Issue of School Bullying Addressed
by Chuck Saufler, Guidance Counsellor, Wiscasset Schools
Two years ago I heard that the Department of Education was looking for someone to write an anti-harassment curriculum for Maine elementary schools grades K-4. I wrote a proposal which was subsequently funded through a Perkins grant from the DOE's Affirmative Action office. So began the Maine Project Against Bullying (MPAB). My interest in bullying stems from my long-term association with programs focusing on community building in schools and my career (not my first) as an elementary school guidance counselor. I am also the parent of a nine-year-old attending a public school.
MPAB is composed of 14 Maine educators from a variety of disciplines. It is the goal of the MPAB to identify and present proven techniques, strategies, methodologies, and programs which support students, schools and communities in addressing the problem of bullying/harassment among children in grades K-4.
Ten to 15% of primary school children report being bullied on a regular basis. Bullying cuts across geographic, racial, and socioeconomic lines. Increasing numbers of school-age students are demonstrating persistent patterns of antisocial behavior, with correspondingly destructive effects on the school climate. Bullying is one of the most underrated and enduring problems in schools today, and is a reality in the lives of all children, whether they are bullies, victims or witnesses. Children who bully are at risk for a host of long-term, negative developmental outcomes, including juvenile and adult criminal behavior. It is students demonstrating these behaviors that educators must target as early as possible in order to have a chance to divert them from a destructive, antisocial path during their lives. Unless new behaviors are learned and adopted, bullies continue to bully throughout their lives.
When continually faced with bullying behavior by their peers, victimized students report fear of going to school, fear of riding the bus, physical symptoms of illness, progressively lower levels of self-esteem, and diminished ability to learn in school. As young adults, victimized students have lower self esteem and higher levels of depression.
Children's exposure to violence and maltreatment of others (including verbal abuse) is significantly associated with increased depression, anxiety, anger, post traumatic stress, alcohol use, and lower grades. Witnesses to bullying can be affected in this way as well.
Bullying is clearly a threat to peace in our schools. What can we do about it? For the past two years, MPAB has done a lot of research on how best to address bullying, and compiled a great many resources. In the coming year we will conduct a survey of bullying in a cross section of Maine schools (K-4), try out selected curricula that align with Maine learning results, and measure outcomes. We are collaborating with the Muskie Institute and the University of Southern Maine on this part of the project. A data base of resources will also be created and made available to schools.
We are also establishing relationships with other statewide anti-violence community initiatives (ie. The Rural Justice Innovation Project, Communities for Children), so that this project will have an impact in the wider community as well as in schools.
Adult involvement is crucial to the success of any school improvement initiative. MPAB will be providing staff training to a number of schools in anti-bullying programs this fall. The purpose of this work is to help schools create a caring majority of students. This can be achieved through implementing proven bullying prevention programs. All adults in school, as well as at home, must become aware of the extent of the bully/victim problems in their own school. These adults must engage, in a focused and sustained manner, in changing the situation. There exists a number of bullying prevention programs which could help schools restructure their environment to reduce opportunities and rewards for bullying behavior. To stop bullying we need to shift power from the bully to the caring majority of students and staff. The purpose of this effort is both prevention and intervention.
We believe, and the research bears this out, that bullying behavior is an antecedent to more serious harassment and antisocial behavior. The current research on antisocial behavior makes clear that early intervention in home, school, and community is the best hope we have of diverting children from this path. We also strongly believe that bullying, harassment, and violence are community issues that need a multifaceted, systemic approach that includes all community stakeholders. The Maine Project Against Bullying strives to help schools and communities intervene as early as possible.
For more information contact me at school: 207- 882-7585, e-mail: chuck_saufler@wiscasset.k12.me.us or sauflers@lincoln.midcoast.com (home)
from Peace Talk, September, 1999Back to Peace Talk Index, September 1999