Dealing with Bullying in Educational Settings

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• Dealing with Bullying in Educational Settings
• August 2005

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Whenever you come across topics about which you
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Paraeducator Development Plan
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Local Policy

• Your local districts policies regarding
  paraeducator job descriptions, duties, and
  responsibilities provide the final word!

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Agenda

• Discuss the learner outcomes.
• What is bullying and what do we know about it?
• What are some common characteristics and roles of
  bullies and victims?
• As paraeducators, how can we help prevent
  bullying in our schools?

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Learner Outcomes

• Define bullying and being bullied.
• Discuss common characteristics and roles of a
  bully and a victim.
• Review prevention procedures to decrease bullying
  and victim behaviors.
• Discuss the paraeducators role in preventing
  bullying in the school environment.

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What is Bullying?What Do We Know About Bullying?
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Bullying Quiz

• Pretest

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For Your Consideration

• Bullying poisons the educational environment and
  affects the learning of every child. (Olweus)

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The Bully Defined

• A bully is a person who hurts or browbeats those
  who are weaker
• Browbeat means to intimidate with harsh, stern
  looks and talk.

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Being Bullied/Victimized Defined

• A person is bullied when he or she is exposed
  repeatedly and over time to negative actions on
  the part of one or more other persons (Olweus
  1986, 1993).

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Bullying

• Types and Kinds

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The Many Types of Bullying

• Physical bullying hitting or punching
• Verbal bullying-teasing and name calling
• Nonverbal or emotional bullying-intimidating
  through gestures, exclusion
• Cyber bullying-insulting e-mail messages, text
  messages

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Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Ways to Bully

• Direct Bullying
• hitting, kicking, shoving, teasing, racial slurs,
  threatening, obscene gestures
• Indirect Bullying
• getting someone to bully for you, spreading
  rumors, exclusion, cyber-bullying

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The Bullying Circle

• The Players

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The Bullying Circle

• Victim
• I am the one they
• are picking on!!

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The Bullying Circle

• Bully/Bullies
• I start the bullying
• and take an active part in it!
• Follower/Henchman
• I take an active part,
• but I didnt start it!

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The Bullying Circle

• Supporter/Passive Bully
• I support the bullying but
• do not take an active part
• Passive Supporter/Possible Bully
• I like the bullying but
• do not display open support

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The Bullying Circle

• Disengaged Onlooker
• I watch what happens. Its none of my business so
  I dont take a stand.
• Possible Defender
• I dislike the bullying and think someone ought to
  help, but not me.

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The Bullying Circle

• Defender of the Victim
• I dislike the bullying and
• help or try to help the one who is exposed to the
  bullying--the victim.

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What is Bullying? ActivityThink-Pair-Share

• Complete the following sentences
• Bullying is the act of
• Being a bully is when
• Being bullied is when

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The Bully Profile
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Children who bully are more likely to

• get into frequent fights
• be injured in a fight
• steal, vandalize property
• drink alcohol, smoke
• be truant, drop out of school
• report poorer academic grades
• perceive a negative climate in school
• carry a weapon

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Characteristics of a Bully

• Hyperactive, have difficulty concentrating
• Quick tempered, try to fight back if provoked

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Longitudinal Study of Children Who Bullied

• 60 of boys who bullied in middle school
  had at least one conviction by
  age 24.
• 40 had three or more convictions.
• (Olweus, 1993)

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The Victim Profile
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Its Time for School!Do you have

• a headache
• sleep problems
• abdominal pain
• feeling tense
• anxiety
• feeling unhappy
• depressed
• plus you have to go to school and pay attention

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Health Consequences of Bullying (Fekkes et al.,
2003)
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Impact on the Victim

• Every day approximately 160,000 students stay
  home from school because they are afraid of being
  bullied (Vail, 1999)

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Children who are bullied are more likely to
have

• Lower self esteem
• Higher rates of depression
• Higher absenteeism rates
• More suicidal thoughts

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Characteristics of a Victim

• May be bullied by many children
• Try to bully younger, weaker children
• Have poor relationships with classmates
• Loner
• Low academic achievement
• Higher rates of smoking and alcohol use
• Fight more frequently

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The Victim

• Studies show that between 15-25 of U.S.
  students are bullied with some frequency, while
  15-20 report that they bully others with some
  frequency (Melton et al, 1998 Nansel et al, 2001)

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Potential Victims

• Students at Risk

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Students at Risk

• The new kid
• The younger kid
• The kid we all pick on
• Students with special needs

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Students at RiskAspergers Syndrome/Autism

• Appear to lack empathy
• Lack of understanding of unwritten rules of
  play
• Limited ability to form friendships
• Misunderstanding non-verbal communication
• Preoccupied with one or more interests

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Students at RiskADHD

• Children with ADHD tend to be restless and often
  tease and irritate others.
• They do not pick up on cues as to when to stop
  this behavior.

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What are some common characteristics and roles of
bullies and victims?Think-Pair-Share
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As Paraeducators, How Can We Help Prevent
Bullying in Our Schools?

• Bullying Prevention

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Safe School Initiative Report (2002)

• Studied 37 incidents of targeted school violence
  involving 41 attackers (1974-2000)
• 3/4 of attackers felt persecuted, bullied prior
  to incident
• 1/3 of attackers were characterized loners
• 1/4 socialized with students who were disliked by
  most mainstream students
• Many had considered suicide

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What works in Bullying Prevention?

• Schoolwide Bullying
• Prevention Program

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What works in Bullying Prevention?

• Classroom rules against bullying
• We will not bully other students
• We will try to help students who are bullied
• We will make it a point to include ALL students
  who are easily left out
• When we know somebody is being bullied, we will
  tell a teacher or an adult

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What Can I do?

• Be very observant
• Watch for patterns of bullying by individuals or
  groups of students
• Watch for pushing, hitting, kicking
• Prolonged teasing, name-calling/ other forms of
  verbal harassment
• Report it!
• Increase supervision of students

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Increased Supervision

• Are you present during high-risk time slots?
• When you take a break is it during a high risk
  time?
• When you are absent, what occurs?
• Can high risk settings be restructured?

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How to Increase Supervision

• staff chooses teams, not students
• always face the class
• watch seating arrangements
• where are coats /lockers
• intervene early
• follow procedures in your setting

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How to Increase Supervision

• Intervene when one or more students bully another
  student
• Eliminate malicious teasing/ kidding in the
  classroom or during recess/breaks
• Take the side and defend a student who is being
  teased
• Eliminate use of hurtful nicknames
• Alert teacher/ staff on bullying situation
• Use a predetermined common phrase

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How to Increase Supervision

• How is seating, is the bully at the head of the
  table or cluster of desks?
• Are there round tables as compared to
  rectangular?
• How does the bully hand things to others?
• Have you seen the bully at lunch, recess, in
  between classes ?
• Can students share food from their lunches ?

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How to Increase Supervision

• Activities should not exclude anyone
• Be sure your student is included in activities in
  the regular classroom
• Take initiative to draw lonely students into
  joint activities
• Show helpful and friendly behavior especially
  toward those to be bullied or socially isolated

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How to Increase Supervision

• Do some students shutter when the bully is near ?
• Does the bully act up and cause anxiety to others
  ?
• Left handed vs. right handed
• Arriving after class has started- how is that
  handled?
• Peer mediation not effective with a bully and
  victim

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Being a Friend

• 12 Tips for making and keeping friends
• Use a students strengths to help make friends
  (e.g. share an art project)

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Reinforce/ Encourage

• Avoidance
• Act confident
• Walk away
• Say Stop It!
• Say Leave me alone!
• Tell an adult

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Bullying Quiz

• Answers

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Remember it matters

• to this one

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• And this one,

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And This One!
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Each and Every One!
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Learner Outcomes

• Define bullying and being bullied.
• Discuss common characteristics and roles of a
  bully and a victim.
• Review prevention procedures to decrease bullying
  and victim behaviors.
• Discuss the paraeducators role in preventing
  bullying in the school environment.

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Resources and References

• www.interventioncentral.org
• www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov
• Beane, Allan, The Bully Free Classroom
  (Minnesota Free Spirit, 1999).
• Olweus, Dan. Bullying at School ,What we know and
  what we can do (OxfordBlackwell, 1993).
• National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals
  (www.nrcpara.org)

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Wrap Up

• Complete the Paraeducator Development Plan
• Complete Session Evaluation

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Questions

• para_at_pattan.net

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Upcoming Paraeducator Trainings
  Afterschool Videoconferences (4-530) October
5, 2005- The Paraeducators Role in Math
Instruction   December 8, 2005- The
Paraeducators Role in Instruction in the Content
Areas January 24, 2006- The Paraeducators Role
in the IEP Process  
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Upcoming Paraeducator Trainings
  Afterschool Videoconferences (4-530) March 2,
2006- The Paraeducators Role in Supporting
Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing April
26, 2006- Legal Issues in Special Education What
Paraeducators Need to Know  
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Resources

• P.L. 108-446 posted at www.pattan.net
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report
  available _at_ http//www.pennyhill.com/education/rl3
  2716.html
• Go to regulations and forms
• Then to IDEA 04