Understanding Bully Prevention Myth Busters and Practical Strategies - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Understanding Bully Prevention Myth Busters and Practical Strategies for Parents Presented by Cheryl Curry, M.S.Ed, M.A.E.L

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Bullying is a right of passage (boys will be boys and girls will be girls).

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Adolescents who bully have higher peer status than children who bully.

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Peer mediation tends to increase victimization.

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Bullying co-occurs with other types of aggression and other risky behavior (delinquency, AOD).

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? If my child is harassed repeatedly and over time on social media outside of school, there’s nothing the school can do about it.

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? It’s the school’s sole responsibility to teach kids about how to deal with bullying behavior.

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Bullies have low self-esteem.

Are You Smarter than an Elementary Student? Myth or Fact? Cliques are festering cesspools of bullying.

BULLYING 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, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.” -Dan Olweus

Espelage Mantra: 
 Misperception in Media Scientific Evidence Bullying is an epidemic Bully Rates Vary Bully-suicide linked Bully Only One of Many Predictors Bullies are young criminals Bullies are diverse in their outcomes Bullies need to be punished Ignores Group Phenomena Bullies – dysfunctional families Good kids get involved in bullying Bullying is hard-wired in youth Environment matters

Family & School Risk Factors ■ FAMILY ■ SCHOOL – Lack of supervision – Lack of supervision – Lack of attachment – Lack of attachment – Negative, critical – Negative, critical relationships relationships – Lack of discipline/ – Lack of discipline/ consequences consequences – Support for violence – Support for violence – Modeling of violence – Modeling of violence

What Works for Schools? • parent training/meetings • improved playground supervision • Non-punitive disciplinary methods • classroom management • teacher training • classroom rules • whole-school anti-bullying policy • cooperative group work • greater number of elements and the duration

Thinking District-Wide... If a school implements a quality SEL curriculum, they can expect better student behavior and an 11 percentile increase in test scores (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Our elementary schools use “Second Step” 


That’s All Swell, But What Can I Do? ➢ Help your child define moments...is it aggression? Bullying? Drama? ➢ Be a detective: get the details. Who, what, when, where? Did this happen in isolation? Context? “Tell me more.” ➢ Yoga breathe. ➢ Empower and validate. ➢ Objectify it.

But wait! There’s more... ➢ The Circle of Self. ➢ Use media. Use books. Use stories from your past. ➢ The power of the car. ➢ Realize that tomorrow your child may have moved on, even if you haven’t. ➢ Humor and laughter...it’s not about changing the perpetrator’s behavior, it’s about making your child feel better about the way he handled it. ➢ Talk. Talk some more. Keep talking...about your values! ➢ Role model (do as I say, not as I do).

QUESTIONS??