Bullying Prevention
At our school we have been implementing the Olweus bullying prevention program. The program is designed to be promoted and taught as a whole school/district program to prevent bullying across all age levels. The classroom teacher is responsible for holding classroom meetings and initiatives to enforce the program. The program comes with videos, scripted lesson, games, activities, and much, much more! Not only are the teachers and students trained in the program, including what it is all about and that they are responsible for reinforcing, the anti-bullying rules, but the bus drivers, cafeteria workers, para-professionals, and anyone else is the school is also trained in the program. It is truly a school wide program that has been working. Each week, then as the students are more comfortable every other week, the students have a meeting to discuss issues related to bullying. The meeting can be started with a scripted lesson or it can be a topic relative to the specific classroom. There are rules for these meetings so all students are comfortable and anonymously reporting problems or bullying they may be facing at school or after school.
Our school has set aside time for the teachers to do the meetings every week so that every teacher is teaching the lesson on the same day same time in order to continue the continuity of every student being aware. The school website also has a button where parents can report bullying at any time and the e-mail goes right to our school principal and guidance counselor. I feel the students are more aware of bullying. They also understand what bullying is, a repeated offense. Parents are also getting a better understanding of what bullying is and the steps needed to prevent issues.
http://olweus.sites.clemson.edu
The link above is the overview to the program and why it is effective.