National Stop Bullying Day helps bring awareness to the problem of bullying and how important it is to stop bullies from negatively impacting the lives of innocent people. This special day reminds us that bullies need to be stopped in their tracks before continuing on with their bullying patterns. It also offers victims of bullying strategies and resources for healing. National Stop Bullying Day is all about creating awareness, taking action, and helping stop bullying.
What are the main forms of bullying?
Bullying can take many forms – physical contact, gossiping, social exclusion, name-calling, racial and sexual harassment, cyberbullying, and much more. National Stop Bullying Day reminds us to take a stand against all forms of bullying and work together as a community to try to stop bullies in their tracks! We need to take the time to remember the effects bullying can have on survivors of bullying.
How Bad is the Bullying Problem, Really?
Bullying can happen anywhere — at school, on the playground, on a bus, in the cafeteria — and with increasing frequency via the Internet. According to bullyingstatistics.org bullying is when “someone repeatedly makes another person feel bad, such as by insulting him or her; threatening; teasing, or excluding someone from a group on purpose.” The bullying can be verbal (saying mean things), physical (hitting, kicking, and pushing), and/or emotional bullying.
Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior. It happens when a child or teen intentionally tries to harm another person, physically or emotionally. Bullies have been described as kids who are aggressive and intimidating toward other children who are weaker than they are. It’s important to understand bullying because bullying behavior in children and teenagers may lead to more serious bullying in adulthood.
What Can Parents Do About Bullying?
In addition to your support and encouragement, bullying prevention should start at school. Talk with your child’s teacher to find out what bullying prevention activities the school is engaged in, and offer to help. You can also ask the school’s anti-bullying coordinator if bullying prevention messages are included in classroom activities and assemblies.
What If My Kid is the Bully?
If your child is bullying others, you may need to take more direct measures such as seeking professional advice from a counselor or therapist. There could be many reasons for bullying behavior, such as bullying behavior in school, bullying in the community, bullying by parents or bullying due to neglect. After all, bullying behavior is learned at home and bullying behaviors will be repeated unless the bullying is stopped!
Bullying Prevention and Intervention
This creates a cycle of bullying behavior that can get worse if not addressed early. Parents should try to stop bullying in its tracks by speaking with their children about bullying and giving them strategies for coping with it.
· Talk with your child. Discuss the bullying issue and the bullying behavior that you have observed. Acknowledge that bullying hurts people on both sides of bullying-the target and the bully themselves. Let your child know that bullying is not acceptable in your family, but also discuss some strategies for dealing with bullying behavior if it does occur. Make sure your child understands bullying and bullying behavior and knows how to prevent bullying and bullying behavior.
· If bullying is happening at school, ask for a conference with the teacher. Be clear about what you have observed and ask how the teacher plans to handle it. Talk about ways that your child can help himself or herself. And finally, if bullying is occurring in your child’s class, talk to the parents of the bullying children. Let them know you are trying to help solve bullying behavior in your child and bullying behavior in their own child.
· It’s also important for bullying prevention strategies to include bullying prevention at home. Set a good example by demonstrating kind and considerate behavior and bullying prevention yourself.
· Establish rules about bullying behavior in your home. Make sure that bullying is not tolerated and that bullying is seen as unacceptable for all family members – including you! Assure your child that bullying will be dealt with if it occurs, and get help for bullying such as bullying counseling or bullying therapy to further bullying prevention efforts.
· Community bullying prevention is a good bullying prevention strategy for families who feel that bullying behavior has become a problem in their home or neighborhood. Talk with your neighbors about bullying and together put bullying policies in place, such as not allowing bullying on the playground or introducing bullying activities at school. Bullying prevention at the community level can also involve bullying prevention activities for families.
· If bullying is becoming a problem in your neighborhood or bullying is occurring at school, bullying prevention programs are available to help combat bullying behavior. Bullying counseling or bullying therapy may be an effective bullying prevention solution if bullying has become a part of everyday life.
Don’t let bullying behavior take over, bullying should not be considered the norm.
· If bullying begins at home, bullying prevention programs will look for the causes and provide treatments that address the issues in the family dynamics. This may involve counseling or therapy for your whole family to help rid bullying behavior from your life once and for all!
· If bullying is becoming a problem in your neighborhood or bullying is occurring at school, bullying prevention programs are available to help combat bullying behavior.
What Can Schools Do to Help with Bullying Prevention?
There are many primary goals of bullying prevention. The overall goal of course, is to prevent bullying before it happens. This can be difficult to achieve, so it’s important to address bullying behavior when bullying first begins.
· One bullying prevention goal is to prevent bullying by teaching children right from wrong. This can be done through bullying prevention programs at school where bullying activities are introduced and bullying issues discussed. Parents can also teach these bullying prevention concepts by modeling kind and considerate behavior in bullying prevention efforts at home.
· All bullying prevention programs should include education to help children understand bullying and bullying behavior better. Many bullying prevention activities also involve building awareness so that children can see examples of bullying behavior or, more importantly, know how to avoid becoming bullies themselves.
· Some bullying prevention efforts focus interventions in school. This means counselors are being employed to help stop the bullying problem at the root of its existence by talking to bullies or bullying victims and bullying bystanders about bullying behavior. These interventions can be very effective bully-proofing activities, especially when used alongside other bullying prevention efforts such as awareness education and prevention of bullying and counseling or bullying therapy.
By combining bullying treatment programs for bullies with bullying prevention efforts and bullying counseling for bullying victims, we can stop bullies once and for all!
Should We Intervene With a Bully?
Bullying intervention techniques can involve one on one bullying counseling with bullies, bullying victims, or even bystanders to address individual bullying issues and help stop the bully-victim cycle. Other bully-proofing activities may include counseling for parents of bullies or bullying counseling for bullying victims.
· Sometimes bullying intervention efforts focus on bullying prevention therapy. This means that bullying counseling is done in order to prevent bullying behavior from ever taking place in the future so bullies learn how to act properly and bullying victims learn how to stop bullying. Using counseling or therapy, bullies can rid themselves of bullying issues and behaviors. Bully victims learn how to avoid bullying behavior or witnesses can also learn about how to intervene.
Stop bullies today by taking action! You have the power to take a stand against bullying. One way you can take action is by simply recognizing National Stop Bullying Day on social networking sites. You can spread the word about National Stop Bullying Day with your friends and family members!
You can also join an online campaign for National Stop Bullying Day. If you’re passionate about taking a stand, you can contact your local National Stop Bullying Day representatives to learn more about what’s being done in your area to stop bullies. If your city is holding an event, you can lend support by attending!
The most important way you can stop bullying is by informing and reminding bullies that their actions will not be tolerated. Let all bullies know that you are serious about stopping them in their tracks and will not let up until they do!
If you’re a target of bullying, Believe in Me – Foundation for Kids is here to support you! We understand how bullying can make your life unbearable. We want you to know that we will be there every step of the way with resources, tools, and support if bullies choose to bully you.
We understand how bullying can lead to depression, anxiety, and eventually thoughts of suicide. Because we care about you, we help fund wraparound programs that help both bullies and their victims learn empathy and understanding so they will not continue the cycle of violence.
If you care about victims of bullying, help us stop bullies in their tracks by clicking on the “Help a Kid Today” button and make a donation today!
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