1. Creating School Cultures of Health, Safety and Respect
A presentation for Staff & Faculty
September 2009

2. 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

3. 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

4. Increased Attention to Bullying National 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

5. National Data Secret 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

6. Is bullying a problem in Hawaii schools?
2007 Youth Behavioral Risk Survey
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 6

7. 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 20 24
Had been hurt by hitting, punching, or kicking while on school property one or more times 33
Had been hurt by having mean things said to them while on school property 45
Had been harassed because someone thought they were gay, lesbian, or bisexual 10 13
Hawaii DOE Official Enrollment Count 35,584 Middle School Students (68% ~ 24,179)
Hawaii DOE Official Enrollment Count 82,681 High School Students (55% ~ 25,903)
Total of 50,000 students in public schools identify harassment and bullying by other students as a problem at school.
Hawaiian student were also 4 times more like to believe harassment and bullying was a problem at their school than US students. 7

8. When Bullying Happens . . . Bully Bystander
All in the triangle are impacted.
Any bullying prevention/intervention program must
address all three groups.
Bystander
Victim/Target

9. 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

10. 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.”

11. Myth #2 About Bullying Name calling, rumor spreading, etc.
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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Chapter 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).

15. 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

16. “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.

17. “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

18. “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

19. Types of Bullying Horne and Orpinas, 2007 Physical Verbal Relational
Social isolation
Sexual (harassment)
Cyberbullying
Horne and Orpinas, 2007

20. What Rewards Bullying Behavior?
Most common
Attention from bystanders
Attention and reaction of victim
Access to resources (materials, activities)
Self –delivered reward

21. 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.”

22. 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

23. Because We Care About You . . .

24. Teach All Students . . .3 STEP Process How To STOP Something You Don’t Like
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

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

26. 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

27. 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
Bystanders
Teach 3 step process
Teach not to reinforce problem behavior
Otherwise bulliers will gain peer attention/objects for inappropriate behavior

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Thank you for being
Proactive
and
Committed!

32. 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?