Educators Preventing Bullying StopBullying.gov and The Arizona Bullying Intervention Initiative

The http://stopbullying.gov

StopBullying.gov provides information from various government agencies on how kids, teens, young adults, parents,educators and others in the community can prevent or stop bullying. StopBullying.gov is an official U.S. Government Web site managed by the Department of Health & Human Services in partnership with the Department of Education and Department of Justice.  The following are some helpful tips on how educators can prevent bullying that we also advocate at the Arizona Bullying Intervention Initiative | AZ Bullying Prevention Project.

These are practical steps and solutions that teachers can implement without engaging the misguided efforts of "zero tolerance" or "peer mediation".  The following strategies are evidence based and indicate positive findings from research.  While the Arizona Bullying Prevention Project does not advocate all of the strategies on this site, we can agree with the following information.

Preventing Bullying

There are a number of things educators can do to make their school safer and prevent bullying. The following are suggestions for how to approach bullying in schools:

• Assess bullying in your school. Determine where and when bullying occurs.
• Increase adult supervision in bullying "hot spots.” Work with support staff, such as cafeteria staff, bus stop and playground monitors and bus drivers, who may observe bullying incidents that unfold outside the classroom.
• Involve students, parents, teachers, and staff in bullying prevention.  Establish a school safety committee and task force with a coordinator whose job it is to plan, implement and evaluate your school's bullying prevention program.
• Encourage teachers and staff to file incident reports of bullying.  Keep track of critical incidents, and assess and evaluate your bullying prevention program.
• Create policies and rules.  Create a mission statement, code of conduct, and school-wide rules that establishes a climate in which bullying is not acceptable.  Disseminate and communicate widely. 
• Integrate bullying prevention material into curriculum and school activities. Implement curriculum-based, class-level discussions and activities about bullying (e.g., role-playing activities) at each grade level.
• Promote extracurricular activities.  Reinforce positive social interactions in an inclusive environment.
• Raise awareness about your bullying prevention initiative. Launch an awareness campaign to make the objectives known to the school, parents, and community members.
• Establish a school culture of acceptance, tolerance and respect.  Take advantage of staff meetings, assemblies, class and parent meetings, newsletters to families, the school website, and the student handbook.

Source: http://stopbullying.gov/educators/preventing/index.html

Encouraging the good, the noble, the powerful and positive in children. 

Here is the blog dedicated to the subject of bullying in Arizona. Parents, teachers and children can find information, statistics and resources to arm them with knowledge and techniques to successfully deal with bullying. 
http://bullyproofingarizona.blogspot.com/

Bully Proof Vest - Bully Solutions Workshop

Free Bully / Victim Proofing workshop every Wednesday for this entire month of March at USA Martial Arts Phoenix at Tatum & Greenway in Phoenix/Scottsdale/PV at 5pm on Wednesday nights. To register, simply email info@usa-martialarts.com or call 602-896-8721. It's fully sponsored by Nottingham Sword & Shield Security/ScottdsdaleBodyguard.com and USA Martial Arts Phoenix.