Description:
A common health issue amongst school-aged children is bullying. Bullying is defined as an unwanted aggressive behavior that can involve, physically or verbally attacking someone, spreading rumors, making threats, or purposely excluding someone from a group. Both the bullied and the bullier are at risk for health issues such as depression or suicide. According to the “Child Abuse Sourcebook,” Valarie Juntunen states, “No single factor puts a child at risk of being bullied or bullying others. Depending on the environment, some groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth, youth with disabilities and socially isolated youth may be at an increased risk of being bullied.” Generally, children that are somehow different
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The Victoria State Government education an Training website states that teachers need to “ establish a culture that is clearly pro-learning, and where bullying and violence is neither accepted or expected, empower students to tell adults and inform them on the school resources that they have such as a counselor.” The can incorporate role-playing like the program mentioned earlier or have regular discussions on the topic. In the beginning of the school year, the teacher needs to set clear rules and consequences for bullying so the students know what is expected of them. The school as a whole can use assembly time to discuss the bullying prevention and the importance of informing an adult if they witness bullying behavior. The stopbullying.gov website states that the teacher should avoid discussing the situation with the students involved in front of the class. The teacher should talk to the students involved in private or with the school counselor. If the bullying is physical the teacher should immediately break up the fight and separate the two students. Each student should be allowed to tell his or her version of the story before the teacher determines who is at fault. To prevent other students from copying the bullying behavior the teacher should have another discussion with the class on why bullying is harmful to everyone involved. They should also let the students have an open discussion on their feelings about what happened in class. The teacher should regularly acknowledge positive student behavior to set an example for other students to