Bully Free Doesn’t Just Happen: All of Us Are Needed
Please don’t tell my mom, but…My mom was wrong. Your mom was probably wrong, too. And maybe your dad and your grandfather, if they told you what my mom told me. “Oh he’s just a little bully. He just wants attention. Just ignore him, and he’ll just go away.”
We grew up with that. Just ignore him. He’ll go away.
But research, unlike my mom, says children who bully don’t always just go away.
Research says that schools that make the effort to end bullying can be very successful. Research says that the most successful school programs concentrate on engaging and training – seriously training – a caring adult to teach, model and engage students in understanding concepts like kindness and empathy, and to intervene when they discover bullying behavior.
Teachers and education support professionals like bus drivers and teachers’ assistants have been begging for such training. In recent years, educators havereported an increase in bullying behavior in schools, playgrounds and buses.
The National Education Association has answered the call with information and materials and training that can help anyone who cares about keeping kids safe
