May 30, 2012
CEP asked Michele Borba to assess how the country is doing in its efforts to combat bullying. Dr. Borba is a CEP board member and a nationally-recognized speaker on bullying and parenting issues. She is a parenting and educational contributor on NBC’s Today show. See www.micheleborba.com.
CEP: How is the country doing in its efforts to combat bullying?
Borba: Yay for first steps! We’ve done a good job of raising awareness about bullying and how destructive the behavior can be for our students and our school climates. Two movies that came out this spring, Bully and Bullied to Silence, generated a lot of interest. Media has generated more awareness of the horrific affect bullying can have on a victim. And 49 states have now passed laws mandating anti-bullying. Numerous materials have been published including a new book of resources for parents and educators that I worked on due out in September tied to the movie Bully.
Attitudes are changing, myths about bullying as a “phase” or “rite of passage” are slowly being broken, but there’s so much more to do. We have to keep in mind that bullying is not a quick fix. It’s far much more than a one-time assembly, a few worksheets or putting posters on the wall. The latest reports [Farrington] reveal that – at best -only about one fourth of those “bully prevention” programs are effective in reducing bullying behaviors and attitudes in our schools. We have to take it step by step. It must be ongoing.
Dr. Borba distributes XO Laptops to Rwandan Students. Read her blog "How Kids in Rwanda Taught Me the Power of Giving"
Bully prevention is not a program; it’s an ongoing process to achieve systemic change in your school. The best approach to stopping bullying is always data-driven and evidence-based, has buy-in by all stakeholders (parents, staff and students), ongoing training and utilizes a few crucial components. The goal is always about creating a school culture that is based on compassion, respect and justice.
CEP: How do schools know if they’re being successful?
Borba: They have to track reporting and keep tracking it. Schools need to track discipline referrals, parent referrals, and teacher behavior referrals. Students also need to be given multiple opportunities to report: a website, a reporting box, a hotline, an email address. Then schools need to measure where they were last month and where they are this month. What do the numbers show? Measure and keep tracking. Building new habits take time. Schools have to focus on A, B, C’s—attitudes, behavior and character.
But when you collect student reporting, you have to follow up. Kids often say that while there are places their school has designated to report, they often don’t use them because no action is taken. Teachers need to review the student reports at least once a day, and then they’d better follow up. So the message from the students to us: “Be consistent and follow through with your anti-bullying policy. We need to know you’re serious about ending bullying.”
CEP: What are some other things schools can do?
Borba:
- Have ongoing staff training. Perhaps devote five minutes in each faculty meeting to the topic of bullying. Have a bulletin board in the faculty lounge focused on bullying. Perhaps do a faculty book club and choose one book to read and discuss as a staff all year. But keep talking about the problem.
- Focus on the kids. You have to ask the students about their perceptions and insights. One good way is hold student focus groups on bullying. [For step by step tips on how to do a focus group in her blog ]
- Use multiple measures. Assess your students in confidential bullying surveys, but also your staff and parents. There are dozens of assessment tools you can find online.
- Identify your hot spots. One simple, no-cost approach is to use 3 x 5 cards. Ask every student name three bullies and three victims and the places on the school where they are most likely to see or experience bullying. Then boost adult visibility at those spots and watch those students
- Make sure you have sessions on bullying prevention for parents. Research tells us that we must educate parents in bullying prevention, but we must also offer different approaches so we reach more parents. Offer workshops at night, but also hand out a tip sheet at parent conferences on signs of bullying to watch out for. Have kids make some videos for their parents that show them what bullying looks like. Include little nuggets on bullying in the school newsletters or email blasts. Set up a table and bulletin board display of bullying resources in your school entrance.
- Include your community. We have to get everyone involved in creating safe and caring schools. Work with the Boys and Girls Club. Invite your local pediatrician, coaches, and media. Get everyone involved.
CEP: What about cyberbullying? Isn’t that one of the biggest problems?
Borba: Yes, cyberbullying is a problem, but many students say that school bullying is a bigger and underrated issue. They also say if we could create more caring and safe climates, reduce cliques, cyberbullying might not be such a issue. As one student told me, “Bullying is really a relationship problem. We have to figure out how to get along.”
However, it also turns out that our students may underestimate the level of harm caused by cyberbullying. New research also warns educators that what works for preventing in-school bullying may not work for cyberbullying. [See Dr. Borba’s blog on cyberbullying for more information]
CEP: What else do students tell you?
Borba: They say they want to be taught skills so they know what to do when they see bullying. Around 85% of students are bystanders and witness bullying. Pepler and Craig’s research shows us that students who step in the right way can reduce bullying almost 60 percent of the time in less than a minute. Our best hope may be mobilizing the compassion of our bystanders. To be effective, those students need to know the difference between teasing and bullying, when to get adult help, how to stay calm themselves, and a few key bystander skills that would help them defuse bullying.
Several high school students told me they hadn’t been taught such skills since third grade. “Remember those puppets in the second grade?” he said. “The teachers used to use puppets and role play what to do in certain situations. We really learned those skills because we played them out and rehearsed them. No one teaches us skills anymore and the problems only get harder when we get older.”
Dr. Borba offers some specific skills to teach in her blog on how to be a bully B.U.S.T.E.R.
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Dr. Borba will present more on bullying at CEP’s National Forum on Character Education, Nov. 1-4. She will present a two-hour featured session on the Six Rs of Bullying Prevention, and she will facilitate a hot topic discussion on building empathy in students. Registration is now open, and extra early bird rates end July 1. Register now to save.
