Misdirections in Bullying Prevention

Bullying has been identified as a public health concern among youth in the United States with approximately 1 in 5 students ages 12-18 reporting being bullied at school during the school year. While there are best practices that successfully address the problem, there are also some common methods that do not work and may result in damage to students and the school culture.

• Zero tolerance policies suspend or expel students who bully others. These student exclusion policies are ineffective and should not be the standard for addressing bullying as they may actually discourage students and adults from reporting bullying. Research indicates that this type of response to bullying results in increased academic and behavioral problems for young people engaging in bullying behavior. Bullying can be an early indicator of other behavior problems. Rather than providing intervention, zero tolerance ignores the need for belonging and removes the opportunity for providing positive role models.
• Conflict resolution and peer mediation are common strategies for dealing with conflict between students. But bullying is not a conflict. It is a form of peer abuse that requires adult intervention to address the power imbalance. Using mediation to address bullying can send a message that both people involved are partly right and partly wrong when the message should be that no one deserves to be bullied and the behavior must stop. Putting the students together may even revictimize the student who was bullied.
• Group treatment for children who bully may have good intentions but can result in student behavior getting worse. Group members tend to act as role models for each other enforcing bullying and other antisocial behaviors.
• Simple, short-term approaches do not address the complex nature of bullying. While isolated events such as school-wide assemblies, workshops, focus days, or one-time class lessons may be a component of an overall strategy, they are not sufficient on their own. To reduce bullying, the school climate and expectations for behavior must change and that takes time and an ongoing commitment.

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
-Maya Angelou-