conferences are often scheduled at the time of the first report card in the school year. For parents and teachers, this is a chance to talk one-on-one about the student. The parent­teacher conference is a good opportunity to review the partnership between student, parent and teacher but should not be the first and only face to face encounter especially if there are problems or issues that will take more than the fifteen minutes allotted. Beyond the open house, teachers and staff should be visible, available, and welcoming to parents and students during school visits, drop off and pick up times. For the students; teachers, staff and administration should make themselves visible in hallways, during the changing of classes, recesses, lunch and dismissal. Staff should be identifiable immediately with nametags or employee identification badges.

•  Documentation: Beyond grades, keep accurate records of handouts, parent letters and on individual student communication, such as difficult, unusual or disruptive behavior, grades, missing assignments, outstanding behaviors, telephone and written communications with parents. Address your concerns early. Listen to what your parent and students have to say about respective bullying and harassment. Partner with your principal, assistant principal, school counselor, or a respected past teacher for advice or their experience and understanding if problems arise. Let parents know of potential concerns and always balance this with the positive attributes you are observing. Parents should get more positive information than negative about their children.

•  School and Student Organizations: Participate and encourage parents to join parent­teacher organizations such as PTO, PTA and the Booster Clubs. Teachers can enhance parent communication by participating in these organizations. As all parents do not get actively involved, not all teachers need to attend. Assigning consistent

school representation is vital. In larger schools teacher representative from each class or department can be responsible for communication between the organizations members and rotate on an annual basis. Attend school sponsored events or host a classroom project designed to get parents involved. Encourage students to be involved in school activities such as Civil Rights groups and peer leadership groups. Be consistent in attendance and visible.

Volunteers and Teamwork: Depending upon parent’s availability, interests, and

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the needs of the school, the opportunities are endless. Some suggestions include: chaperones, fundraising, hall and lunchroom monitoring, tutoring, copying, library aides, classroom speaker on a specific topic of interest, organizing paper to go home, typing, and concession worker at school events. Teachers should take stock of their parents’ skills and interests to volunteer and ask the parent how they can volunteer. Spend time organizing your classroom and find task or projects that parents can do weekly. Build a team with you at the helm. The tasks are endless, teachers can focus on the students and parents feel engaged. Increase adult supervision assist in decreasing bullying and harassment.

Understanding diversity: Understand and address cultural issues in your community,

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school and classroom. Acknowledged and respected behavior should be consistently demonstrated to parents and students. Respectfully leave personal opinions out of the

school climate. This behavior will positively affect parents and students.

·     Media Impact: Encourage and educate parents on media impact. Media need not be violent or disruptive to affect the learning process for students and also their communication skills. Work with parents to encourage decreasing the time spent on video games and television with more time allocated to reading and participation in projects, whether school or community.

Resources:

Search Institute, Minneapolis, MN. www.search-institute.org -1-800-888-7828 Urban Resource Network, University of Illinois; www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/index.html PTO Today Association http://www.ptotoday.com/0802newparents.html

Regularly scheduled discussions with students are an important part of a whole-school bullying intervention. They work together with consistent staff actions against bullying to change school culture. Yet some types of student discussion will have little positive effect or may even increase rates of bullying. Some will be more effective. Here are some suggestions; I welcome your thoughts, questions, and ideas.

 

Stan Davis email: stan@stopbullyingnow.com

 

We will begin by looking at strategies that are unlikely to work.

Let’s look at the makeup of a classroom. Youth who bully and youth who are bullied are both likely to perceive the classroom- or the school- this way:

 

Many bystanders are silent in bullying situations because they think they are the only ones who object, and because they don’t have a safe and effective strategy to use. Both bullies and targets are likely see that silence as support for the bully and abandonment of the target. And if adults do not act consistently to stop bullying, our silence adds to this empowering of the bully and abandonment of the target.

 

What targets and bullies see

Target

Discussion topics and strategies that focus primarily on helping bullies understand targets’ feelings are unlikely to change bullying behavior as long as bullies experience the social reinforcements of popularity, peer support, and power over others. In some research studies, discussions with whole classrooms about what bullying is and how much it hurts have led to increases in the rate of bullying, as bullies hear about how to hurt others more successfully. A middle school student recently said that she thought bullies sitting in a presentation in which they were told that bullying is bad would be likely to ‘rebel out’ and bully more often.

 

Until adults and peer bystanders take action, discussion topics and strategies that

focus primarily on what targets of bullying should do are not likely to help. Targets of bullying may have tried many of the recommended actions already and found them ineffective. In addition, some of the strategies we have traditionally recommended may make things worse. Jane Bluestein points out in her excellent article “What’s Wrong with I-messages”(available free at http://janebluestein.com) that training targets to use I- messages can give bullies more control of them.

When targets of bullying say “I feel hurt when you call me names and I want you to stop,” she says, they are really saying “You have the power to hurt me.”

 

What if the bully welcomes that power? Like I-messages, many strategies that we suggest to targets come from the idea that targets and bullies should ‘work things out.’ Yet bullying is not two-way conflict, but an aggressive action directed from one person or group toward another with the intent of doing harm. Imagine calling the police about a robbery in progress and being told to tell the robber how you feel. Imagine being asked to mediate with the robber later. Strategies that were designed for resolving conflict between two equal parties in an argument are likely to make bullying situations worse by consolidating the bully’s power. As Dr. Susan Limber of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program says, mediation approaches are for situations in which both people have done something wrong.

 

Katherine Newman wrote in her excellent book Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. (New York: Basic Books, 2004):

 

“Efforts to focus on changing either the bullies [through telling them to be kind] or the victims are unlikely to be effective, … The desire to behave better… is a weak motivator compared to the status gains that come from teasing and harassment….Victims have no real way out of these situations [through their own actions] because their low status makes most of the recommended strategies… ineffective.” (293)

 

Summary - What doesn’t work?

Discussing bullying with students without taking action as a staff. •

·        Telling the whole student body to be kind.

·        Training the targets: “Tell them you don’t like it.” “Ignore them.” “Use an I-message.”

·        Helping students “work it out”- mediation-based approaches.

How things really are

Want bullying to stop                 vs. Want bullying to continue

Passive Role

Potential defenders

Silent supporters of
the bullying

What does work?

We begin by understanding what a classroom or school social system is really like:

The majority of students in most school social systems are potential defenders- young people who want the bullying to stop but who do not act because they are afraid of being bullied themselves. Adults are not that much different from students in this regard. Most of us have stood by helpless when we saw parents saying abusive things to their children in the grocery store or other public places. We do not always act when we hear hate speech. It is sometimes hard to know what we could do that would be safe and effective.

 

Classroom discussion strategies that focus on empowering these potential defenders can significantly reduce rates of bullying.

What actions can bystanders take?

I have talked with more than 40,000 students in grades K-12 over the past seven years. When I ask what bystanders should do, most groups of students talk about confronting the bully. They say that bystanders should go over to the bully and tell him or her to ‘cut it out’. When I ask them to come up and show me what they mean, they often get right in the bully’s face and angrily tell him or her to stop. Young people seem strongly pulled toward this response, which is consistently modeled for them on television and in movies. They also know that this response is likely to get them hurt.

Talking with bystanders has taught me that when we do not discourage confrontation, we make it likely that they will do nothing. At my own school, I taught a unit about rumors in the fifth grade. We talked about many things the students could do when a peer brought them a rumor. Those strategies included telling the peer to stop spreading rumors. When I followed up with these students later, they told me that rumors continued to spread in their grade. I asked about the strategies we had discussed, and they told me that they couldn’t confront their friends because they feared losing friendship. As we talked I realized that leaving confrontation on the table as a possible strategy had stopped them from paying attention to any of the other strategies we had discussed. I have heard this feedback at all age levels, and have learned to discourage confrontation when discussing bystander action. Here is a parallel:

 

Imagine that you look in through a store window and see a robbery in progress. What will you definitely NOT do? I wouldn’t go in and tell the robber to cut it out. Does that mean there is nothing you could do? You could…..

·       Call 911

·        Write down a description of the robbers and their car

·        Warn others not to go in the store

·       Come back later and help the store owner clean up

•  Come back later and shop in that store more or otherwise contribute money to help the business recover.

 

In that fifth grade follow-up discussion about rumors, we then explored all the non­confrontational ways students could react when they heard rumors. They talked about changing the subject, appearing interested and then not passing the rumor on, befriending the person the rumor was about, and similar interventions. They told me later that they had put those strategies into practice, and had been successful in stopping the spread of rumors. When we do not allow confrontation to be one of the strategies under discussion, we enable young people to find other strategies.

What are those other strategies? Bystanders can:

Choose not to be part of the problem. Quietly choosing not to spread a rumor, or

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telling your friends to join you in not spreading it, may be the most effective way to stop the rumor- just as removing flammable material stops a wildfire from spreading.

·    Help the target get away. Targets are often told: “Just walk away,” yet young people tell me consistently that walking from bullying alone feels unsafe and weak. Yet if peers invite the target to leave the situation with them, targets can leave without a sense of defeat. We can help bystanders see that this can be done from a distance and using a real or made-up excuse (“Hey Jim- Mr. Dennis wanted you to come to his classroom.”)

Sit with, walk with, or be friends with the target after the bullying is over. Targets

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of bullying may be chosen by the bully because of their social isolation, or they may become isolated as a result of the bullying. Either way, they often need friends and the protection of a social group.

Ask their friends to stop bullying others. Friends are likely to listen to each other.

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Tell adults. Especially in middle school, it is often difficult for adults to find out

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what happened. A code of silence descends over the people who witnessed bullying. Breaking through the silence requires protection for those who tell. It requires that we lose the concept of ‘tattling’ and show students that we welcome their reports. And it requires helping youth learn that they even help the bully by telling. Since youth who bully are likely to be in much more serious trouble later if they do not change, telling on a friend is a way to help that friend.

How do we help bystanders become active?

Asking the right questions is often a better strategy than teaching a list of responses. When young people create their own interventions they are more likely to use them.

We can help students to think through the issues I have already outlined here, using classroom discussion and journaling:

What does a classroom or school look like to bullies?

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To targets?

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What would happen if we had repeated discussions in this class about how bad

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bullying is and how it makes targets feel?

What would happen if we trained targets to say they don’t like bullying?

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What is REALLY going on? How many potential defenders do you think we have

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in this classroom? (a brief written survey in which students identify which of the four categories they are most likely to fall into will be more useful than a show of hands.)

·      What do you think adults do when they see bullying in the adult world? Talking about the parallels to what we would do if we saw a crime in progress or a parent talking abusively to a child in the store is a helpful way to frame this question.

·    What alternatives do you have when you see bullying? Which are likely to make things worse?

·    When you see bullying, what can you do that is safe and helpful? What have you done? Did it work? What will you do next time?

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We can help students create positive bystander actions through interactive and improvisational theater. One recommended resource is the book Training to Imagine: Practical Improvisational Theatre Techniques to Enhance Creativity, Teamwork, Leadership, and Learning, by Kat Koppett; Stylus Publishing (VA), 2001. We can set up acting scenarios based on young peoples’ real observations of bullying. In the safe space of the theater, we can try out one solution after another, keeping track of what works and what doesn’t. This skill-practice can help the whole class explore bystander

actions that are safe and effective.

 

We can read and discuss books that focus on bystander action. There are many novels that are useful, including The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes; The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm, and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrne, by Chris Crutcher. With any book, we can read a chapter at a time, act the crucial scenes in the classroom to learn how the characters feel, predict what the characters may do in the future, and then continue reading. Students can create alternative stories or alternative endings. They can draw parallels between what they have read and what happens at school. This is a powerful way to discuss and rehearse effective bystander actions.

 

We can discuss what the students see and have done, being careful not to use names

or specifics. It is important to bring any theoretical discussion back to specifics at the school. In what real situations could they use what they have just learned? What would be likely to happen? Below is an excerpt from a ‘bullying observation diary’ kept by a middle school student. Students were directed to write about what they saw, without using names. Using these observations, we have the opportunity to explore and practice interventions that can be used effectively in real situations. Some observations, like this one, will need to be further de-identified to allow classroom discussion of them without

 

We can ask what kinds of supports bystanders and targets want from adults, to make their actions safe. High school students in Glen Rock, NJ recently told me: “Let us report bullying with protection- privately and confidentially.

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·    Welcome our reports and act on them.

·    Form strong positive relationships with us so we feel free to report bullying to you. Don’t be afraid to take action to stop bullying.

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Listen- keep your eyes and ears open.”

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We can create a list of ‘what we do if we are bullied and when we see bullying’ to hang in the classroom. Here is one such list, created by second grade students at my school after they read Shel Silverstein’s book Runny Babbit:

How to prolve soblems: Tare and shake turns

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·    If you sid domething wrong, day what you sid and say sou’re yorry. (but only if you really sare orry )

•   If someone yeases tou, say “Stease plop.” Or alk waway with omeone selse

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Or thonfuse cem so cou yan get away.

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·      Or say: “I am meally rad!”

·    And if you see someone meing bean:

·    Alk waway with the person who’s teing beased.

·      Be feir thriend.

Or tell the person “Stease plop” in a wiendly fray.

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And if sese tholutions don’t work, ell ta teacher.

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We can praise students when they use the skills we are teaching them. As I discussed

in my book Schools Where Everyone Belongs (Research Press, 2005), that praise will be more effective when we tell students what we see them doing and the effect that behavior has, rather than telling them how we feel about their behavior. (“I noticed that you helped Richard get away when he was being teased. He looked relieved,” rather than “I was so proud of you.”) Praise that focuses on actions and the positive results of those actions helps young people develop internal motivation to continue those actions.

We can help students set goals at the individual, classroom, or school level. At my school students created grade-level goals for 2005-2006 and then worked together to clarify steps students said they would use to meet them. Here are some of those goals:

K and 1 Our Goal for the Year:
We want everyone to have friends

How we will make this happen:

We will ask people to play with us.

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·     We will play with people.

·     We will look and make sure no one is left out.

·     When someone doesn’t want to play we can ask them again another day.

·     We can smile and say hello to people.

2 and 3 Our Goal for the Year:

We want no name calling or teasing here at the bean school How we will make this happen:

If your friend is calling people names, ask the friend nicely to stop.

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If someone is being called names, help them get away.

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·     If people call you names, get away from them or ask for help.

·     If you are thinking about calling someone a name, count to 10 or take a breath and think about what you say before you say it.

4 Our Goal for the Year:
We want people to play by the rules and be fair

How we will make this happen:

It is easy to play by the rules if you are winning.

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·     It is hard to play by the rules if you are losing or if someone else cheats.

·     We can remember that if you win by cheating you feel bad later. We can remember not to complain if we are losing but to try harder instead.

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5 Our Goal for the Year:
We do not want to have a popular group, with other people left out

How we will make this happen:

When someone tries to start a popular group, don’t go along with them.

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Play with everyone; include people who are left out.

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·     Stick up for people if someone is leaving them out.

·     If someone is being mean, ask them to stop in a nice way. Help people get away if they are being teased.

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Don’t give people too much power by going along with them if they say: “I will only

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be your friend if you....” If they do that say “No thanks.”

Students are most likely to work actively toward goals when they have created those goals for themselves, when the steps to be taken to reach those goals are clear and realistic, and when adults structure ongoing discussions to help young people focus on whether they are working effectively toward their goals, what individuals are doing to reach the goals, and whether the steps the students have chosen are working. To maintain student motivation and ownership of the goals, it is important that adults not use those goals as a way to criticize students (“You are not working toward your goals now,” “You SAID you would….”), but instead reinforce student actions toward the goals (“I noticed that Billy and Tajandra played by the rules even when they were losing. That fits with your class goals.”)

We can create friendship teams for excluded students in which the excluded student and three or four high-status peers meet for lunch with the counselor or teacher four times to discuss how those peers can help the student make friends. The team then invites the student into activities, tells others positive things about the student, and tells the student about things he or she is doing to make friendship more difficult. Some students have volunteered for this helping role aimed at ALL students who have no one to play with.

We can work with students to find new ways to understand peer interactions.

For example, I worked with my students to help them understand the classmate or schoolmate relationship as an alternative to seeing “friend” or “enemy” as their only choices. We drew parallels to the adult workplace, where we have a choice between being friends or colleagues, and where being enemies is destructive. This is a summary created by some of our fifth grade students:

“There are three possible connections between people: 1. We can be friends. That means:

You hang out together;

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You help each other;

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You play with each other;

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0 You stick up for each other; They like you and you like them;

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0 And you trust each other.

2. We can be classmates but not friends. That means: It’s OK if we don’t like each other.

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·    We are polite to each other.

·    We are not mean to each other and we help each other in schoolwork and in emergencies.

·    We may stay away from each other. We may choose not to play with each other but we do not stop the other person

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from having friends.

·    We do not try to hurt the other person.

3. OR we could be enemies. The Bean School doesn’t allow that and if we act like enemies we will get consequences. Being an enemy means:

Trying to hurt the other person’s body or feelings.

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·    Making fun of the other person.

·    Stopping the other person from having friends. Starting or spreading rumors or lying about the other person to get them in

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trouble for something they didn’t do.

You have a choice.”

 

We can help them to understand what real friendship is and what their options are

if a ‘friend’ tries to control them. I have found it useful to draw the parallel between controlling and abusive friendships and spouse abuse. Both involve control. Both often alternate between controlling actions and hurtful behaviors and periods of ‘making up’ and friendly behavior. In both the aggressor blames the target for the behavior and then promises to do better. We can help young people understand that, by calling this kind of relationship friendship in childhood and adolescence, they are training themselves to accept abusive and controlling behavior in a dating relationship. We can encourage youth to leave hurtful ‘friendships’ and find other friendships in which the other person does not try to control them.

 

We can help young people understand the social forces that underlie bullying behavior. Students are more able to work against bullying and exclusion when they understand the parallels between bullying and other forms of social oppression, including racism, sexism, and homophobia. In addition, both boys and girls benefit

from understanding the gender-based pressures that they are surrounded by. When they understand social and media pressures they are less likely to enforce narrow gender roles and oppressive social expectations on each other. Useful resources include:

Lyn Mikel Brown’s (Girlfighting: Betrayal And Rejection Among Girls (New

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York University Press) and her curriculum From Adversaries to Allies (http://www. hardygirlshealthywomen.org). See her article “Creating Safe, Fair, and Responsive Schools” at http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/Brown_safe_schools.pdf

·    Michael Kimmel’s work about boys’ harassment of other boys. See Kimmel, Michael and Mahler, Matthew (2003). Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence:

Random School Shootings, 1982-2001. The American Behavioral Scientist, 46(10): 1439-58, on line at http://www.stopbullyingworld.com/schoolshoot%20research%20 Kimmel.pdf

and Ruby Payne’s writing about poverty (http://www.ahaprocess.com ).

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We can discuss the historical parallels to bullying, with a focus on what they teach

us to do now. When we talk about the civil rights movement, womens’ history, the holocaust, colonialism, or other historical issues relating to oppression and liberation, we can draw parallels to the exclusion and bullying of subgroups in our own schools. And when we talk about the people who made a difference, we can help students see what they can do in the present. In discussing Martin Luther King, Jr., instead of just focusing on what it means to ‘have a dream,’ we can ask students how they are carrying on his work in the present. We can focus on what they have done to make sure everyone is treated with respect. When we talk about Rosa Parks, we can talk about the power of quietly refusing to go along with something wrong, and about the many people around the United States who supported the Montgomery bus boycott in different ways. Nikki Giovanni’s 2005 book Rosa (Henry Holt and Co.) is a great resource to help young people see what it means to work together for change.

 

We can discuss the nature and impact of indirect harassment. When young people call a test, or a movie they don’t like, ‘gay’ they are sending a powerful negative message to everyone nearby that gay is bad. That message makes gay and lesbian youth feel less safe, and serves to reinforce the biases of others. Saying that a sports team ‘played like girls’ has the same impact on girls and women nearby. Yet I have found that young people often do not understand the impact of this very common behavior on others. We can deal with this behavior through disciplinary interventions and by discussing it, with a focus on the questions: “Who does this behavior hurt?” and “What can you do when you hear indirect harassment?” Young people hearing this kind of speech have many ways to discourage it, ranging from the personal statement (“I have a gay friend and that kind of talk hurts him.”) to the direct request (“Please stop talking like that.”) to humor (“I didn’t know tests had sex- how do tests do it?”) And when students hear that someone ‘played like a girl’, they can say “He must be pretty good, then.”

 

We can empower our students to teach other students what they have learned. Teaching others is a powerful way of deepening learning. Work with students to create videos, plays, books, and other teaching techniques and then help them teach younger students. At the Bean school we have created the tradition of ‘legacy videos’ planned, videotaped, and edited by all exiting fifth grade classes, teaching attitudes and skills they have found important in their time at the Bean School. Topics for these videos have included stopping rumors, how to make and keep friends, and the effects of television. These videos are used in our monthly ‘peace day’ assemblies, which gather together our students by grade level to welcome new students and staff, discuss issues of importance

to them, reinforce the school’s values, and encourage the students to set goals for the school’s climate.

Summary: What does work?

Implement staff-based schoolwide interventions before working to activate

•

bystanders.

Help potential defenders see that they are not alone.

•

·    Using questioning and discussion techniques, help bystanders create a wide range of safe and effective strategies for intervening, and protect them when they intervene.

·    Use theater and literature to help young people find effective strategies. Use parallels with adult situations to help young people choose effective actions.

•

·    Discuss real situations. Help students understand social interaction between peers.

•

Help them to understand what real friendship is and what their options are if a

•

‘friend’ tries to control them.

·    Encourage students to reach out in friendship to isolated youth.

·    Praise positive student actions.

·    Help students set and reach goals relating to school climate.

·    Help young people understand the social forces that underlie bullying behavior. Discuss the historical parallels to bullying, with a focus on what they teach us to do

•

now.

·    Discuss the nature and impact of indirect harassment. and Empower students to teach each other the strategies they have learned.

•

We can help students imagine and create a new school climate when we use classroom or grade-level discussions to find new paths for bystander action. As young people succeed in setting and reaching their goals, they can join with us to make schools more inviting and safer. What bystanders do - or choose not to do - can make a real difference. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

What Works	What Works	What Does NOT Work	What Makes It Worse
School-wide interventions; climate focus	Train staff to recognize and react to these type of harassment	Single-classroom interventions without school wide planning and coordination.	Target/Victim training as a primary intervention; telling victims to have more self-confidence without giving them protection deserved
Bystander empowerment and training: young people in finding and practicing ways to intervene safely and effectively as bystanders	Bullying prevention efforts should be integrated into the school curriculum	Telling the whole student body to be kind as a primary intervention	Mediation, especially peer mediation, unless the aggression is two way or relational
Specific school wide definition of unacceptable behavior and consequences within strong staff – student connections and positive feeling tone	Media/cultural literacy: help students understand cultural pressures about body shape, appearance, gender roles, aggression, and sexuality: stereotyped images of female/ male	Nonspecific rules without behavioral definitions. e.g: be respectful	Anger used as a discipline techniques; Zero-tolerance approaches leading to large consequences immediately
School wide coordinating committee involving educators, administrators, paraprofessionals, parents, and youth in middle school and high school	Girl fighting interventions focused on building coalitions between young women and helping them see their strengths	Creating consequences on the spot so two young people doing the same thing in the same way get different consequences	Blame the target, assuming that ‘it takes two’

 

What Works	What Works	What Does NOT Work	What Makes It Worse
Link with civil rights teams and other youth leadership groups	For boys: interventions challenging homophobia and narrow gender roles and the use of “gay/ lesbian” as an insult	Focusing just on changing the one bully without school wide intervention	Asking for reports without adequate protection against retaliation
School/parent/ student collaboration; clear expectations for communication	Collaborative efforts to educate communities (parents and others) about bullying and bullying prevention: Reducing youth exposure to violent sexist, homophobic media and “games.”	Inconsistent reactions from adults Inappropriately rigid or too broad of rules.	Saying ‘We will take care of it’ and then we don’t - incongruence between stated values and adult actionsSaying “I don’t want to hear about it”
Distinguishing bullying from sexual, gender, racial and other illegal harassment and hazing to maintain legal protections for targets; cross references with existing law	Reviewing staff biases and unequal treatment of youth behavior: equity in disciplinary actions and praise: Develop a code of conduct for staff/employees	Implementation without staff training	Discouraging girls’ empowerment; not listening to girls who raise gender inequality issues.
	Evaluating climate, emotional and physical safety regularly to measure change and inform needed changes	Words without actions	The use of out-of­ school suspension except to maintain school safety

 

It is the intent of the [School unit name] Board to provide all students with an equitable opportunity to learn. To that end, the Board has a significant interest in providing a safe, orderly and respectful school environment that is conducive to teaching and learning.

 

Bullying is detrimental to student learning and achievement. It interferes with the mission of the schools to educate their students and disrupts the operations of the schools. Bullying affects not only students who are targets but also those who participate and witness such behavior.

 

The Board also believes that promoting ethical and responsible behavior is an essential part of the school unit’s educational purpose. Ethics, responsible behavior and “character” are important if a student is to leave school as a “responsible and involved citizen” as described in the Guiding Principles of Maine’s system of Learning Results. Bullying interferes with the accomplishment of this goal.

 

Finally, the Board recognizes the well-publicized incidents of violence and threatened violence that have occurred nationally in the past several years. As research suggests a link between bullying and school violence, the Board seeks to avoid such incidents and instead take a systematic approach to bullying prevention and intervention.

 

It is not the Board’s intent to prohibit students from expressing their ideas, including ideas that may offend the sensibilities of others, or from engaging in civil debate. However, the Board does not condone and will take action in response to conduct that interferes with students’ opportunity to learn, the educational mission of the [School unit name] schools, and the operation of the schools.

Bullying Prohibited

Bullying, as defined in this policy, is not acceptable conduct in [School unit name] schools and is prohibited. Any student who engages in conduct that constitutes bullying shall be subject to disciplinary consequences up to and including suspension and expulsion. A student’s bullying behavior may also be addressed through other behavioral interventions.

Bullying DeThned

For the purpose of this policy, “bullying” means any physical act or gesture or any verbally, written, or electronically communicated expression that:

A. A reasonable person should expect will have the effect of:

1. Physically harming a student or damaging a student’s property;

2. Placing a student in reasonable fear of physical harm or damage to his/her property; or

3. Substantially disrupting the instructional program or the orderly operations of the school; or

B. Is so severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, hostile educational environment for the student who is bullied.

Application of Policy

This policy applies to bullying that takes place at school or on school grounds, at any school-sponsored activity or event, or while students are being transported to or from school or school-sponsored activities or events. It also applies to bullying that occurs at any other time or place that substantially disrupts the instructional program, operations of the school, or welfare of students.

 

[NOTE: This is similar to language used in MSMA’s Student Code of Conduct template and is suggested for student handbooks.]

 

Examples of conduct that may constitute bullying include, but are not limited to: A. Physical contact or injury to another person or his/her property;

B. Threats of harm to a student, to his/her possessions, or to other individuals, whether transmitted verbally, in writing, or through cyberspace;

C. Blackmail, extortion, demands for protection money, or involuntary loans or donations;

D. Non-verbal threats and/or intimidations such as use of aggressive or menacing gestures;

E. Stalking;

F. Blocking access to school property or facilities;

G. Stealing or hiding books, backpacks, or other possessions;

H. Repeated or pervasive taunting, name-calling, belittling, mocking, put-downs,

or demeaning humor relating to a student’s race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ancestry, religion, disability, or other personal characteristics, whether or not the student actually possesses them, that could reasonably be expected to result in disruption of the instructional program or operations of the schools, or that results in a hostile educational environment for the student.

 

[NOTE: Some of the actions that constitute bullying may also be addressed in other Board policies, such as ACAA—Student Harassment and Sexual Harassment or JICIA—Weapons, Violence and School Safety. Federal and/or state law and the Board’s basic nondiscrimination policy, AC, provide protection for students based on the “protected categories” listed in paragraph “H” above.]

 

For the purpose of this policy, bullying does not mean mere teasing, put-downs, “talking trash,” trading of insults, or similar interactions among friends, nor does it include expression of ideas or beliefs so long as such expression is not lewd, profane, or does not interfere with students’ opportunity to learn, the instructional program, or the operations of the schools. This does not preclude teachers or school administrators from setting and enforcing rules for civility, courtesy, and/or responsible behavior in the classroom and the school environment.

 

The determination whether particular conduct constitutes bullying requires reasonable consideration of the circumstances, which include the frequency of the behavior at issue, the location in which the behavior occurs, the ages and maturity of the students involved, the activity or context in which the conduct occurs, and the nature and severity of the conduct.

Delegation of Responsibility

The Superintendent/designee will be responsible for developing and implementing procedures for:

A. Student and parent reporting of bullying to staff and school administrators; B. Staff reporting of bullying to school administrators; C. Review of reports and investigation of bullying incidents; D. Intervention with and/or discipline of students who engage in bullying; E. Support for students who are victims of bullying; F. Training staff and students in bullying prevention; and

G. Periodic evaluation of bullying prevention, intervention, and training efforts in [School unit name] schools and reporting to the Board upon request.

Reporting

Students who have been bullied or who observe incidents of bullying are encouraged to report this behavior to a staff member or school administrator. Staff should report bullying to the building principal.

 

Acts of reprisal or retaliation against any person who reports an incident of bullying are prohibited. Any student who is determined to have falsely accused another of bulling shall be subject to disciplinary consequences.

Responding to Bullying

In determining the appropriate response to students who engage in bullying behavior, school administrators should consider the ages and maturity of the students involved, the type of behaviors, the frequency and/or pattern of behaviors, the context in which the incident occurred, and other relevant circumstances. Consequences may range from positive behavioral interventions up to and including suspension, expulsion, and/or reports to law enforcement officials.

Dissemination of Policy

Notice of what constitutes bullying, the Board’s prohibition against bullying, and the consequences for students who bully shall be communicated to students and parents through the Student Code of Conduct and Student Handbook.

 

Legal Reference: 20-A M.R.S.A. § 1001(15)(H) P.L. 2005, ch. 307 § 4-5

 

Cross Reference: AC - Nondiscrimination, Equal Opportunity

ACAA - Harassment and Sexual Harassment of Students ACAD - Hazing

ADF - School District Commitment to Learning Results JI - Student Rights and Responsibilities JICC - Student Conduct on Buses JICIA - Weapons, Violence and School Safety JK - Student Discipline

JKD - Suspension of Students JKE - Expulsion of Students Student Code of Conduct

 

Reference List for LD 564

Stopbullyingworld.com see resource list Books, Articles

Aronson, E. (2000). Nobody left to hate: Teaching compassion after Columbine. New York Owl Books.

 

Baumeister, R. F. (2001). “Violent pride: Do people turn violent because of self-hate, or self-love?” Scientific American, 284(4), 96-101.

 

Baumeister, R. F., Bushman, B. J., & Campbell, W. K. (2000). “Self-esteem, narcissism, and aggression: Does violence result from low self-esteem or threatened egotism?” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 26-29.

 

Baumeister, R. F., Twenge, J. M., & Nuss, C. (2002). “Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes: Anticipated aloneness reduces intelligent thought.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 817-827.

 

Bluestein, J. (2003) “What’s wrong with I-messages?” http://www.janebluestein.com/ articles/whatswrong.html

 

Brown, L.M. 1998. Raising their voices: The politics of girls’ anger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. An exploration of social class and gender differences between two groups of central Maine girls after video-taping their school-based group discussions over the course of a year. Examines differences in the ways the girls understand and resolve conflict, define femininity, and experience school.

 

Brown, Lyn M. (2003) Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls; New York University Press. An analysis of interviews with 421 girls from elementary through high school, diverse with respect to race and class. Examines girl fighting and bullying behavior among girls and scrutinizes the way our culture reinforces meanness in girls through media and the perpetuation of gendered stereotypes in school and society.

 

Build Respect, Stop Bullying Program; Channing Bete Company; educational material Chasnoff, D. (2003) “Let’s Get Real” http://www.womedia.org/letsgetreal.htm

 

Craig, W., & Pepler, D. (2000) “Observations of Bullying in the Playground and in the Classroom School.” Psychology International 21(1) pp22-37, Feb. 2000.

Craig, W., & Pepler, D. (2000). “Making a difference in bullying.” LaMarsh Research Programme, Report Series, Report # 60. LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution. York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www. melissainstitute.org/documents/MakingADifference.pdf

 

Davis, Stan. (2005) Schools Where Everyone Belongs; Research Press 2005

 

Dellasega, C. & Nixon, C. 2003. Girl Wars: Twelve Strategies That will End Female Bullying. Simon & Schuster. Parenting book. Addresses relational aggression. Offers tips for helping those involved.

 

Friedman, S. (1996). Peacemaking Skills for Little Kids. Miami, FL; Peace Education Foundation, Inc. (can be ordered at http://www.peaceeducation.com/curricula/)

 

Garbarino, J. & DeLara, E. (2002). And words can hurt forever. New York: Free Press.

 

Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C. & Eron, L. D. (2003). “Longitudinal relations between children’s exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood”: 1977 – 1992. Developmental Psychology, 39(2), 201-21.

 

Juvonen, J., Graham, S., Schuster, M. (2003, December). “Bullying among young adolescents: The strong, the weak, and the troubled.” Pediatrics, 112: 1231-1237.

 

Lamb, S. 2002. “The Secret Lives of Girls: What Girls Really Do--Sex Aggression, and Their Guilt.” New York: The Free Press. Interviews with adult women and girls about sex and aggression. The only book that takes a broader cultural look at the way these issues are connected for girls. Deals with both the costs and the power girls seek when they are aggressive.

 

Landry, Deb. Sticks, Stones and Stumped; Illustrated children’s book, Bryson Taylor Publishing; 2005. www.brysontaylorpublishing.com

 

Landry, Deb. 2006 Sticks, Stones and Stumped: children’s interactive play and teachers workbook, grades K-5, Bryson Taylor Publishing. www.brysontaylorpublishing.com

 

Ludwig, T. (2003). My secret bully. Portland, OR : Riverwood Press. Moss, Peggy; Say Something; children’s book, Tilbury Press; 2004

 

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W. J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt,

P. (2001). “Bullying behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment.” The Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2094-

2100.

 

National Association of School Psychologists. (2002) “Bullying prevention: what

schools and parents can do.” National Association of School Psychologists, Bethesda, MD. http://www.naspcenter.org/resourcekit/bullying_new_rk.html

 

Newman, Katherine S. Rampage: the Social Roots of School Shootings. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

 

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (2001), “School wide prevention of bullying”, http://www.nwrel.org/request/dec01/bullying.pdf

 

Rigby, K. (2000). “Effects of peer victimization in schools and perceived social support on adolescent well-being.” Journal of Adolescence, 23(1), 57-68

 

Prothrow-Stith, Deborah, and Howard R. Spivak. Sugar and Spice and No Longer Nice: How We Can Stop Girls Violence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. Deals with the relationship between relational and physical aggression and addresses what parents, schools, and communities can do.

 

Simmons, Rachel. Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write About Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy. San Diego: Harvest Books, 2004. Collection of poems, songs, confessions, and essays.

 

Stein, A. (2002). “Bullies: Ignore them and they won’t go away.” University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, The Link. University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development. Vol. 18, No. 2 http://education. umn.edu/alum/link/2002Winter/bullies.html

 

Twemlow, S.W, Fonagy, P., Sacco, F, Gies, M., Evans, R., and Ewbank, R. “Creating a peaceful school learning environment: the impact of an antibullying program on educational attainment in elementary schools.” Med Sci Monit. 2005 Jul;11(7): CR317-25. Epub 2005 Jun 29

 

Wiseman, R. 2002. Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter to Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence. New York: Crown Publishers. Discusses primarily relational aggression among girls. (In spite of some reviews, this is not a well-researched book; primarily anecdotal).

Selected Reports, Journal Articles, Book Chapters

Brown, L.M., Chesney-Lind, M., & Stein, N. 2004. “Patriarchy matters: Toward

a gendered theory of teen violence and victimization.” Wellesley Centers for Women Working Paper No, 417). Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. (in press) Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal.

 

Brown, L.M. & Chesney-Lind, M. 2005. Growing Up Mean: Covert Aggression and the Policing of Girlhood. In Gwynedd Lloyd (Ed.), Problem girls: Understanding and supporting troubled and troublesome girls and young women. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

 

Eder, D. 1985. The cycle of popularity: Interpersonal relations among female adolescents.

 

Kimmel, M. (February 5, 2002). Adolescent masculinity, homophobia and violence: Some tentative hypotheses about school shootings. Paper presented at the Seminar on Gender and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

 

Merten, D. 1997. “The meaning of meanness: Popularity, competition, and conflict among junior high school girls.” Sociology of Education, 70, July: 175-191.

 

Stein, N. 1995. “Sexual Harassment in K-12 Schools: The Public Performance of Gendered Violence.” Harvard Educational Review, 65(2), 145-162.

 

Stein, N. 2001. “Sexual Harassment Meets Zero-Tolerance: Life in K-12 Schools.” In Ayers, Dohrn & Ayers (Eds.), Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment. A Handbook for Parents, Students, Educators and Citizens New York: New Press

Curricular materials

Brown, L.M. & Madden, M. 2005. From Adversaries to Allies: A Curriculum for Change. A middle school level curriculum that takes a positive youth development approach to girlfighting-prevention by helping girls unpack and respond constructively to cultural messages and stereotypes that divide them. Distributed by Hardy Girls Healthy Women, Box 821, Waterville, ME 04901 or www.hardygirlshealthywomen. org

 

Allies in Action: Building Healthy Relationships Between Girls. An evidence-based relational aggression prevention program that engages girls as change agents, providing them with a vocabulary to describe their relationships, a critical lens to analyze cultural forces shaping their relationships, and skills to effectively navigate conflict and articulate boundaries. Distributed by Girls’ Initiative Network, Portland Oregon.

Stein, N. 1996. Bullyproof: A Teacher’s Guide on Teasing and Bullying for Use with Fourth and Fifth Grade Students. Evaluated in a three-year project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

Stein, Ed.D., Nan, and Lisa Sjorstom, Ed.D. Flirting or Hurting? a Teacher’s Guide on Student-to-Student Sexual Harassment in Schools for Grades 6 Through 12. Wellesley Centers for Women. 1994.

 

Stein, N. 1999. Gender Violence/Gender Justice: an Interdisciplinary Teaching Guide for Teachers of English, Literature, Social Studies, Psychology, Health, Peer Counseling, and Family and Consumer Sciences (grades 7-12) (1999) All Stein materials distributed by Wellesley Centers for Women Publications Office, Wellesley College.

Websites, DVD/Curriculum, On-line Resources

Website reference: www.cdtp.org/whatwedo.htm, Cross Disciplinary Training Program

Website reference: http://pathwayscourses.samhsa.gov/courses.htm SAMHSA Training

Website reference: www.medscimonit.com/pub/vol_11/no_7/6440.pdf

Website reference on teacher-parents communication: http://www.bclsolutions.com/ elearning.html#bus

Website reference: http://www.keystosaferschools.com

Newsletter website reference: www.bullypoliceusa.org. Website dedicated to passing legislatin in every State.

Website reference: www.stopbullyingworld.com

Ugly Ducklings Community Action Kit and Documentary Film can be found at Hardy Girls Healthy Women, Inc.: www.hardygirlshealthywomen.org. The documentary film focuses on the difficult issues raised in the award-winning play Ugly Ducklings and explores the immediate realities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) youth seeking asylum from the oppression of bias-based harassment in our communities and schools. The Community Action Kit is designed to educate both adults and youth about bias-based harassment and to support families, schools, and communities, who wish to openly support LGBTQ youth by initiating honest dialogue and creating safe and supportive environments. This Kit includes educational materials, tools, and resources for youth, parents/guardians, teachers, mental health providers, clergy, and other adults caring for or working with LGBTQ youth.

 

Hardy Girls Healthy Women, Inc.: www.hardygirlshealthywomen.org. The Hardy

Girls website offers a lot of great information for teens, parents, counselors, teachers and anyone else who cares about girls and their health. Specifically addresses girls aggression and girlfighting.

 

Daughters.com: www.daughters.com Daughters is a newsletter published for parents of daughters. Daughters’ newsletter is published by the national education and advocacy nonprofit, Dads and Daughters. Since 1999, DADs has provided tools to strengthen parent-daughter relationships and to transform the pervasive messages that value daughters more for how they look than who they are.

 

4Girls.gov: www.4girls.gov The mission of the www.4girls.gov web site, developed by the Office on Women’s Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, is to promote healthy, positive behaviors in girls between the ages of 10 and 16. The site gives girls reliable, useful information on the health issues they will face as they become young women, and tips on handling relationships with family and friends, at school and at home.

 

The Gender Project: www.umaine.edu/umext/genderproject. The Gender Project through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office is Turning Beauty

Inside Out. Check out their website for great resources and ideas on how we can change the culture for girls’ and boys’ healthy development.

Wellesley Centers for Research on Women, Project on Teasing and Bullying: http:// www.wcwonline.org/bullying/index.html

 

Stop Hazing: http://www.stophazing.org/index.html A site designed to educate about and eliminate hazing.

 

The Empower Program: http://www.empowered.org A national, nonprofit educational organization designed to empower young people and adults to create safe schools and communities by providing effective prevention strategies to address bullying and other forms of peer aggression.

 

The Ophelia Project: http://www.opheliaproject.org Focuses primarily on girls and relational aggression.

 

Helping Kids Thrive: www.helpingkidsthrive.org Offers trainings, talks, and curricula on a host of topics, including bullying prevention, aimed at bringing out the best in kids of all ages.

McEvoy, Alan; 2005; Wittenberg University; PDF file: teachers who bully students. http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/teachers%20who%20bully%20students%20McEvo y.pdf

 

Health in Action Series: Bullying in the School Community. American School Health Association, May/June 2005. Practical tips for dealing with bullying.

 

What Do We Know About Bullying Among School Children? an article by Dr. Susan Limber. http://www.nasbhc.org/TAT/TATCorner/BehavioralHealth/Bullying_ Prevention.htm

 

Making a Difference in bullying-by Wendy Craig and Debra Pepler from the Canadian pioneers of bullying prevention research. http://www.melissainstitute.org/documents/ MakingADifference.pdf

 

Bullying at School (Blackwell Publishers, 1993, ISBN #0-631-19241-7) Bullying Prevention program

LD564 Best Practice Guide Design Team

Stan Davis has dedicated his life to human rights in many different ways. In the 1960s, he marched with Dr. King in the South and worked for civil rights in the North. As a social worker, Davis worked as a child and family therapist with abused and grieving children and provided trainings to Child Protective Workers. He designed and implemented trainings for a network of rape crisis centers and helped police develop effective interventions for domestic abuse. In 1985, Davis became a school counselor and based on his hands-on experience with children and adults in local schools, and put his energies toward helping schools prevent bullying. Since 1990, Davis has trained schools throughout Maine and nationally on effective bullying prevention strategies, which have been adopted by state-wide initiatives in Michigan, New Jersey, and West Virginia. Davis’s work has been featured in national publications and radio articles and on a special 20/20 report on bullying with John Stossel. Davis is the author of the 2005 Research Press book Schools Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies to Reduce Bullying. His trainings integrate research, practical experience, specific techniques, storytelling, and audience participation. Davis is a certified Olweus Bullying Prevention trainer and consultant Contact information: web http://www.stopbullyingnow.com email stan@stopbullyingnow.com PO: 409 North Wayne Rd Wayne ME 04284 Phone: 207-685-9639

 

Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. is Professor of Education and Human Development at Colby College in Maine. She writes extensively on the social and relational life of girls and the influences of race, social class, and gender on girls’ lives. Brown received her Ed.D. from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, and was a founding member of the Harvard Project on Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development. She is the author of numerous articles and four books on girls’ social and psychological development: Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development (with Carol Gilligan; 1992), Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls’ Anger (1998), Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls (2003), and most recently Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers’ Schemes (with Sharon Lamb, 2006). Brown is co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women, a Waterville, Maine-based nonprofit designed to provide girls with more control, commitment, and challenge in their lives. Brown is co-author of From Adversaries to Allies: A Curriculum for Change, a positive youth development approach to girlfighting prevention and co-developer of the Ugly Ducklings Community Action Kit, which provides adults and youth with educational

strategies and resources to reduce harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. See www.hardygirlshealthywomen.org for more information on resources and curriculum.

 

Chuck Saufler received a M.Ed. from Northeastern University in Community Mental Health in 1979. Since that time he has worked in private practice and with youth focused organizations and schools. Saufler has been a guidance counselor and staff trainer in Maine since 1989 and has been active in the Communities for Children statewide initiative. As co-coordinator of the Maine Project Against Bullying, he coordinated a statewide bullying survey and has provided initial bullying prevention training for over 200 schools and communities. Saufler is co-developer of CLIMBERS, a proactive program for teaching social skills and improving school climate. CLIMBERS was selected as 1997 “Program of the Year” by Maine ASCD. A member of the Governor’s Task Force on Safe Schools and Communities, he co-authored the summary report for presentation to the Maine State Legislature. Saufler served as a member of the Critical Review Team for the Career Development Strand of the Maine Learning Results. He is the recipient of the 1999 Governor’s Medal for outstanding service to education and prevention of substance abuse. He is currently the lead trainer for bullying education at the Maine Law and Civics Education Program, University of Maine School of Law. Saufler is a nationally certified trainer for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a “Blueprints for Violence Prevention” program. He is a founding member of the International Bullying Prevention Association. The focus of his career has been developing safer schools and communities. He is drawn to this work by a firm belief that community building, prevention and early intervention are our best hope of creating a civil society for future generations. Mr. Saufler is married and resides in Bath, Maine with his wife Beth and their son Christopher.To reach Mr. Saufler: Maine Project Against Bullying 2 Maxwell St. Bath, ME 04530 www.stopbullyingmaine.com e-mail: chuck@stopbullyingmaine.com 207-751-4160.

 

Thomas Harnett, Esq. is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Education and Enforcement in the Maine Office of the Attorney General. Mr. Harnett directs the Civil Rights Team Project that has established Civil Rights Teams in more than 220 schools located throughout the State of Maine. Mr. Harnett also directs the Office’s enforcement of the Maine Civil Rights Act. Mr. Harnett worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Natural Resources Division and the Civil Rights Unit of the Maine Department of the Attorney General from 1989 to 2000. He

directed the civil rights enforcement effort of the Attorney General’s Office and the Civil Rights Team Project from 1999 to 2000 and returned to direct the Office’s civil rights initiatives in September 2001. As an Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Harnett has prosecuted numerous civil rights or “hate crime” cases. Mr. Harnett also conducts student and faculty trainings and has spoken about the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Team Project at regional conferences, guidance counselor gatherings, legal education seminars, statewide events and at national conferences sponsored by the United States Department of Justice and the Education Law & Policy Consortium, Inc. Mr. Harnett has also addressed tens of thousands of students in elementary, middle and high schools throughout the State of Maine. He currently serves as a community advisor for the Civil Rights Team at his son’s elementary school. Mr. Harnett was born in the Bronx and is a graduate of Fordham University and New York University School of Law. Prior to practicing law in Maine, he worked as a legal services attorney for migrant farm workers in New York State from 1980 to 1989.

 

Lauren Sterling currently manages the Maine Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and

the coordination of its various initiatives to include, the 21st Century Community Learning Center program, and the Task Force on Early Childhood among others after directing the Kennebec County Child Abuse & Neglect Council from 1998 to 2001. As volunteer co-chair for the Greater Waterville Communities for Children and Youth Coalition since 1996, Sterling lead the group in successfully yielding over $2 million in local prevention funds to collaboratively fill gaps in services to include, but not limited to: The 21st Century Community Learning Center’s grant project, the One ME Substance Abuse Prevention Project; the Regional Juvenile Resolution Team program with four police departments, Youth Expressions, an after school performing arts program for at risk teens, a summer Shakespeare Camp for Teens, Music Mentoring partnering Colby student music mentors with area at-risk, and the development of a community-wide, nationally recognized college/community mentoring initiative in partnership with Colby College providing 250 area children with one-on-one mentors each year. In 2002, the Coalition was selected as one of 15 local coalitions to partner with America’s Promise as a demonstration site and recently was honored in Washington, D.C. as one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People.” Sterling is the executive producer of Ugly Ducklings, the Documentary Film and co-developer of the Ugly Ducklings Community Action Kit that seeks to reduce the harassment of gay and lesbian youth in Maine and nationally. Lauren.Sterling@maine.gov.

Deb Landry is the founder and Executive Director of Crossroads Youth Center in Saco, a nonprofit mentoring organization that empowers youth through the performing arts. She retired six year ago after twenty-two years as a healthcare administrator to dedicate her career to her passion, children and youth issues. A mother of four and grandmother of three, Ms. Landry specializes in operational management with a focus on nonprofit agencies and social awareness education. As an author, she writes interactive children’s mentoring plays on social awareness issues, which are performed throughout Southern Maine to students grades K-5 by mentoring youth grades 6 to 12. She is the co-author, executive producer and director of Ty, an educational film focusing on the use of gateway drugs and heroin abuse. Her first book, released February 2006, Sticks, Stones and Stumped!, is an illustrated children’s story using Maine animals to tell the tale of bullying prevention. The book focuses on acceptance and the communications between student, bystander, and teacher. Ms. Landry serves on several committees including as co chair of the Saco Middle School Anti Bullying Program. Ms. Landry is a member of Communities for Children and the Children’s Cabinet’s School and Community Climate Committee. She lectures and consults to organizations on parent-teacher communication, customer service training and medical office management. Due out in 2006-, 07 is her new interactive children’s play For Pete’s Sake based on the children’s book by Linda Verville on disabilities and Yankee Go Home, a children’s book about strangers. Ms. Landry can be reached at 207-838-2146; 199 New County Road, Saco, ME 04072; email: deb@brysontaylor.com; Websites: www.crossroadsyouthcenter.org and www.brysontaylorpublishing.com.