A Positive Environment & Lower Class Sizes Can Help Reduce Bullying
By Mary Anne Hess
It starts out young and it starts out small -- a push
during kindergarten recess or some under-the-breath name-calling when
first graders are lining up in the hallway. It's dubbed bullying or, to
give it an updated '90s label, harassment. Everybody knows it happens
and, depending on which grade you are talking about and which survey you
use, anywhere from 8% to 25% of students say they are victimized by bullies
at school. A far greater number say they have witnessed bullying (42%)
or simply know that it's happening in their school (56%).
It wasn't that long ago that schools took a "kids-will-be-kids"
attitude and advised students to ignore the problem or even deemed the
victim just as responsible as the bully. For a variety of reasons, that
mode of operating doesn't work and probably never did, say the experts.
Statements from student assailants in the recent rash of school shootings
in the U.S. lend credence to the belief that persistent bullying leaves
long-term scars on the victims. These scars, psychologists say, can result
in low self-esteem and depression and possibly contribute to the "pay-back"
element in school violence.
So where and how does it all start? And, most importantly,
how can teachers, principals, parents and all the other adults in children's
lives play a role in stopping this age-old problem? After the Littleton,
Colorado, school massacre, opinions ran rampant on the best way to tackle
the issue. For many teachers in the trenches, the answer lies in smaller
classes, more supportive parents, and a school climate that encourages
staff and students to care about each other. Another key element is zero
tolerance for bullying.
For Lynn Hambrick, a second-grade teacher at Carlisle
County, Kentucky, Elementary School, it's clear the problem begins at
home.
"Parents are just plain afraid to discipline their
children," she says, adding that she's seen a definite increase in
bullying during her 27 years in the classroom. "It's very apparent
that there's a conflict between the way kids act at home and the way they're
permitted to act at school."
Hambrick spends lots of time emphasizing the school
taboo against physical aggression and talking about language that's forbidden
at school, even if parents allow it at home.
Hambrick's school is one of several in rural western
Kentucky benefiting from bullying-prevention strategies designed by Dr.
Allan L. Beane of Murray State University's College of Education.
Beane, author of the just published "The Bully
Free Classroom" (Free Spirit Publishing), says he tried to consider
the multiple burdens facing classroom teachers in devising strategies.
The book features more than 100 activities and reproducible hand-outs
designed so that K-8 teachers can integrate them into a variety of curriculum
areas, including art, reading, writing, and public speaking. He hopes
his strategies can help create schools where all students feel "a
sense of belonging" and free up instructional time now lost to disruptions
caused by bullying behavior.
He encourages teachers to let children know that they
have the power to prevent and stop bullying if everyone works together.
He cautions teachers that if they send the message that students should
report bullying, "you need to respond quickly and effectively."
Students will lose trust and the reporting will stop, he adds, if teachers
fail to act.
Beane emphasizes that his ideas don't constitute just
another program. "It's not something you do, and then you're done.
We must keep in mind that society has gradually taught children through
'little messages' to be intolerant, more selfish, and violent in their
attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, we must take the same approach and
bombard them every day with power messages that can change those attitudes
and behaviors."
Hambrick agrees and sets the tone for her classroom
with the motto "Be kind to one another." She also incorporates
bullying prevention into reading, often selecting fables with morals about
fairness, and into writing lessons, using prompts like: "I feel good
when..." or "I feel bad when..."
"Writing is such an important way to connect to
what's happening in the children's lives," she says, using it as
way to get to know children personally and as a jumping-off point for
many classroom discussions. And even though her children are only 7 or
8, she brings the newspaper into the classroom each day, not shying away
from stories about violence both in and out of school. "We talk about
stories where people aren't treated fairly," she says. "We discuss
what a deep impact our rejecting someone might have."
She also suggests some other anti-bullying strategies
that have worked for her over the years:
- Engage students in discussions about the differences in people.
- Have children help each other academically. Kids aren't likely to
bully children they help and get to know.
- Give kids a structured, consistent environment. If you do what you
say you're going to do, children learn to respect your word.
- When drawing up class rosters, try to spread out students with behavior
problems.
No strategy or program can compete with the positive
effect of low class size
on quelling disruptive behavior, says Hambrick.
"You can do nothing better for a teacher than to
lower her class size. I started out the year with 17 and now I have 19.
We can help one another and be supportive. Last year I had 24. There's
a tremendous difference."
Although bullying certainly can have its roots in early
childhood, some statistics show that the behavior peaks during the middle
school years.
"It is common to this age group," says Linda
Vogel-Flier, principal of Parkview School in the central Illinois village
of Creve Coeur.
She estimates that at least 15% of the school's fifth
through eighth graders have bullied or been bullied during the past school
year. For boys, much of the teasing centers on sexual orientation, she
says. Girls' nastiness tends to zero in on appearance -- with clothes
a big focus.
To tackle the problem, the principal and the police
department applied for and received a $153,000 U.S. Department of Justice
grant earlier this year to establish a project called "Partners Against
Victimization in Education (PAVE). The project involves a wide range of
stakeholders, including teachers, students, police, parents, and Neighborhood
Watch groups. The first step in the process is to collect data.
"We need to know what the problem is before we
can come up with an effective response," says Vogel-Flier. Data will
include such basic items as when and where bullying occurs, as well as
more probing analysis into the offenders' role models or past history
of being victimized themselves. "We're hoping patterns will emerge,"
she adds.
"We're taking a serious view of what some call
kids' stuff," explains Vogel-Flier. "Bullying affects school
performance, attendance, and how kids feel about themselves. The basic
problem is that bullying is a power struggle between individuals."
She agrees with Kentucky teacher Lynn Hambrick that parents' attitudes
play a major role.
"Lots of kids go home, say they're being bullied,
and the parents respond, 'Just punch him,' " says Vogel-Flier. "In
our problem-solving phase, we'll look for things to raise parental awareness,
to change this mindset."
Additional grant money will be needed to implement any
solutions the stakeholders develop to attack the problem in the family,
school and community.
In order to involve students in the process, PAVE has
set up a group with representatives from each grade level. Initially,
students met with officers from the state's gang prevention center. Now
Julie Wettstein, Parkview's behavior disorder teacher, provides adult
leadership. Students receive training in data collection, learning how
to spot conflict and to write it down, says Wettstein. Student surveys
show that most bullying at Parkview occurs in the classroom.
"I was surprised," says Wettstein. "The
surveys are designed to make teachers more aware. If kids are bullies
they have many ways of doing it."
Psychologist Susan Limber, director of the bullying
prevention project at the Institute for Families in Society at the University
of South Carolina, says her research confirms that the classroom's a hot
spot for bullying, primarily in the form of verbal taunting and nasty
notes. The playground comes in second.
The prevention program, which she helped pilot in several
South Carolina schools, was developed in Norway and has met with success
in other European countries and Canada. In its first year in South Carolina,
bullying incidents decreased by about one-half. Such dramatic effects
didn't occur the second year, but that may have been the result of a reduction
in the hours program consultants spent in the schools, says Limber.
"It's a whole-school approach," she says,
explaining that everyone in the school, including parents, teachers, students,
bus drivers, and custodians, participates in the training and implementation.
"The premise is that we all need to look out for each other more
carefully and keep our fingers on the pulse of how kids are treated."
Letting the problem fester can have serious long-term
consequences. Middle-school bullies, Limber notes, are more likely to
rack up an arrest record in their 20s. Their victims, she adds, are likely
to avoid school, get lower grades and, in the long run, may end up suffering
from depression. Students who witness lots of bullying can feel anxious
and threatened and perhaps even guilty for not intervening. Limber admits
that she'd feel "inundated" if she were a classroom teacher
trying to sort through the multitude of approaches touted as solutions
for combating school bullying. That's why, she explains, everybody needs
to get involved in making the school a safer place to be.
"We're a bit naive if we think just doing a classroom
activity every once in awhile without changing the norms in the school
is going to work." The whole school approach does require extra effort
and closer supervision of students, Limber says. "But it's a program
that will have tremendous pay-off for teachers."
Although experts like Limber say it's better to nip
bullying in the bud before the behavior becomes entrenched, often that
doesn't happen, and the behavior continues into high school.
When that happens at Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy
City, Pennsylvania, teacher Dennis Vavra says there's a system in place
to make sure things don't get out of hand. That wasn't always the case
in this mountainous coal region dotted with small towns, says Vavra, who
teaches 10th grade English. A few years ago a student from a nearby school,
who had borne the brunt of bullying, retaliated by stabbing his tormenter
to death.
"It was a wake-up call for all of us," he
explains. "In our school we tell kids that the first time you feel
threatened or that something derogatory is said to you, seek counseling
and find out your rights. We want kids to do this right away so nothing
escalates."
Vavra's school, like all others in his state, has a
Student Assistance Program, which trains certain staff to recognize and
deal with a host of discipline and crisis situations. Vavra and nearly
a dozen of his colleagues, including the principal, several teachers and
counselors, make up the student assistance team. The school makes sure
all of its 440 students know who the team members are.
"We're a small school," says Vavra, a faculty
member for 22 years. "That has a great effect on our ability to handle
this. I know just about all the kids. It's not impersonal. It's not a
place where kids could be anonymous. I think just about every kid has
a teacher he or she could talk to about a problem. As a staff we know
who the bullies are. We approach them. We try to implement measures to
stop the behavior before it reaches the point of a physical brawl. I can't
walk away from anything. I make myself get involved."
The proactive approach seems to be working, says Vavra.
He remembers only two fights during the past school year, both between
girls. He's not surprised at the gender of the combatants, he adds. "They're
bullying over boyfriends, over who makes the cheerleading squad, even
over academics. There's big competition to be the top dog in the class."
Kids could end up in court
The girls, like the boys, face traditional penalties,
including in-school suspension and after-school detention with parent
pick-up at 5 p.m. If the bullying persists and a warning or visit to the
principal doesn't work, students can find themselves in front of a district
justice at the courthouse just a half block from school, says Vavra.
The school district's discipline policy, crafted with
teacher input and approved by the board of education, details these consequences.
Parents have to sign the policy handbook before their children can enroll
in school. District courts have the power to levy fines for bullying,
smoking on school property, and other infractions.
Vavra estimates that about 30 students from his school
appeared in court during the 1998-99 school year with minimum fines averaging
nearly $100. If parents or students can't or won't pay, the offenders
have to make restitution by cleaning the school cafeteria floor, sweeping
the halls and stairwells, or performing other community service.
The veteran teacher lauds the system as a great way
to get parents' attention. "You hit parents in the pocketbook. It's
not a perfect system but it's better than anything we've had before."
* Mary Anne Hess is a freelance
writer specializing in education issues. She is a long-time classroom
volunteer and PTA activist in suburban Washington, D.C. public schools.
This article was distributed to state affiliates by NEA Communications.
Resources for more information
- Dr. Allan Beane offers workshops for teachers, parents and school
administrators on how to prevent and stop bullying. Contact him at Creative
Solutions for Schools, 262 Ironwood Drive, Murray, Kentucky 42071. Phone:
270-247-8521. E-mail: abeane@charter.net.
- Bully Free Classroom is available from Free Spirit Publishing for
$19.95 (www.freespirit.com or
1-800-735-7323). Free Spirit also publishes an amusing but thoughtful
paperback for kids, Bullies are a Pain in the Brain by Trevor Romain
($9.95)
- To get more details on Partners against Victimization in Education,
contact Parkview School, 800 Groveland Ave., Creve Coeur, IL 61610 or
call 309-698-3610. Visit the U.S. Department of Justice Web site at
www.usdoj.gov for more on federal
anti-bullying programs and grants.
- To find out about setting up a Bullying Prevention Program through
the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University
of Colorado, visit www.colorado.edu/cspv
or call 303-492-8465.
- To learn more about Pennsylvania's Student Assistance Program, visit
www.pde.psu.edu and click on the
school safety resources link.
Posted June 3, 1999