A Small Step Toward Reducing School Violence

KEEP SCHOOLS SAFE

April 28, 2009

 

A STEP TOWARD REDUCING SCHOOL VIOLENCE

 

Fact.  Eighty-six (plus) % of all workplace violence, including school violence, could be prevented (OSHA, 2007) if warning signs of same would have been reported and/or acted upon.  This includes bullying, about which I recently posted, violence against teachers, suicides, and even some instances involving outside – seemingly unconnected violence spilling over into the school place. 

 

Bullying,, to me, ranks as a national disgrace.  Studies show that over 65% of children have been relentlessly and systematically bullied.  Physical and psychological violence.  It’s your guess which is worse.  To me, it’s both.  Think of this:  A child is triple victimized when he or she is bullied.

 

  1. The child is victimized by the bullies (more often than not, the bully is joined by at least one other friend, plus one or two others cheering from the sidelines and coercing others to do likewise.
  2. The child is victimized by his or her friends or fellow students who stand by and do nothing.
  3. The child is victimized by the school system who through our educational history have either been incapable of stopping bullying within the school system, or. worse, have been unwilling to develop an effective system of reporting these ugly incidents (of bullying), investigating reports, and taking appropriate action in concert with parents.
  4. There is a fourth dimension of betrayal.  This from parents who do not ask their child the right questions; who do not observe subtle and dynamic behavioral and emotional changes indicative of depression, hopelessness, anxiety, etc.  Parents, however, are not the issue in this particular post.

 

Why is this an issue today?  Two adolescents, victims of steady, unrelenting and cruel physical and emotional bullying, could only find the answer to their torture and inexorable anguish at the end of a rope, joining hundreds of other children who have taken similar routes in the past few years.

 

So, what can the schools do?  Your guess is probably as good as mine, but maybe here’s a start:

 

  • Design, develop and engineer a reporting system that encourages and rewards students to report acts of bullying, or, for that matter, any other type of behavior that threatens the safety of students, teachers, etc.
  • Honestly look into each reported incident without prejudice, presumptions and/or hidden agenda,
  • Work in concert with all parents.  Make it easy and painless (anonymity?) to report problems with their children, to inquire about what their child is doing.
  • Encourage counselors and teachers to contact parents regarding problematic behavior.
  • Security Staff and teachers must be alert for any type of behavioral signs that violence, mischief, bullying, suicidal ideation is active.
  • Schools need to develop and enforce a Counter-Bullying Protocol.

 

Next Post:  Bully-Be-Gone.  Realistic and doable steps that can stop the bully in his or her tracks!

 

Until Then.  Stay Safe.

Hammer.

 

 

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