A Safe and Nurturing Environment: 6 Ways to Prevent Bullying at School

July 22, 2019

Bullying is not a new phenomenon in learning institutions. Children who are bullied in school often feel helpless and in worst cases traumatized. Unfortunately, a lot of parents feel helpless as well as they hope for the schools to intervene in matters to do with physical and emotional harassment of their kids. Learning institutions need to take the lead role in ensuring issues to do with bullying are put in check. That is because schools are better placed when it comes to offering support and protection to children. For a large part, bullying takes place within the school environment – in the locker room, the lunchroom, during recess sessions, and even outside the building. With the number of professionals available in schools, these learning institutions have the capacity to ensure cases of bullying are completely eradicated. Here are six ways schools can help remedy or prevent cases of bullying:

Bullying Should be Well-Defined

Bullying takes place at all levels of grade. The entire learning institution needs to speak in one language as far as bullying is concerned. For starters, there needs to be a common definition of bullying. According to the Crisis Prevention Institute, bullying includes intentionally aggressive behavior involving an imbalance of strength and power. This may be evident through verbal or non-verbal means, physical means, or relational means. The offense is repetitive, even when the management realizes it for the first time. When teachers witness bullying even for the first time, they need to make sure they talk to the victim to determine whether such incidents have occurred in the past.

In addition to that, the members of staff within a learning institution should be in a position to distinguish between bullying and teasing. Teasing is often reported frequently as opposed to bullying since it is usually done to provoke another student. On the other hand, bullying is an imbalance of power. This means that victims are unable to prevent harassment or defend themselves from being bullied. Bullying manifests in various forms such as teasing, threats, exclusion, name-calling, hitting, pushing, and any other form of physical violence. The graveness of this situation will depend on different circumstances such as how badly was the victim hurt.

Another form of bullying that needs to be defined is cyberbullying. With the increased use of social media, members of staff within a learning institution need to be aware of the issue of cyberbullying. This kind of bullying involves the use of electric devices to intimidate or harass other people. Schools need to make sure that efforts for preventing bullying are stressed even when it comes to cyberbullying. For this to happen, all school staff must be trained on what bullying involves, what the policies surrounding this behavior are, and different ways to enforce the rules and regulations for preventing bullying.

Be Consistent

It is imperative to have a plan on how to deal with cases of bullying. Rules and written policies are an excellent way to go about it, as people will have something they can always reference. Every student needs to be treated equally and consistently in accordance with the school policies on harassment and bullying. Emotional bullying should be handled in a similar manner to physical bullying.

The written policies need to prohibit bullying behaviors. For this to happen, school policies need to be clear and concise such that they can be understood at a glance. The enforcement of rules surrounding bullying must be done consistently throughout the institution. The members of staff should be in a position to intervene immediately to ensure bullying does not happen, and follow-up meetings need to be conducted for both the bully and the victim. Where possible, parents of the involved parties should also be involved in the meeting.

Minimize ‘Concentric Circles’ in Learning Institutions

In schools, instructors can be bullies as well. This is the truth that most teachers will hardly confront. When teachers are bullied by their colleagues, chances are this is going to have a ripple effect on the students. That is because teachers will likely take out their frustrations on students who have nothing to do with matters that affect them. Students have complained about feeling bullied by their instructors, assistant principals, and the head of department for reasons that are unknown to them. If there is a culture of bullying among teachers, the institution needs to be diligent enough to make sure that the same does not go down to classrooms.

To stop this behavior from spreading down to the students, teachers must start by assessing themselves. After having a bad day or an argument with a colleague, the teacher should ensure they do not bring such negativity to the classroom. Instead, they need to focus their energy on creating an environment of learning that is built on openness, positivity, and support. If instructors feel that things are getting out of hand, they can talk with their supervisors and the HR professionals so they can help remedy the situation.

Get Rid of Labels and Address Behaviors

Labels can be dangerous as far as bullying is concerned. When a teacher or any other staff member calls a student a “victim” or a “bully,” they put a judgment on the student and this could end up causing problems for that child. Therefore, when it comes to addressing the behavior of students within a learning facility, it is imperative to be nonjudgmental about it. First, you need to establish what actually transpired before you can decide whether or not what happened qualifies as bullying. Assessing the specific behaviors is essential if they are to be addressed accordingly. Keep in mind that the students involved in the incident come from different background or circumstances. There could be a reason why the bully is acting the way he does. To determine such reasons, it’s imperative to engage the student doing the bullying because they need to understand that what they do affects others negatively. Therefore, make sure that the student carrying out the bullying behaviors understands that his or her actions are wrong and that there are consequences to what they do. If they are persistent with their behavior, the school needs to involve their parents as well. However, it can be a challenge to convince parents that their child is a bully. To achieve this, teachers should address specific behaviors like student harassment or disruption of classes. By so doing, the parents will recognize that their child’s behavior needs to be stopped.

The Use of Surveillance Cameras

In order to facilitate learning, students need to feel safe. A school’s classrooms, hallways, playgrounds, gymnasiums, and athletic fields are often safer when covert surveillance camera and other security apparatus are installed. Learning institutions should, therefore, think about installing surveillance systems within the school to ensure a safe and conducive learning environment. Surveillance systems help to catch bullies in the act as they victimize other students.

Schools are usually in the business of ensuring students are properly educated. It is not possible for learning to take place if students feel threatened when at school. While an account from the victim of what transpired may help in resolving the case, a video surveillance system can make a huge difference as it will reveal how the bullying acts were conducted. The video surveillance system enables the administrators to get a visual record of what transpired in the incident. Moreover, with this system, it becomes easier to administer discipline upon the verifiable fact as opposed to hearsay and stories that contradict. Learning institutions that do not have these systems in place should think about installing them as they could play a significant role in curbing bullying behavior and preventing other bad behaviors such as theft.

Monitor Hotspots

There are some places within a learning environment where bullying occurs frequently, and these are usually places where teachers are least expected to be found. Places such as bathrooms, playgrounds, hallways, and buses are hotspots for bullying. The presence of an adult in these areas will make the students feel safer and bullying cases will be minimal. It is important for teachers and other staff members to be alert where multiple students are found.

According to statistics, 47.2 percent of bullying usually takes place in a hallway, and 33.6 percent occurs in the classrooms. In addition to that, 20 percent of bullying cases take place on playgrounds, or on the road as children walk to and from their schools. Since it can also be difficult to cover most of these hotspots, one way to go about this problem is to have an open communication. Also, members of staff within a learning facility should work together to ensure the hotspots are constantly monitored.

Bottom line

Many people tend to ignore bullying at school because they believe that it is a common behavior among peers. However, bullying can have tremendous effects on the victim, including serious psychological and physical trauma. To ensure that this behavior is put on check, schools need to address this issue head-on through all possible means. Moreover, support should be given to the victims and the bullies must know that their actions have consequences.