Bullies: They can be stopped, but it takes a village. - By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella - Slate Magazine

Bullies: They can be stopped, but it takes a village. - By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella - Slate Magazine

BulliesThey can be stopped, but it takes a village.

By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo RotellaPosted Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 2:50 PM ET

Authorities brought a series of charges Monday against nine teenagers accused of incessantly bullying 15-year-old South Hadley high school student Phoebe Prince for months before she killed herself. Last year, Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella cautioned against common but ineffective responses to bullying and outlined some solutions that actually work. The article is reprinted below.

These responses share three features:Let's say you find out that your child is being bullied by a schoolmate. Naturally, you want to do something right now to make it stop. Depending on your temperament and experience, one or more of four widely attempted common-sense solutions will occur to you: telling your child to stand up to the bully, telling your child to try to ignore and avoid the bully, taking matters into your own hands by calling the bully's parents or confronting the bully yourself, or asking your child's teacher to put a stop to it.

1) They all express genuine caring, concern, and good intentions.
2) You will feel better for taking action.
3) They are likely to be ineffective.

In order to understand why, let's focus on two aspects of bullying: It arises from a