+ Bullying: The Power of Peers

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Philip C. Rodkin wrote a version of a government report on bullying for the September 2011 Issue of ASCD’s publication Educational Leadership.

Rodkin first explains the use of the words peer and bully, which at first glance, don’t appear to belong together.  

A “peer” means someone of the same standing, a social equal. A “bully” is seizing power  in a social situation.

It’s this sense of inequality, abuse, and unfairness — and of a peer culture valuing all the wrong things — that makes bullying incompatible with the democratic spirit; all youth should be free to learn in peace and safety, making the most of their talents and goals.

Children and youth (and some adults) use bullying to acquire resources and to demonstrate to an audience that they are the ones who dominate.  This is where peers come into the picture.  Bullies can’t succeed unless witnesses play along.  If they ignore the bullying, or intervene to stop the action, the bully is deprived of his objective.

Presumably bullying at school occurs under the watchful eye of responsible adults, so how peers and adults act in response to bullying is crucial.  And it is even better if these others can anticipate the bullying in advance of the event.

Research has informed parents and  educators about the structural situations in which bullying occurs.  But more is needed to determine how to use this information effectively in making our schools a safe place for kids. 

Bullies Live in Two Social Worlds

Tom Farmer and colleagues wrote a recent article on the “two social worlds” of bullying: on one hand marginalization, and on the other, connection.

Socially marginalized bullies, they say, may be fighting against a social system that keeps them on the periphery.  Socially connected bullies use aggression to control others and garner power.

Bullies who are marginalized and unpopular are often shunted into peer groups with other bullies.  These marginalized bullies (more often boys than girls) often have a host of problems, and the bullying behavior is only one manifestation.  Bullying in their case may stem from an inability to control their impulsive actions, or it may be due to a desire to gain an elusive status. 

On the other hand, ”connected” bullies belong to highly networked and integrated social worlds; they don’t lack for peer social support. 

These socially connected bullies are evenly divided between boys and girls.  They have a variety of friends.  Some but not all of those friends are bullies themselves.  These bullies strengths may  include social skills, athleticism, or physical attractiveness. 

Socially connected bullies tend to be proactive and goal-directed in their aggression.  They often have years of experience with peers, sometimes since as early as their day-care groups.

They incorporate prosocial strategies into their behavioral repertoire (e.g. reconciling with targets after conflict, or becoming less aggressive after they’ve established dominance).

Bullies who are socially connected are under-recognized as seriously aggressive.  They are frequently popularized in the media.  Of them, one group of researchers uses the words”popular, socially skilled, and competent.”

Bullying peaks in early adolescence, but the two social worlds of bullying exists through all the early grades, sometimes as early as kindergarten. 

Rodkin says

As light can be both wave and particle, aggression can be maladaptive or adaptive depending on why the aggression occurs; the time frame (that is, adaptive in the short run, but maladaptive in the long run); the consequences of the aggressive act; and one’s perspective.

Educators and parents need to ask of any bullying situation why the bullying works — from the perspective of the bully.  It is necessary to establish what goals are being served by the bullying behavior: they will differ for each child in each different situation.   

The Bully-Victim Relationship 

Criminologists always establish first the relationship between any victim and the perpetrator.   In any bully/victim situation the question is rarely asked.  We know very little about what is built in to any bullying event.

The focus has traditionally been on identifying “bully,” “victim,” and “bully-victim” categories. Time is spent determining such things as “prevalence rates,” and “behavioral characteristics” of bullying incidents.

Bullies and victims therefore are put into separate boxes, and their separateness is spotlighted.  The implication is that there is no known relationship between a bully and a victim — that the targeting is random.

But the reality is more complex.  Bullies and victims often have a previously existing relationship that lead up to the incidents. 

If these facts had been made clear, knowledgeable adults might have been alerted to the trouble spots.

Reciprocated dislike or animosity is one clear predictor of trouble.  Potential bullies  — particularly socially connected bullies – turn their angry thoughts into aggressive behavior.  The direct that behavior then toward low-status peers whom they already dislike (and who almost certainly dislike them as well).

Time frames can be  predictable.  Socially connected children choose same-sex bullying as part of their struggle for dominance, particularly in the beginning of the school year, or between transitions from one school to another (when the social hierarchy is in flux) and it is easy to target unpopular children.

In a disturbing number of cases, aggressive boys harass girls.  Sixty percent of 5th to 7th grade girls in one study reported being bullied by boys.  Unpopular, rejected, aggressive boys are most likely to harass girls. 

In another study, 38 percent of girls who experience sexual harassment “say they first experienced it in elementary school.”

Socially connected bullies tend to demonstrate within-sex bullying and dominance behavior against unpopular targets.

“Bullying is a Social Event”

Studies show that even one good friend can help assuage the harmful consequences of harassment. 

Adults should be aware that in addition to implementing violence reduction therapies and social skills trainings, social ties of marginalized bullies should be spotlighted.  Broaden these networks, where feasible, to include a greater variety of peers.  

Rodkin says he refers to socially connected bullies as “hidden in plain sight.”  Because these types of bullies affiliate with a wide variety of peers, there is an unhealthy potential for widespread acceptance of bullying. 

Debra Pepler and colleagues call this the “theater of bullying,”  which encompasses not only the bully-victim dyad, but also children who encourage, reinforce  and silently witness the abuse. 

Pepler says “Bullying is a social event in the classroom and on the playground.” In almost 90 percent of observed cases there was an audience of peers.

This silent, mocking audience grows exponentially, in frightening anonymity, with cyber-bullying.  Thus the problem of bullying is also a problem of the unresponsive bystander, whether that bystander is a classmate who finds harassment funny, a peer who sits on the sidelines afraid to get involved, or an educator who sees bullying as just another part of growing up.

One report finds that socially connected bullies target children who will likely not be defended. 

Peers who do intervene in bullying can make a real difference.  While studies show that a defender may be  successful in more than 50 percent of such attempts,  bystanders appear to stand up to the aggressor in only 20 percent of incidents.

In addition

[o]ne good friend can make a crucial difference to children who are harassed.  Victims who are friends with a non-victimized peer are less likely to internalize problems as a result…for example, being sad, depressed or anxious.

Even 1st graders who have a friend but who are otherwise socially isolated seem to be protected from the adjustment problems that other isolated children may suffer.

Surprisingly, one study found that intervention which involves peers (using students as peer mediators, engaging bystanders to disapprove and offer support to the victim) were found to be associated with increases in victimization.

In fact of 20 program elements included in 44 school-based programs, work with peers was the only program element associated with significantly more bullying and victimization.  (There were significant and positive effects for parent training and school meetings in reducing bullying.)

For peer mediation to be effective, students who are chosen to be mediators should probably be popular and prosocial.

The most innovative, intensive, grassroots uses of peer relationships to reduce bullying (one is the You Have the Power! program in Montgomery County, Maryland) have not been scientifically evaluated.  This work must be undertaken.

Teachers should ask what kind of bully they face when dealing with a victimization problem.  Is the bully a member of a group?  Is he or she a group leader?  How are the bullies and victims situated in the “peer ecology”?

Educators who exclusively target peripheral, antisocial cliques as the engine of school violence problems may leave intact other  groups that are more responsible for mainstream peer support of bullying.

Educators should periodically talk with students and ask about their social relationships and whether bullying is present.

Charles Payne makes the point in his book “So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools,” that even the best, most rigorous and most validated intervention may not be successful: weak social infrastructure and dysfunctional organizational environments must also be taken into account.

The task ahead is to help educators recognize, understand and help guide children’s relationships.  We must determine ways that bullies and the children they harass can be folded into the whole social fabric of the school.

With guidance from caring, engaged adults, youth can organize themselves as a force that makes bullying less effective as a means of social connection or as an outlet for alienation.

sole source: Philip C. Rodkin’s article in ASCD’s September 2011 issue of Educational Leadership.  Visit http://www.ascd.org

The full report from which this article was taken was commissioned to be presented to the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, which met on March 10, 2011. 

The conference brought together President Obama, the first lady, members of the cabinet, as well as youth, parents, researchers, school officials and other groups.  The goal was to craft a national strategy for reducing and ending bullying in schools.

tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com  

+ Teachers: Reach Out to Parents of Bullied Students

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An article in ASCD  Express by Allan Beane and Michelle Law has offered numerous tips for parents of bullied students.

They write

As educators, you probably requently have parents contact you because their child is being bullied…

First, you should assure them that you will immediately investigate their child’s situation.  Then, you should discuss what might help their child be safe from bullying while you investigate.

They suggest that perhaps the child needs to avoid certain areas on school property at certain times; perhaps the school might increase supervision in high risk areas where this child needs to be.  Tell parents to make sure the child talks to an adult, such as a supportive teacher, every day.

Adults, both parents and teachers, need to stay vigilant.  Look for the following warning signs and symptoms and address problems quickly.

TIPS FOR PARENTS

• Note that for a behavior to be labeled bullying, it must be persistent (repeated over time); it must be intentionally designed to hurt or frighten the child.  and the bully must have power and control over your child.
• Let the child know that NO ONE deserves to be bullied.
• Stay calm.
• Be sensitive; your child may feel embarrassed and ashamed.
• Determine what happened, who was involved, when and where it happened.  Importantly, keep a log of this information. 
• Express confidence that everyone — you, the adults at school, and the child himself — will be able to find a solution.
• Ask the child to write her thoughts and feelings down in a journal or notebook.  This is a great way to discharge emotional pressure and anxiety.
• Explain that bullies want to hurt and control.  So it is best — even though difficult — not to show that the behavior hurts.
• Let him know that it is perfectly normal to feel hurt, fear and anger.
• Avoid being a “fix-it” parent.  Don’t call parents; it’s usually not effective. 
• Don’t tell your child to retaliate.  It’s against the rules, and retaliation frequently makes the bullying worse and more prolonged.  And bullies are usually more powerful than their victims.
• Don’t tell your child to ignore the bully; that doesn’t usually work.
• Teach your child to be assertive but not aggressive.
• Don’t promise not to tell anyone.
• Ask for a copy of the district’s anti-bullying policy.
• Report all physical assaults to the school and to police.
• Take pictures of all injuries.  Hold a ruler next to injuries to show their sizes.  Keep a record of all medical treatment, including counseling, expenses and related travel expenses.
• Be patient; some situations take more time to investigate and stop than others.
• Involve your child in activities inside and outside school.  High-quality friendships can blossom when a child is involved in activities she enjoys.
• Monitor your child’s whereabouts and his friendships.
• Involve your child in discovering solutions to her bullying situation.
• Watch for signs of depression and anxiety; don’t hesitate to seek professional counseling.
• Ask an older student with good morals to mentor your child.
• Don’t give up.

VICTIM WARNING SIGNS

Some of these warning signs are very serious.  Pay attention.

• Sudden decreased interest in school (wants to stay home).
• Sudden loss of interest in favorite school activities (band, swim team…)
• Sudden decrease in quality of schoolwork.
• Wanting a parent to take her to school instead of riding the bus.
• Seems happy on weekends, but unhappy, preoccupied or tense on Sundays before school the next day.
• Suddenly prefers the company of adults.
• Frequent illnesses, such as headaches, stomach aches.
• Sleep issues: insomnia or nightmares.
• Comes home with unexplained scratches, bruises or torn clothing.
• Talks about avoiding certain areas of the school or neighborhood.
• Suddenly becomes moody, irritable, or angry; begins to bully others (siblings or children in the neighborhood.
• Seeks the wrong friends in the wrong places (drug users, cult-like groups, gangs).
• Talks about being sad, anxious, depressed or having panic attacks.
• Wants to stay home at night.
• Wants to stay home on weekends.
• Self-mutilates.
• Talks about suicide.

Source: Article on ASCD Express (Vol. 6, No. 13) by Allan L. Beane and Michelle Law.  Beane is founder and CEO of Bully Free Systems LLC, a program that is used in schools and districts nationally.  The Bully Free Program also offers books and resources.  Law is a special education teacher in Woodward, OK. She is a coordinator of the Bully Free Program at Cedar Heights Elementary.

ASCD was formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  It is a membership organization that develops programs, products and services essential to the way educators learn, teach and lead.  Visit http://www.ascd.org/ascdexpress.

Tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com .

+ Bullying Studies Tackle Playground Gossip

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An article by Sarah D. Spark in Education Week, reports that emerging research suggests ‘relational bullying’ may hold the key to changing an aggressive culture in schools.

Of the three major types of bullying — physical, verbal and relational — relational aggression has been the least studied. 

It may be that it involves less visible, immediately dangerous behavior.  And it may also be because it involves nuanced relationships among all concerned: the bullies, the victims and the bystanders.

According to Stephen S. Leff, director of the Children’s hospital of Philadelphia, and editor of a special issue on bullying in School Psychology Review, the shooters at Columbine and other school shootings were often victims of relational aggression. 

Leff feels there is a growing recognition that emotional scars are real and we need to create interventions to address those scars and prevent them from happening.

In one four-year study of American middle and high school students, researchers found that students considered by their peers to be the most popular were not the same as those most liked.

In addition, it was found that students perceived to be popular were the most likely to engage in gossip and social manipulation over time.

The Dark Side of Popularity

“It’s the dark side of popularity,” says Antonius H.N. Cillessen, professor of developmental psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands.

For the practice of education it’s pretty important, because the popular bully gets a lot of peer reinforcement.  As adults we can say this is bad, you shouldn’t do this, but among peers, bullies have power.

In addition, he states that it is a difficult challenge for intervention research: it means you can’t work only on the individual bully or victim.  It means researchers need to address all possible roles a person can play.

A randomized study of 610 3rd- through 6th-grade students in Seattle, led by Karin S. Frey at the University of Washington, found relational aggression on the playground was “semi-public.”  Episodes could go on for quite a while, even when adults were present.  From an article in School Psychology Review,

A student or students would speak negatively about a third-party that was not among the listeners.  Group members would laugh, gesture, or look ‘meaningfully’ in the direction of an isolated, unhappy-looking student.

Says Frey, it’s both parallel and a step on the path to physical and verbal abuse.  For example, rumors often allege a boy has flirted with or had sex with another boy’s girlfriend, leading to fights.

Hill Walker is a professor of special education and co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior at the University of Oregon. 

Walker feels that the need to understand and address relational aggression is becoming more urgent, especially as students interact more often online, away from even minimal adult supervision.

Ways to Intervene

An anti-bullying program called Steps to Respect teaches bystanders how to avoid feeding the bully’s energy by watching, laughing, and spreading rumors, says Ms. Frey.  Students learn to comfort and support the victim without encouraging him or her to retaliate, which escalates problems.

If you’re the victim and you’re surrounded by people watching, you don’t know what people are thinking.  They may be enjoying the spectacle, or they may be feeling really uncomfortable.  But if they don’t say anything, it feels like they are all against you.

After the Steps to Respect program was instituted in the Seattle area, researchers found “malicious gossip” dropped 72 percent. 

The program trains teachers to identify relational aggression and encourage bystanders to stand up for children who are ostracized.

Another program, being developed by Mr. Leff, is called PRAISE (Preventing Relational Aggression in Schools Every Day). 

PRAISE includes training for teachers on ways to recognize more subtle bullying, as well as how to explain to students the difference between normal social interaction and harassment. 

sole source: Sarah D. Spark’s article in Education Week, February 1, 2011.  To read the entire article, visit http://www.edweek.org .  When you subscribe to Education Week, you will receive a monthly newsletter for educators full of  useful information, as well as  great benefits.

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Bullying Summit Yields Results

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From LDA Newsbriefs, September/October 2010 issue, we learn that real work is being done on bullying, as a result of the first ever federal National Summit on Bullying.

They have launched bullying information site at

http://www.bullying.info.org. 

The site allows for an easy, more centralized and accessible one-stop site for federal resources on bullying. 

The Office for Civil Rights has been reinvigorated; this means complaints of bullying and harassment will be vigorously investigated.

In addition, the collaboration between federal agencies (the departmensts of Education, Justice, Heanlth and Human Services, Agriculture, Defense and Interior) will continue.

According to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan,

As educators, as state and local officials, and at the federal level, we simply have not taken the problem of bullying seriously enough.  It is an absolute travesty of our educational system when students fear for their safety suffer discrimination and tauns because of their ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or a host of other reasons.  The fact is that no school can be a great school until it is a safe school first.

The US Department of Education has stepped up its efforts to address bullying to include a new $27 million Safe and Supportive Schools (S3)grant program.  This pilot will enable states to measure school safety at the building level, and provide federal funds for interventions in those schools with the greatest needs.

In addition, the Department’s blueprint for reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act calls for a dramatic increase in funding for its Successful, Safe and Healthy Students grants program, an expansion of the Safe and Supportive Schools pilot.

Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary for the Department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, says

The bullying summit exceeded our highest expectations as our partners came prepared with brilliant ideas and boundless imagination.  We will compile those ideas and use them as a framework to map out a national anti-bullying strategy in the coming weeks and months.  As 2010-2011 school year begins, we want to get resources into the hands of educators, families, students and concerned community members so they can help put an end to bullying.  The new Website puts all of our resources in one place, so folks can use them immediately as schools open.

OTHER BULLYING INFORMATION WEB SITES

http://www.schoolfamily.com 

http://www.jimwrightonline.com

http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov

http://www.ParentsConnect.com/Bullying

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bullying.html

source: LDA Newsbriefs, September/October 2010 issue.  http://www.LDAamerica.org

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Middle School Students Write a Book About Bullying

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In Rafael Olmeda’s article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, we learn that a book, a work in progress, will address personal stories about bullying — by victims and young perpetrators.

Titled “I Was a Bully… But I Stopped,”  the book is on a fast track to be published within the month. 

It will be distributed in Broward County and then it will be offered to the Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade school districts.

Broward County was the first school district in Florida to develop an anti-bullying program.  The rest of the state’s districts followed suit by the end of 2008.

The fifty middle schoolers collaborating on the book have created characters like “Michael,”  who learns how to be abusive from watching his dad treat his mom terribly.  “Lucina” never learned to be a bully, but she’s privileged… so why shouldn’t she ”lord it over” those who are not?

Bob Knotts, a local author who conceived  the book and is a founder of the Dania Beach-based Humanity Project, developed the project and is helping produce it.  

He says, “Bullying really hurts everybody in school, and it takes everybody to stop it.” 

Two high-profile events led to the Humanity Project.  In October, a seventh-grader skipped school out of fear of another student who had tried to steal his dad’s bike; that student and his pals assaulted the boy and set him on fire.  (He survived.)

Then, in March, and eighth-grade girl was violently attacked at a campus bus stop by a high school student who thought she had insulted his dead brother in a text message.  The high-school student has been charged with attempted murder.

The March incident prompted the district to promote more vigorously its “Silence Hurts” program, an anonymous way to report bullying and threats of violence.

Knotts has two goals with the Humanity Project workshop — he wants to provide an academic exercise for children “at risk” of low achievement or failure, and also to engage them in bullying prevention.

He did not compel students to talk in front of the class, but knows “some elements of all their experiences will end up in their finished stories.”

The character “Michael,” is a dyslexic boy, whose dad is black and whose mom is Asian) says he bullies because it’s all he knows how to do.  “Lucina” is a white girl from a wealthy family whose parents recently divorced.

Once the characters were developed, students went into groups to work on their stories.  Each group was free to create a victim and to figure out a realistic way for the bully to change before the story’s end.

One student says “I can relate to Michael a little bit.  But only a little bit.  I don’t think he wants to be a bully.  I actually think it’s because of what he’s going through.”

Allowing students to create the victims is a way to grant them insight into how it feels to be bullied.

Michael is imagined terrorizing a small freckled squeaky-voiced boy.  He demands the boy’s lunch money.  Says a student, “It happens more to people that look weak.”

Her group is planning to stop Michael’s bullying by introducing a female peer to teach him the right way to behave.  But other groups may choose to have the victim fight back.

A twelve-year-old girl says “I used to be bullied a lot…because I carried a book with me wherever I go.  I love to read.” 

She says this is “a really good class.  It’s not just teaching me about bullies.  It’s helping me be a writer, and that’s what I want to do.”

souce: Rafael Olmeda’s 7/19/10 article at http://www.sun-sentinel.com

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Cyber Bullying Affects One in 10 Students

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A new study by the National Institutes of Health suggests that many children in grades 6 through 10 have either bullied classmates or been bullied by them, sometimes through cell phones, according to Peter West, reporter for Health Day.

The study, released in the Journal of Adolescent Medicine, analyzed data from the World Health Organization’s 2005/2006 survey of human behavior in school-aged children.

They found that 20.8 percent of respondents reported being perpetrators or victims of physical bullying in the past two months; 53.6 percent were victims of verbal bullying; 51.4 percent were victims of relational bullying which involves social exclusion, and 13.6 percent were victims of cyber bullying on a computer, cell phone or other electronic device.

Study author Ronald Iannotti, staff psychologist at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, says “Bullying definitely remains prevalent and seems to peak in middle school.  Middle school years are difficult.”

The study didn’t look for an increase or decrease in school bullying over the years, but some experts believe the rate has stayed stable or even declined over the past decade.

This study is one of the first to examine the recent phenomenon of cyber bullying.

“Physical bullying” was defined as hitting, kicking, pushing, shoving and locking a classmate indoors.   “Verbal bullying” included calling someone mean names, making fun of/ teasing in a hurtful way, and saying mean things about a person’s race or religion.  “Relational bullying” was defined as spreading rumors or socially excluding others.

Trends Revealed by the Study:

• Verbal bullying was the most prevalent of the four major forms of bullying.
• Boys are more likely to be involved in physical and verbal bullying.
• Girls are more likely to spread rumors and ostracise a victim.
• Bullying tends to decline as children get older, with the bullying taking place in middle school, especially seventh and eighth grades.
• Compared with whites, balck adolescents were more likely to be bullies, and less likely to be victims.
• Hispanics were more involved in physical bullying than whites but more likely to suffer cyber bullying.

A big part in determining hostile behavior seems to be how many friends a child has.  For physical, verbal and relational abuse, kids with lots of friends are at higher risk of becoming bullies.

Cyber bullying is bullying through a computer or other communication device.  It is still a small phenomenon.  Researchers found that eight percent had received harassing computer pictures or messages; six percent were bullied by cell phone.  More boys were cyber bullies; more girls were cyber victims.

The size of a child’s social circle didn’t affect their involvement in electronic bullying.  But affluence seems to increase the risk, probably because wealthier families have more computers and cell phones available.

Says Frederick Zimmerman, associate professor at the UCLA School of Public Health, “There’s been a lot of recent emphasis on cyber bullying, but the fact is that there is a lot less of it than in-person bullying.  Parents can certainly help by being aware of what their kids are doing alone in their rooms.”

Good Parental Support Makes a Difference

No foolproof way exists to stop middle-school bullying.  But the researchers concluded that good parental support helps children avoid abusive behavior. 

Parents serve as role models, good and bad, says Iannotti.  Furthermore, kids who come from loving homes and feel good about themselves are less likely to want to harass someone, and are less likely to appear weak to potential bullies.

Zimmerman feels parents should be on the lookout for signs of bullying and victimization — but shouldn’t overreact.

Most kids shrug  it off and bounce back, he says. 

sole source: article by Peter West, HealthDay Reporter at Yahoo.com.  More information, visit National Institutes of Health at  http://www.nih.gov/

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ New Tactics to Stop Bullying: CAPSLE

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From an article in Science Daily:  A new psychodynamic approach to bullying called CAPSLE (Creating a Peaceful School Learning Environment) has been found successful by researchers in London and the US. 

The groundbreaking method focuses more on the bystanders, including the teacher, than on either the bully or the victim.

Professor Peter Fonagy of  University College London (UCL) says,

Bullying has an extensive impact on children’s mental health including disruptive and aggressive behavior, school dropout, substance abuse, depressed mood, anxiety, and social withdrawal.  It also undermines educational achievement and disrupts children’s abilities to develop social relationships.

While school anti-bullying programs are widely used, there have been few controlled trials of their effectiveness.  CAPSLE…  addresses the co-created relationship between the bully, victim and bystanders, assuming that all members of the school community, including teachers, play a role in bullying.  It aims to improve the capacity of all community members to mentalize, that is, to interpret one’s own and others’ behavior in terms of mental states (beliefs, wishes, feelings), assuming that greater awareness of other people’s feelings will counteract the temptation to bully others.  It also teaches people to manage power struggles and issues, both of which are known to damage mentalizing.

The randomized study of 1,345 third- to fifth-graders  in nine US elementary schools assessed the efficacy of a three-year program.  In total, about 4,000 children were exposed to the protocol.

CAPSLE schools were compared with schools receiving no intervention and those using only School Psychiatric Consultation (SPC), in which children with the most significant problems were assessed and referred for counseling.

The CAPSLE program doesn’t target aggressive children.  Rather, it works to develop mentalizing skills in students and staff across the wider school community.  It begins with bystanders perceiving and accepting their own (unthinking) role in maintaining the bully-victim relationship through abdicating responsibility and making an implicit decision not to think about what the bully/victim is experiencing.

The emphasis is on the need to understand, rather than reacting to others and thus avoiding the problems created by the regression into victim and victimizer.

Poster campaigns, stickers and badges were used to create a climate where feelings were labelled and distress was acknowledged as legitimate, with the ultimate aim of changing the way an entire school system views bullying.

In the first year of the study teachers received a day of group training; students received nine sessions of self-defense.  This training in martial arts with role-playing was designed to help children understand how they responded to victimization, and how that victimization affected their capacity to think clearly and creatively.

During the study, teachers were discouraged from  making disciplinary referrals (such as sending someone to the principal’s office) unless absolutely necessary.  Classes were asked to take 15 minutes at the end of the school day to reflect on the day’s activities.

All classes would reflect on bully-victim-bystander relationships according to a structured format depicted in posters placed in all classrooms.  Children would assess the extent to which they had succeeded in being reflective and compassionate.

They would then make a classroom decision on whether or not a class banner should be posted outside the room to say that the classroom had had a good mentalizing day.

The study found that children were much tougher on themselves than teachers would have been under similar circumstances.

Over the course of the study, reports of aggression, victimization, bystanding behavior and mentalizing observations on a randomly chosen subgroup of children were made at regular intervals by observers who looked for “off-task” and disruptive behavior.

The program was found to generate more positive bystanding behaviors, greater empathy for victims, and less favorable attitudes towards aggression in the CAPSLE schools.  In these schools, fewer children were nominated by their peers as aggressive, victimized, or engaging in aggressive bystanding, compared with the control schools.

CAPSLE made no attempt to focus on helping disturbed children individually or picking them out for treatment.  It did not set explicit rules against bullying, nor did it advocate any special treatment for bullying children.

Nevertheless, over time the study found that bullies came to be disempowered.  At first, theses children complained that the program was voring and should be stopped.  Gradually, the school system tended to recruit them into more helpful roles.

See: P.Fonagy et al.  A cluster-randomized controlled trial of child-focused psychiatric consultation and a school systems-focused intervention to reduce aggression.  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26 january, 2009.

source: www.sciencedaily.com on 1/27/09; no author given; adapted from materials provided by University College London.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Web Sites to Stop Violence and Bullying

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This week’s offerings from EduHound’s “Classroom Tools and Tips”  deal with violence prevention:

• National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center  –  A Federal resource for professionals, parents and youth working to prevent violence committed by and against young people.  www.safeyouth.org
• Stop Bullying Now!  –  Practical research-based strategies to reduce bullying in schools.   www.stopbullyingnow.com
• Kidscape:  Dealing With Bullies  –  Helping to prevent bullying and child abuse.  www.kidscape.org.uk
• NEA: National Bullying Awareness Campaign (NBAC)  – Its goal is to reduce, and eventually eradicate, bullying in America’s public schools.  www.nea.org/schoolsafety/bullying.html
• Maine Project Against Bullying  –  A survey of bullying behavior among Maine third graders.  http://lincoln.midcoast.com/~wps/against/bullying.html
• STOP cyberbullying – Information about cyberbullying, how it works, and how to deal with cyberbullies.  www.stopcyberbullying.org

source: www.eduhound.com Eduhound Weekly is a magazine for teachers offering valuable edtech resources to incorporate into K-12 classrooms.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Bullying in Fayetteville and Somewhere Near You

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In the NY Times, Dan Barry writes:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.

All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling.

Moments earlier he left the sanctuary that is his home, passing those framed photographs of himself as a carefree child, back when he was 5. And now he is at the bus stop, wearing a baseball cap, vulnerable at 15.

A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to the oblivious Billy and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead.

The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back, lanky arms flailing. But the screams of his sister stop things cold.

The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home, again. It’s not yet 8 in the morning.

Bullying is everywhere, including here in Fayetteville, a city of 60,000 with one of the country’s better school systems. A decade ago a Fayetteville student was mercilessly harassed and beaten for being gay. After a complaint was filed with the Office of Civil Rights, the district adopted procedures to promote tolerance and respect — none of which seems to have been of much comfort to Billy Wolfe.

It remains unclear why Billy became a target at age 12; schoolyard anthropology can be so nuanced. Maybe because he was so tall, or wore glasses then, or has a learning disability that affects his reading comprehension. Or maybe some kids were just bored. Or angry.

Whatever the reason, addressing the bullying of Billy has become a second job for his parents: Curt, a senior data analyst, and Penney, the owner of an office-supply company. They have binders of school records and police reports, along with photos documenting the bruises and black eyes. They are well known to school officials, perhaps even too well known, but they make no apologies for being vigilant. They also reject any suggestion that they should move out of the district because of this.

The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”

It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain sex toy, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.

Ms. Wolfe says she and her husband knew it was coming. She says they tried to warn school officials — and then bam: the prank caller beat up Billy in the bathroom of McNair Middle School.

Not long after, a boy on the school bus pummeled Billy, but somehow Billy was the one suspended, despite his pleas that the bus’s security camera would prove his innocence. Days later, Ms. Wolfe recalls, the principal summoned her, presented a box of tissues, and played the bus video that clearly showed Billy was telling the truth.

Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class goaded a bigger boy into believing that Billy had been talking trash about his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the left cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.

Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy’s cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved. Most of all, she remembers the sight of her son.

“He kept spitting blood out,” she says, the memory strong enough still to break her voice.

By now Billy feared school. Sometimes he was doubled over with stress, asking his parents why. But it kept on coming.

In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”

Heh-heh.

According to Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the school district, the principal notified the parents of the students involved after Ms. Wolfe complained, and the parents — whom he described as “horrified” — took steps to have the page taken down.

Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek.

So who is Billy Wolfe? Now 16, he likes the outdoors, racquetball and girls. For whatever reason — bullying, learning disabilities or lack of interest — his grades are poor. Some teachers think he’s a sweet kid; others think he is easily distracted, occasionally disruptive, even disrespectful. He has received a few suspensions for misbehavior, though none for bullying.

Judging by school records, at least one official seems to think Billy contributes to the trouble that swirls around him. For example, Billy and the boy who punched him at the bus stop had exchanged words and shoves a few days earlier.

But Ms. Wolfe scoffs at the notion that her son causes or deserves the beatings he receives. She wonders why Billy is the only one getting beaten up, and why school officials are so reluctant to punish bullies and report assaults to the police.

Mr. Wilbourn said federal law protected the privacy of students, so parents of a bullied child should not assume that disciplinary action had not been taken. He also said it was left to the discretion of staff members to determine if an incident required police notification.

The Wolfes are not satisfied. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.

Billy Wolfe, for example, deserves to open his American history textbook and not find anti-Billy sentiments scrawled across the pages. But there they were, words so hurtful and foul.

The boy did what he could. “I’d put white-out on them,” he says. “And if the page didn’t have stuff to learn, I’d rip it out.”

source: this is the article written by Dan Barry, in the NY Times on 3/24/08.  www.nytimes.com

Also online: A slide show of Billy Wolfe at www.nytimes.com/danbarry.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Be Aware of Autism; Act Kindly Writes Senior in HS

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Michele Kurtz, a senior at Rocky Point High School in NY, writes in Newsday’s “New Voices”:

The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in children has increased tremendously in the past decade. Now that it is seen as more common, students should become more aware of the symptoms and why individuals with autism act the way they do. As a senior in high school, I am beginning to witness more unfortunate instances where students who are viewed as “different” are mistreated just because others around them do not understand.  

In high school, many students are quick to judge their peers. Teenage years for anyone can be very stressful, but some forget to give credit to students who struggle with social and verbal problems. If more people knew about the battle others had, they might think before acting insensitively. 

Some may interpret a child’s lack of eye contact and difficulty in making conversation as being weird or unfriendly. These children do not have the skills to determine what exactly is going on in a social situation. Knowing the characteristics and symptoms of these disorders – which affect social and communication skills – will make people conscious of what autism is. 

Students should have some compassion for each other. The atmosphere set by the student body can make a difference. When people are open-minded to others’ differences, it makes the learning environment more enjoyable. Positive reinforcement and clear directions can help children with autism manage through life. 

No one should be the victim of someone else’s jokes, especially a person who may not fully understand the remarks. With awareness and kindness, people can blend, improving each other’s deficits and highlighting each other’s accomplishments.

 sole source: newsday.com article by Michele Kurtz on 2/1/08.  www.newsday.com   tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email  aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com