What are Schools Doing About Bullying?

What are schools doing about bullying? That's the question I chose to ask this week. After much research, I found a lot of interesting websites and articles that told me what schools are and aren't doing about bullying, and some of the statistics that come with it.

Some of the statistics, although disturbing, were quite interesting:

-About 56% of students have witnessed some type of bullying while present at school.
- 15% of the student population that doesn't show up to school blame it on the fear of being bullied in school.
-A giant 71% of students report bullying as an "ongoing" issue.
- 1 out of every 10 students drop out of school due to bullying.
-There are about 282,000 students that are allegedly attacked each month in high schools throughout the nation.

So, what are teachers and administrations in schools around the nation doing to prevent bullying? How are they ensuring their students that they won't become victims to bullying? Where can students go for support? There are so many questions...and answers...when it comes to this topic that is so "hot" throughout our nation.

There are many websites and support groups for victims of bullying, both physical and cyber. Www.stopbullying.gov is a great website to go to for information about ways on how to stop bullying and how educators have recognized this as a disease throughout school systems nationwide. On this website, there are links for both, "How do I get help?" and "Recognize the Warning Signs." Both of this were very informational from more than one perspective. It's refreshing to see how much schools have already taken action against this awful monster.

Another website that can serve as a support system to students who are being bullied is, http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html. Here, students can learn the difference between regular bullying and cyberbullying, articles regarding school violence, and q&a's about talking to adults about bullying. I found this website to be extremely informational as well.

As for me, bullying will never be tolerated in my classroom. Fortunately, having worked with kids for so long, I feel like I can recognize bullying and unacceptable behavior fairly easily. I can honestly say that I'm not entirely sure how I would handle a bullying situation, I know that I would remove the children from one another and deal with the "bully" at a higher administrative level. I think that we all know where I stand on this topic, it's absolutely unacceptable. Everyone needs to be accepted equally and everything else will fall into place, right now there's just too much resistance. But, I firmly believe that if we all work together, we can end bullying for good.

Sources:
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics-2010.html
http://www.stopbullying.gov/index.html
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/problems/bullies.html