Creating School Cultures of Health, Safety and Respect

A presentation for Staff & Faculty

September 2009

Department’s Student Priority:Safety & Well-being 1o f 3 student priorities Our mission:

Ensure we exemplify the healthy, safe, and respectful teaching and learning environments where all student diversities are honored and valued.

Safety & well-being prerequisite to student academic and social success Establish compassionate and rigorous learning

environments Students need to feel safe & secure to maximize

their growth potentials in risk-free environments

Our School’s Investment in Prevention

Insert copy of your school’s behavioral expectations matrix or core ethical values

Appropriate student behaviors are modeled by adults on campus and

Acknowledged by adults and students Our goal is to provide 6 positives to 1

negative in recognizing appropriate behaviors

Increased Attention to BullyingNational Data 15, 686 students 6th-10th graders (Nansel, 2003)

19% had engaged in bullying behaviors 17% had been victims 6% had been both victims & bullier

• Increasing number reporting being both Occurs most frequently from grade 6 to 8

Males more than females are bullies & victims Males more physically bullied Females more verbally or psychologically

bullied

National DataSecret Service & US DOE Research

Report on 37 shootings including Columbine ¾ of student shooters felt bullied,

threatened, attacked or injured by others Columbine shooters bullied others Several shooters reported experienced

long-term & severe bullying and harassment from peers

2 in 3 middle school students in Hawaii say bullying is a problem

1 in 2 high school students in Hawaii say bullying is a

problem

2007 Youth Behavioral Risk Survey

Is bullying a problem in Hawaii schools?

Is bullying & harassment a problem?Hawaii Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS)

2007

Middle School (%)

High School

(%)

Had been hurt by having mean things said to them on internet or email

20 24

Had been hurt by hitting, punching, or kicking while on school property one or more times

33 24

Had been hurt by having mean things said to them while on school property

33 45

Had been harassed because someone thought they were gay, lesbian, or bisexual

10 13

When Bullying Happens . . .Bully

Bystander Victim/Target

All in the triangle are impacted.

Any bullying prevention/intervention program must address all three groups.

Sometimes Hard To Detect Teasing, hitting, pushing can be playful or bullying

Takes place in areas not well supervised by adults e.g., schools, homes, or communities

Maybe subtle such as: social exclusion, note-passing, threatening looks

Many students don't report, fear: Retaliation by student doing the bullying Adults won't take concerns seriously or will act

inappropriate in dealing with incident

Myth #1 About Bullying

Bullying is same thing as conflict. Bullying =

• Aggressive behavior, imbalance of power, often repeated over time

• Student has hard time defending him/herself Conflict =

• Antagonism among 2 or more people Conflict resolution or mediation sometimes misused to solve

bullying• Inappropriate message – both are partly right and partly wrong

Appropriate message for child who is bullied:• “Bullying is wrong and no one deserves to be bullied. We are

going to do everything we can to stop it.”

Myth #2 About Bullying

Most bullying is physical, i.e., hitting, shoving, kicking.

Most common bullying = Verbal bullying

• Name calling, rumor spreading, etc.

Also common = Bully via Social Isolation

• Shunning, leaving one out on purpose

Myth #3 About Bullying Bullying isn’t serious. It’s just a matter of “kids being kids.”

Bullying extremely serious Affects mental well being, academic work & physical health of

those targeted Victims

• Lower self-esteem, higher rates of depression, loneliness, anxiety, & suicidal thoughts

• More likely avoid school, have higher absenteeism Students who bully

• More likely engage in other antisocial, violent or troubling behaviors

Bystanders• Observing incident also be impacted negatively

Myth #4 About Bullying

Bullied kids need to learn how to deal with bullying on their own.

Many do not have confidence & skills to stop bullying when it happens

Should not expect students to deal with bullying on their own

Adults play critical roles in helping to stop bullying

Chapter 19 2009 Definition

“Bullying” means any written, verbal, graphic, or physical act that a student or group of students exhibits toward other particular student(s) and the behavior causes mental or physical harm to the other student(s); and is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student(s).

Impact of Bullying & Harassment

Harmful effects well documented in research literature Ranges from feelings of:

• Shame, fear, loneliness, anger, low self-esteem to decline in academic performance, avoidance of certain places, ostracized by peers, to escalation of overt violence on campus

“Two minutes of bullying can last a lifetime.” 11 year old male, 5th grade student

I get called “gay” everyday in the classroom “I want to kill myself. I can’t take it anymore.” Student is outcast & his peers will not touch

anything he has prior contact with. Has reported to teacher, counselor, and vice

principal, but met with ambivalence. Teachers describe student as “enigma” implying

there is little school can do about his inherently provocative personality.

“Two minutes of bullying can last a lifetime.” 16 year old girl moved from foreign country to

Hawaii Small group of boys would mock her and mimic

her accent every time she stood in front of the class to recite or give a report

Over time, she decided never to say another word in class

As result, began to fail in class She noted sadly that teacher never intervened

even once to stop the harassment & sometimes smiled when the boys made fun of her

“Two minutes of bullying can last a lifetime.” 25-year old tearfully recalls anguish felt as

overweight child in elementary school Kids called her “the Whale” She tried very hard to get to stop by bringing

students presents• But they continued to tease her

Eventually became very isolated & ate lunch in the bathroom

Became anorexic over the summer At school they called her “anorexic bitch”

• Yet, no teacher intervened and tried to help her

Today she remains severely eating disordered

Types of Bullying

Physical Verbal Relational Social isolation Sexual (harassment) Cyberbullying

Horne and Orpinas, 2007

What Rewards Bullying Behavior?

Most common

Attention from bystanders Attention and reaction of victim Access to resources (materials,

activities) Self –delivered reward

Creating Programs That Work Most effective strategy:

“The entire school as a community to change the climate of the school and the

norms of behavior.”

Effective Bullying Prevention Program: Establish . . . CLEAR school-wide message that bullying is

unacceptable

Positive school climate and implement school-wide rules against bullying

Incorporate BOE 2109 Character Policy into grade curricula

Commitment from all students, parents, and staff that they are part of the anti-bullying solution. Train all school personnel how to prevent and

intervene when they witness bullying

Because We Care About You . . .

Teach All Students . . .3 STEP ProcessHow To STOP Something You Don’t Like “Stop”

Teach students the schoolwide “stop signal” Model when experience problem behavior Practice often with student volunteers

Walk away Sometimes even when indicate “stop”, problem behavior

will continue If this happens, students are to “walk away” from problem Practice “walking away” with student volunteers in class

Talk: Report problems to an adult If “stop” & “walk away” does not work, students should

“talk” to an adult Model and practice the “talk” technique

However, if in DANGER . . .

If any student is in danger, “stop” and “walk” steps should be skipped, and the incident should be reported immediately.

Where Is The Line Between Tattling And Reporting?

"Talking" is when you have tried to solve the problem yourself, and have used the "stop" and “walk" steps first

“Tattling” is when you do not use the "stop" and "walk away" steps before "talking" to an adult Tattling is when your goal is to get the other

person in trouble

Practice Strategies with Students

Students who often are verbally, physically aggressive: Pre-correction On-site practice

Students who often are Victims: Extra teaching about what might be reinforcing Pre-correction On-site practice

Bystanders Teach 3 step process Teach not to reinforce problem behavior

• Otherwise bulliers will gain peer attention/objects for inappropriate behavior

Other Prevention Strategies

Be visible and vigilant (in hallways, cafeterias, playground…). Increase/improve supervision in areas where bullying tends to occur

Weave bullying awareness into the curriculum

Be aware of seating arrangements

Other Prevention Strategies

Meet the needs of individual students

Create an “open-door policy” for students

Inform parents about bullying prevention efforts Articles about bullying prevention in

school newsletter

Reflection . . .

Think about a time when you were truly respected.

How can we create those feelings of being respected in our classrooms and school? Share 3-5 specific ways

Thank you for being Proactive

and Committed!

Table Talk

What are possible actions we should continue or initiate as a whole school regarding prevention of bullying and harassment? As classroom teachers and staff?

What activities should we initiate/maintain with our school community regarding bullying and harassment?