Is Your Staff Really Prepared To Stop Bullying???

"It is clear that, without intervention, bullying can lead to serious social, emotional, physical, academic, and legal problems for those involved. It is also clear that comprehensive efforts involving school staff, parents, students, and the broader community are likely to reduce and preavent bullying more effectively than a single, isolated approach. While studies of successful anti-bullying programs are somewhat scarce in the United States, evaluation data from other countries suggest that a comprehensive approach can change student attitudes and behaviors and increase adults' willingness to intervene. Although teachers, counselors, and parents may be able to deal with individual cases of bullying as they come up, such interventions are unlikely to have a significant impact on the incidence of bullying at school. Bullying often goes undetected by teachers, school staff, and parents. In fact, adults typically identify less than 10 percent of bullying incidents -- partly because bullying tends to occur in unsupervised areas and partly because many adults simply do not understand the dynamics of bullying. Adults throughout the school community -- including administrators, teachers, health personnel, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers -- require training on this important issue if they are to understand, recognize, and know how to deal with bullying.
The entire school, as well as the broader community, must further be involved in bullying prevention efforts in order to create a positive climate in which caring and considerate interactions thrive and aggressive actions are deemed unacceptable. Isolated prevention and intervention strategies do not alone allow for the promotion of norms against bullying. Young people require positive modeling, proactive instruction, and ongoing support if they are to make decisions and take actions in favor of potential victims and in opposition to potential aggressors." Exploring the Nature and Prevention of Bullying

When was the last time your staff received effective, high quality bullying prevention training? Call or email 1-802-362-5448 or info@BalanceEducationalServices.com to schedule a Fall '09 professional development presentation.