Las Cruces Public Schools AntiBullying Policy and Curriculum Plan

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Las Cruces Public Schools Anti-Bullying Policy
and Curriculum Plan
Presented by Dennis Zamora- Las Cruces Public
Schools Title I/IV Coordinator Dr. Martin Greer-
Las Cruces Public Schools Lead School
Psychologist
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(No Transcript)
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Model Policy Prohibiting BullyingIntimidation,
and Hostile or Offensive Conduct

• The effective education of our students requires
  a school environment in which students feel safe
  and secure. The Board of Education is committed
  to maintaining an environment conducive to
  learning in which students are safe from
  bullying, violence, threats, name-calling,
  intimidation, and unlawful harassment.

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JICK-Model Policy Prohibiting BullyingIntimidatio
n, and Hostile or Offensive Conduct Definition

• 1.Unlawful harassment means verbal or physical
  conduct based on a students actual or perceived
  race, color, national origin, gender, religion,
  or disability and which has the purpose or effect
  of substantially interfering with a students
  educational performance or creating an
  intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.
  Sexual harassment of students and hazing are
  addressed by separate Board policies.
• 2. Bullying means intimidating or offensive
  verbal or physical conduct toward a student when
  such conduct is habitual or recurring, including,
  but not limited to, threats and name-calling.
• 3. Name-calling, means the chronic, habitual,
  or recurring use of names or comments to or about
  a student regarding the students actual or
  perceived physical or personal characteristics
  when the student has indicated by his or her
  conduct, that the names or comments are
  unwelcome, or when the names or comments are
  clearly unwelcome, inappropriate, or offensive by
  their nature.

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JICK-MODEL POLICYPROHIBITION OF STUDENT
HARASSMENT BASED ON RACE, COLOR, RELIGION,
NATIONAL ORIGIN, OR DISABILITY

• The Board forbids discrimination against any
  student on the basis of race, color, religion,
  national origin, age, or disability (referred to
  herein as protected characteristics), on school
  premises, at any school sponsored activities, or
  during any school supplied transportation, by any
  students, employees, non-employee volunteers, or
  any other persons who are subject to the control
  of school authorities.

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JICK-MODEL POLICYPROHIBITION OF STUDENT
HARASSMENT BASED ON RACE, COLOR, RELIGION,
NATIONAL ORIGIN, OR DISABILITY Definition of
Harassment on the Basis of Protected
Characteristics

• For purposes of this Policy, harassment on the
  basis of protected characteristics is verbal or
  physical conduct that denigrates or shows
  hostility or aversion toward an individual
  because of his or her race, color, religion,
  national origin, or disability, and that
• A. Has the purpose or effect of creating an
  intimidating, hostile, or offensive work
  environment
• B. Has the purpose or effect of unreasonably
  interfering with the students ability to benefit
  from any educational program or service provided
  by the School District and
• C. Is so offensive or pervasive as to adversely
  effect the educational performance of the student.

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PROPOSED POLICY JICK-SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF
STUDENTS

• The effective education of our students requires
  a school environment in which students feel safe
  and secure. Sexual harassment of students,
  whether by employees or by other students,
  impairs the proper atmosphere for education, and
  often creates an inequitable climate for learning.

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JICK-SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF STUDENTS Definitions
and Standards of Conduct

• Between an employee and a student, sexual
  harassment is any conduct of a sexual nature.
  Between students, sexual harassment is unwelcome
  conduct of a sexual nature. Specific
  definitions follow.
• 1.Conduct of a Sexual Nature
• Conduct of a sexual nature may include, but is
  not limited to
• verbal or physical sexual advances, including
  subtle pressure for sexual activity
• repeated or persistent requests for dates,
  meetings, and other social interactions
• sexually oriented touching, pinching, patting,
  staring, pulling at clothing, or intentionally
  brushing against another
• showing or giving sexual pictures, photographs,
  illustrations, messages, or notes
• writing graffiti of a sexual nature on school
  property
• comments or name-calling to or about a student
  regarding alleged physical or personal
  characteristics of a sexual nature
• sexually-oriented "kidding," "teasing,"
  double-entendres, and jokes and
• any harassing conduct to which a student is
  subjected because of or regarding the student's
  sex.

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JICK- MODEL POLICY PROHIBITING HAZING

• The Board of Education finds that practices
  known under the term hazing are dangerous to
  the physical and psychological welfare of
  students, and should be prohibited in connection
  with all school activities.

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JICK- MODEL POLICY PROHIBITING HAZING Definition

• Hazing includes, but is not limited to,
• engaging in any offensive or dangerous physical
  contact, restraint, abduction, or isolation of a
  student, or
• requiring or encouraging a student to perform any
  dangerous, painful, offensive, or demeaning
  physical or verbal act, including the ingestion
  of any substance, exposure to the elements,
  deprivation of sleep or rest, or extensive
  isolation, or
• subjecting a student to any dangerous, painful,
  harmful, offensive, or demeaning conduct, or to
  conduct reasonably likely to create extreme
  mental distress,
• as a condition of membership in, or initiation
  into, any class, team, group, or organization
  sponsored by, or permitted to operate under, the
  auspices of, a school of the School District, or
  for similar or related purposes, provided, that
  such conduct shall not be considered hazing when
  it is a recognized and integral part of the
  particular sport or activity.

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Training Manuals
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Bullying Facts and Statistics Prevalence

• Almost 30 of youth in the United States (or over
  5.7 million) are estimated to be involved in
  bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying,
  or both. In a recent national survey of students
  in grades 6-10, 13 reported bullying others, 11
  reported being the target of bullies, and another
  6 said that they bullied others and were bullied
  themselves.

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan,
W.J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P. (2001).
Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth Prevalence and
Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.,
285(16), 2094-2100.Journal of the American
Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
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Bullying Facts and Statistics

• More than 50 of teens (ages 12 to 17) witness at
  least one bullying or taunting incident in school
  each week (NCPC, 2005).
• Students in grades 7 to 12 say revenge is the
  strongest motivation for school shootings 86
  said, other kids picking on them, making fun of
  them, or bullying them can cause teenagers to
  turn to lethal violence in schools (Cerio, 2001).
  

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Male vs. Female

• Bullying takes on different forms in male and
  female youth. While both male and female youth
  say that others bully them by making fun of the
  way they look or talk, males are more likely to
  report being hit, slapped, or pushed. Female
  youth are more likely than males to report being
  the targets of rumors and sexual comments.
  While male youth target both boys and girls,
  female youth most often bully other girls, using
  more subtle and indirect forms of aggression than
  boys. For example, instead of physically harming
  others, they are more likely to spread gossip or
  encourage others to reject or exclude another
  girl.

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan,
W.J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P. (2001).
Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth Prevalence and
Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.,
285(16), 2094-2100.Journal of the American
Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
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Mean Girls Relational Aggression-RA

• Relational (or Alternative) Aggression
• Behavior that aims to manipulate the web of 3rd
  party relationships in order to hurt a particular
  individual. Spreading rumors, gossip, lies,--
  telling secrets eye-rolling, exclusion, and 'the
  silent treatment' all aim to promote cruelty
  through the social networks.

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Risk Factors for Bullying Behavior

• While many people believe that bullies act tough
  in order to hide feelings of insecurity and
  self-loathing, in fact, bullies tend to be
  confident, with high self-esteem., They are
  generally physically aggressive, with
  pro-violence attitudes, and are typically
  hot-tempered, easily angered, and impulsive, with
  a low tolerance for frustration. Bullies have a
  strong need to dominate others and usually have
  little empathy for their targets. Male bullies
  are often physically bigger and stronger than
  their peers. Bullies tend to get in trouble
  more often, and to dislike and do more poorly in
  school, than teens who do not bully others. They
  are also more likely to fight, drink and smoke
  than their peers.

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan,
W.J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P. (2001).
Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth Prevalence and
Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.,
285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
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Risk Factors for Being Targeted by Bullies

• Children and youth who are bullied are typically
  anxious, insecure, and cautious and suffer from
  low self-esteem, rarely defending themselves or
  retaliating when confronted by students who bully
  them. They are often socially isolated and
  lack social skills. One study found that the most
  frequent reason cited by youth for persons being
  bullied is that they "didn't fit in." Males
  who are bullied tend to be physically weaker than
  their peers. Long-term Impact on Youth
• There appears to be a strong relationship between
  bullying other students and experiencing later
  legal and criminal problems as an adult. In one
  study, 60 of those characterized as bullies in
  grades 6-9 had at least one criminal conviction
  by age 24.Chronic bullies seem to maintain their
  behaviors into adulthood, negatively influencing
  their ability to develop and maintain positive
  relationships.

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• In a nutshell Don't Feed the Bully is an
  important self-help book for pre-teens that is
  cleverly disguised as a hilarious, fictional
  novel. Don't Feed the Bully provides practical
  advice to children on the extremely important
  topic of bullying. Yet it delivers that advice
  in a humorous, captivating plot that makes
  putting the book down nearly impossible. I urge
  educators to adopt this as required reading for
  your middle-school children. Doing so would be a
  major step forward in tackling the serious
  problem of bullying, which continues to lead to
  escalating violence in our schools.  Barnes and
  Noble.com reviewer, 5/12/2007  
• 'Dont Feed the Bully' has been critically
  acclaimed for helping kids become aware of
  bullying behavior and solve situations before
  they become violent. It has won the Top Choice
  Award for best teen novel from Flamingnet.com." 
  Amie Slevin, Noblesville Ledger

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Risk Factors for Being Targeted by Bullies

• Bullying can lead the children and youth that are
  the target of bullying to feel tense, anxious,
  and afraid. It can affect their concentration in
  school, and can lead them to avoid school in some
  cases. If bullying continues for some time, it
  can begin to affect children and youth's
  self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. It also
  can increase their social isolation, leading them
  to become withdrawn and depressed, anxious and
  insecure. In extreme cases, bullying can be
  devastating for children and youth, with
  long-term consequences. Researchers have found
  that years later, long after the bullying has
  stopped, adults who were bullied as youth have
  higher levels of depression and poorer
  self-esteem than other adults

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan,
W.J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P. (2001).
Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth Prevalence and
Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.,
285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
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Make a Stand and Take the Lead
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Effective Programs

• Effective programs have been developed to reduce
  bullying in schools. Research has found that
  bullying is most likely to occur in schools where
  there is a lack of adult supervision during
  breaks, where teachers and students are
  indifferent to or accept bullying behavior, and
  where rules against bullying are not consistently
  enforced.

Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan,
W.J., Simons-Morton, B., Scheidt, P. (2001).
Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth Prevalence and
Association With Psychosocial Adjustment.,
285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 285(16), 2094-2100.
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Effective Programs

• While approaches that simply crack down on
  individual bullies are seldom effective, when
  there is a school-wide commitment to end
  bullying, it can be reduced by up to 50. One
  approach that has been shown to be effective
  focuses on changing school and classroom climates
  by raising awareness about bullying, increasing
  teacher and parent involvement and supervision,
  forming clear rules and strong social norms
  against bullying, and providing support and
  protection for all students. This approach
  involves teachers, principals, students, and
  everyone associated with the school, including
  janitors, cafeteria workers, and crossing guards.
  Adults become aware of the extent of bullying at
  the school, and they involve themselves in
  changing the situation, rather than looking the
  other way. Students pledge not to bully other
  students, to help students who are bullied, and
  to make a point to include students who are left
  out.

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Bullying Warning Signs
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Bullying Warning Signs The following may be
signs that your child is being bullied

• Avoiding certain situations, people, or places,
  such as pretending to be sick so that he or she
  does not have to go to school
• Changes in behavior, such as being withdrawn and
  passive, being overly active and aggressive, or
  being self-destructive
• Frequent crying or feeling sad
• Signs of low self-esteem
• Being unwilling to speak or showing signs of fear
  when asked about certain situations, people, or
  places
• Signs of injuries
• Suddenly receiving lower grades or showing signs
  of learning problems
• Recurrent unexplained physical symptoms such as
  stomach pains and fatigue

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Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others

• When evaluating a child or adolescent who has
  been bullying others, it is helpful to understand
  the context in which the child or adolescent
  acted. It is also important to screen children
  who bully for ADHD, depression, suicidality,
  bipolar disorder, child maltreatment, and
  substance abuse disorders. Ask the child or
  adolescent about exposure to violence in his/her
  home, neighborhood, and school, and through the
  media.
• Talk to family members whenever possible, in
  order to assess family functioning and any
  parental symptoms and distress (e.g.,
  substance/alcohol abuse problems, mood disorders,
  and/or marital conflict). If parents are having
  difficulties, encourage them to seek outside
  support (e.g., from relatives, parent support
  groups, faith-based communities, mental health
  services) and make appropriate referrals.

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Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others

• Discuss the seriousness of bullying behavior.
• Help parents or caregivers to develop reasonable
  expectations for their child or adolescent.
• Educate them about the negative effects of
  physical punishment.
• Help them to develop strategies to set limits, to
  monitor and closely supervise their child's
  behavior, and to effectively discipline their
  child or adolescent.
• Encourage parents and other caregivers to
  communicate and collaborate with staff at their
  school in order to develop a consistent approach
  to their child's bullying behavior.

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Bully by Definition
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Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others

• When the bullying problem is severe, a combined
  intervention with both the child or adolescent
  and the family may be required, addressing the
  child's or adolescent's functioning in the areas
  of family life, relationship with peers, and
  school. Primary care health professionals need to
  determine when mental health referrals for the
  child or adolescent and/or the family are
  appropriate and when social service and/or legal
  agencies should be involved.

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Being Bullied

• First, listen to your child. Just talking about
  the problem and knowing that you care can be
  helpful and comforting. Make sure that your child
  knows that you do not blame or feel disappointed
  in him or her. Ask your child what he or she
  thinks should be done. What has your child tried?
  What worked and what didnt?

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Being Bullied

• Encourage your child not to retaliate against the
  bully or to let the bully see how much he or she
  has upset your child. Getting a response just
  reinforces the bullying behavior. Tell your child
  that if at all possible, he or she should stay
  calm and respond evenly or firmly (e.g., "I don't
  like your teasing and I want you to stop right
  now" or "Stop doing that now. If you keep on, I'm
  going to report you to the principal."). Some
  children find it works to just say nothing and
  walk away. At other times, it can be more
  effective to make a joke, laugh at oneself, or to
  use humor to defuse the situation. Brainstorm
  with your child to develop some effective
  responses. Then role-play different approaches
  and responses with your child so that he or she
  will be prepared the next time.

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Being Bullied

• Encourage your child to go immediately to a
  teacher, principal, or other nearby adult if he
  or she feels seriously threatened.
• You may also want to help your child to develop
  strategies to avoid situations where bullying can
  happen and to avoid being alone with bullies. If
  bullying occurs on the way to or from school,
  your child may want to take a different route,
  leave at a different time, or find others to walk
  to and from school with. If bullying occurs at
  school, your child may want to avoid areas that
  are isolated or unsupervised by adults, and stick
  with friends as much as possible.

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Being Bullied

• Encourage your child to form strong friendships.
  A child or teen who has loyal friends is less
  likely to be singled out by a bully, and they can
  be valuable allies if your child is targeted. If
  your child lacks friends, help him or her to
  develop more friendships. Encourage your child to
  participate in positive social groups that meet
  his or her interests, such as after-school
  groups, church groups, extra-curricular
  activities, or teams. In addition to helping your
  child make friends, these activities can help to
  develop your childs special skills and rebuild
  his or her self-confidence.

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Learned behavior from their Masters???
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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Being Bullied

• In many cases, bullying wont require your
  involvement. If the bullying is persistent and is
  harming your childs emotional health, you need
  to intervene by talking to your childs teacher,
  school counselor, or principal about the problem
  in order to make sure your child is safe, that
  effective consequences are applied toward the
  bully, and that monitoring at school is adequate.
  Advocate for the involvement of the bullys
  parents. Suggest that the school implement a
  comprehensive anti-bullying program.

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Bullying Others

• If you learn that your child is bullying others,
  sit down and talk with your child immediately. It
  is important to take the problem seriously,
  because children and youth who bully others are
  at a greater risk for serious problems later in
  life. Give your child an opportunity to explain
  his/her behavior, but do not accept any excuses
  or justifications. Make it clear that bullying
  will not be tolerated and outline the
  consequences for further unacceptable behavior.
  If the problem is occurring at school, tell your
  child you support the schools right to punish
  him/her if the behavior persists.
• Encourage your child to try to understand how the
  bullying feels to his/her victim. Bullies often
  have trouble empathizing with their victims so it
  is important to discuss with your child how
  bullying feels. How would your child feel if it
  happened to him/her? If you or someone close to
  you has been bullied in the past, you might want
  to share the story with your child, discussing
  the emotional impact.

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Parent Response to Bullying If Your Child Is
Bullying Others

• Increase your supervision of your childs
  activities and whereabouts, and know who your
  child is spending time with. Make an effort to
  observe your child in one-on-one interactions.
  Stop any show of aggression immediately and help
  your child find other, nonviolent ways of
  reacting to certain situations. Praise your child
  for appropriate behaviors.
• If the bullying continues, you need to seek help
  for your child. Without intervention, bullying
  can lead to serious academic, social, emotional
  and legal difficulties. Talk to your child's
  pediatrician, teacher, principal, school
  counselor, or your family physician. If the
  bullying continues, a comprehensive evaluation by
  a child and adolescent psychiatrist or other
  mental health professional should be arranged.
  The evaluation can help you and your child
  understand what is causing the bullying and help
  you develop a plan to stop the destructive
  behavior

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Pitched Arm Wrestling Match
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Treating a Bullying Victim

• Tell the child or adolescent that you care and
  are concerned. Ask the child to tell you what is
  going on and provide an opportunity for the child
  to talk to you openly. Explain that telling is
  not tattling and that you need the information in
  order to help. When the child begins to talk,
  respond in an accepting and positive way. Make it
  clear that the bullying is not the child's fault,
  and that telling you was the right thing to do.
• Gather a complete violence history from the child
  or adolescent that addresses exposure to
  violence, safety issues, stressors in school,
  family, and community.

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Treating a Bullying Victim

• Talk to the child's parents/caregivers about
  bullying and its seriousness. Address any myths
  they might hold about bullying. Some parents may
  believe that bullying is a normal part of
  childhood and that children are best left to work
  it out among themselves. Some believe that
  fighting back is the best way to stop bullying.
• Provide the child's parents with information
  about bullying and how to help their child
  respond to bullying.
• Provide the child or adolescent with information
  on bullying.
• Encourage the child's school to implement a
  comprehensive violence prevention plan that
  includes an anti-bullying component.

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School Bullying Prevention

• Effective programs have been developed to reduce
  bullying in schools. Research has found that
  bullying is most likely to occur in schools where
  there is a lack of adult supervision during
  breaks, where teachers and students are
  indifferent to or accept bullying behavior, and
  where rules against bullying are not consistently
  enforced.

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School Bullying Prevention

• While approaches that simply crack down on
  individual bullies are seldom effective, when
  there is a school-wide commitment to end
  bullying, it can be reduced by up to 50. One
  approach that has been shown to be effective
  focuses on changing school and classroom climates
  by raising awareness about bullying, increasing
  teacher and parent involvement and supervision,
  forming clear rules and strong social norms
  against bullying, and providing support and
  protection for all students. This approach
  involves teachers, principals, students, and
  everyone associated with the school, including
  janitors, cafeteria workers, and crossing guards.
  Adults become aware of the extent of bullying at
  the school, and they involve themselves in
  changing the situation, rather than looking the
  other way. Students pledge not to bully other
  students, to help students who are bullied, and
  to make a point to include students who are left
  out

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Reacting to BullyingComplied by Dennis Zamora-
Title IV Coordinator- Las Cruces Public Schools
The way schools react is important-

• The most effective thing that a school can do to
  reduce bullying is to have a policy outlining how
  the issue is raised within the curriculum, and
  how incidents are dealt with after they have
  happened i.e. the policy must acknowledge the
  need for both pro-active and re-active
  strategies. But no school has the answer to every
  problem, and no single method can be used to deal
  with all bullying incidents.

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Reacting to BullyingThe way schools react is
important-

• The way in which adults react to bullying
  contributes to the ethos of the school and can
  help to make it more or less likely that bullying
  will happen in future. Ignoring the problem
  encourages it to flourish. A heavy-handed
  approach can drive it underground. However, a
  positive, open response will encourage young
  people to speak up about matters that concern
  them and will improve the learning environment by
  promoting more caring and responsible patterns of
  behaviors.

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To Teach and Protect
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Reacting to Bullying How should schools react?
This will depend upon

• The circumstances - always assess the true nature
  of an incident before applying any strategy.
  Group bullying or "mobbing" needs to be handled
  differently from problems created by an
  individual who persistently bullies others. Such
  a person's bullying may be merely one
  manifestation of a plethora of problems.
• The existing practices and resources of the
  school - for example, there is no point trying to
  encourage a counseling approach if potential
  counselors are not given the training, time and
  support needed to fulfill the task.

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Which strategies are best?

• Schools are getting better at dealing with
  bullying but it will be some time before a quick
  resolution of all incidents can be guaranteed.
  Sometimes all that is needed is a simple word or
  two from a teacher to make children realize that
  what they are doing is wrong. At the other
  extreme some bullying remains intractable. The
  development of new ideas continues and all it is
  possible to do at the moment is to list some of
  the strategies for which success has been claimed
  and to provide a few words of commentary on each.

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Which strategies are best?

• Punishments such as suspension or expulsion can
  mark the seriousness with which an episode of
  bullying is viewed and can also help to provide a
  safer environment for victims. It also has to be
  recognized that some types of bullying are
  crimes. Schools are subject to the law of the
  land so the possibility of punishment in response
  to very serious incidents cannot be denied.
  However, the great majority of bullying goes
  unpunished so some new ways of helping the
  thousands of hidden victims of bullying are
  needed.
• Assertive discipline - a method developed the
  United States which involves a rigid system of
  rewards and sanctions consistently applied by all
  teachers in a school. It is claimed that this
  method helps to motivate learning and to reduce
  the level of classroom indiscipline, but its
  effectiveness in coping with bullying is not
  clear.

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Which strategies are best?

• Bully boxes - a simple method whereby students
  can put their concerns on paper and place them in
  a "bully box". What happens to these notes is the
  key to the success or failure of this technique.
  Can genuine comments be distinguished from
  frivolous or malicious ones?
• Bully courts - the idea that young people should
  play a part in making school rules and in
  deciding what should happen to those who break
  them is not new. Some progressive schools
  introduced councils to do this over fifty years
  ago. More recently a few schools have tried to
  establish courts or councils solely to deal with
  cases of bullying. However, the principle that
  young people should sit in judgment on their
  peers, and punish wrongdoers remains
  controversial. What is clear is that adults must
  play an active and guiding role in such
  proceedings in order to protect the welfare of
  all the young people involved. ( sole adult?)

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Which strategies are best?

• Advisement - a teacher or another adult may have
  the skills and time to offer support to young
  people involved in bullying. Both bullies and
  victims can benefit from this process. The main
  problems are that it is time consuming, the
  youngsters must take part voluntarily and there
  is a lack of trained counselors in schools.
• Mediation - some schools have introduced schemes
  where two parties to a relationship problem agree
  that a third person, who may be either an adult
  or another young person, helps to negotiate a
  solution. This seems to be helpful in many
  situations, especially where there is not too
  large an imbalance of power between the
  protagonists - but not in all cases of bullying.
  A bully may refuse to take part because he or she
  has no interest in ending the bullying. A victim
  may feel that a negotiated solution is not
  appropriate when it is the other person who is
  entirely in the wrong. (Lets Say We Can Work It
  Out and We Can Work It Out)

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Which strategies are best?

• Peer counseling - a small number of elementary
  and secondary schools have used older teenagers
  as peer counselors. Good training and continuing
  support is vital if these young volunteers are to
  be able to help victims who may be quite
  seriously distressed. (Lets Say We Can Work It
  Out and We Can Work It Out)
• The 'no blame' approach - a step by step
  technique which allows early intervention because
  it does not require that anyone should be proved
  to be at fault. A group of young people, which
  includes bystanders as well as possible bullies,
  is made aware of a victim's distress and is asked
  to suggest solutions. This approach is
  particularly useful in dealing with group
  bullying and name-calling, when it may be
  difficult to use more traditional remedies.

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Which strategies are best?

• The 'shared concern' method - a Swedish technique
  which has much in common with the "No blame"
  approach, although it has not been widely used in
  Britain, perhaps because it is more elaborate and
  time consuming. Both of these methods have been
  criticized for failing to allocate blame but both
  aim to encourage bullies to accept responsibility
  for their actions as well as bringing the
  bullying to an end.
• "Solution focused approaches" share much of the
  philosophy of the previous two strategies but can
  be applied to problems other than bullying. This
  is helpful because the task of finding out the
  facts of an incident and then of making a
  judgment about whether it should be called
  bullying or not is sometimes impossible.
  Relationship problems amongst a group of children
  can be very complicated indeed. They can also be
  very damaging to the personal development and
  education of some of the individuals involved.
  Being able to intervene without wasting too much
  time trying to untangle emotional knots has
  obvious attractions for busy teachers.

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Which strategies are best?

• Reporting systems - it is most important that
  schools should have efficient ways of recording
  reports of serious bullying so that a check can
  be kept of patterns of behavior. This can also
  help to ensure that incidents are not overlooked.
• "Safe rooms" have been set up in some schools at
  break and lunch times as a refuge for bullied
  children. Although this may provide safety in the
  short term, it could have the effect of making
  the rest of the school seem even more hostile to
  the children who use it.

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Which strategies are best?

• Telephone help lines - services such as ChildLine
  provide valuable support to children who are
  afraid to speak out about bullying. However, the
  fact that they exist is a signal that some
  schools are failing to provide conditions in
  which children are able to discuss their problems
  openly. One or two schools have set up their own
  internal help lines in an attempt to increase the
  opportunities for worried children to seek help.
• Talk - no strategy will be effective unless all
  members of the school community, pupils, parents,
  teachers and others, are prepared to talk about
  bullying openly and seriously

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Which strategies are best?

• When peers intervene, bullying stops within 10
  seconds, 57 of the time.

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Las Cruces Public Schools Anti-Bullying Policy
and Curriculum Plan
Presented by Dennis Zamora- Las Cruces Public
Schools Title I/IV Coordinator Dr. Martin Greer-
Las Cruces Public Schools Lead School
Psychologist