Bully Prevention requires teaching youngsters about empathy, respect, conflict resolution, good humor, and responsibility. Research shows that when social skills are taught and practiced, violence is reduced, mental health is enhanced, and academic performance is raised.
Training for Staff and Students
At Breakstone Bully Prevention we provide researched based strategies to prevent bullying by addressing all the constituents involved – students, staff, and parents.
Kids learning respect vs. bullying
Students: Bully Prevention includes working with the bullies, the bullied, and the bystander. Most kids are not bullies; most kids, like most mature adults, are caring, helpful, considerate people. But bullying happens. Interestingly, most bullies are not bullies all the time; sometimes they are even the bullied. Yet, the one thing most kids are is the bystander. It is the kids who always know about where and how bullying is happening.
To prevent bullying, ALL kids have to learn to recognize hurtful behavior and how responsible community members safely and smartly stop bullying regardless if they are the bully, the bullied or the bystander.
I teach children specific skills, in individual, small or large workshops, to combat bullying and other mean behaviors. I invite you to “Look Inside” on the Amazon.com website to review the table of contents of my book “How to Stop Bullying and Social Aggression.”
Staff: Bullying doesn’t often take place in front of adults with authority i.e. a teacher or principal. Bullying takes place in unsupervised areas or in plain sight if it is belie ed that the adult won’t do anything to stop it. Therefore, bully prevention strategies must include ALL STAFF (para educators, bus drivers, librarians, maintenance people, etc.) who know what specific behaviors MUST be stopped in a professional, effective manner. All staff members have to be on the same page of effective bully prevention techniques.
Steve demonstrating how developing support systems can minimize bullying
Staff presentations range from 45 minutes to 4 hours and include:
- Defining Bullying and Social Aggression including state law
- Tattling vs. Telling, Teasing vs. Taunting
- Lesson Plans and Activities for Teaching Respectful Behavior
- 4-Step Technique to Stop Bullying (“Nip it in the Bud”)
- Creating a Well-Disciplined School
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Steve’s bully prevention training program for teachers
Educating Parents
Parents: The whole school community has to work together, as a team, to prevent bullying and increase responsible behavior among children. This ‘same page’ concept can be accomplished through presentations to parents, emails about behavioral expectations, and information about discipline techniques that bring students and adults closer together to role-model and practice empathy, responsibility, respect, conflict resolution, resiliency, making new friends, etc. Parent workshops examine the definitions of bullying and social aggression and what it looks like in real life situations. Parents will discover appropriate responses and find out how they can help their children deal with bullying and social aggression.
