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Bully-proof the school setting by adopting science-based, antibullying programs that define unacceptable acts clearly, make them public when they occur, and teach strategies for reporting and resisting them. Teach anger management, impulse control, and conflict resolution techniques to create a positive peer culture. Refer troubled, antisocial, or depressed youth to mental health services to ensure they receive needed professional attention.
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- 1. Bully-proof the school setting by adopting science-based, antibullying/harassment programs, such as the Olweus Bullying Program, Bully Proofing Your School, or Steps to Respect. The best disinfectant for bullying, mean-spirited teas- ing, and harassment is sunlight. These events need to be defined as clearly unacceptable in the school by everyone (administrators, teachers, other school staff, students, and parents) and made public when they occur. Students should be given strategies for reporting and resisting them in an adaptive fashion and reporting those who commit these acts should be made accept- able. The above-cited programs incorporate these principles and strategies. • • Teach anger management, impulse control, and conflictresolution techniques as part of regular curricular content. The Second Step Violence Prevention Program, developed by the Committee for Children in Seattle, is one of the best means available for creating a positive peer culture of caring and civility, teaching specific strategies that work in controlling and managing one’s anger, and resolving conflicts without resorting to coercion or violence. This program was recently rated as the most effective of all those currently available for creating safe and positive schools by an expert panel of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education. • Refer troubled, antisocial, and depressed youth to mental health services and ensure that they receive the professional attention they need. Youth with serious mental health problems and disorders who are alienated, socially rejected, and taunted by peers, can be dangerous to themselves and others. These students are often known to peers and school staff and should be given the appropriate professional and parental attention, access to services, and social supports. Having mental health problems combined with being the target of severe bullying and taunting by peers has proven to be a dangerous combination in the context of school shootings. • Ask students to sign a pledge not to tease, bully, or put down others. Reports from schools that have tried this tactic indicate that it makes a difference in the number of incidents that occur and in the overall school climate.