The Scary Reality of Bullying and How to Prevent It

Bullying has grown to become a serious problem in schools and communities across the country, and its impact on children can be devastating. Children who are bullied often end up experiencing anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, as well as self-esteem issues as they get older, according to an article published by WebMD. In order to prevent bullying from occurring in your community or school, it’s important to first understand why it occurs and how you can prevent it from happening again. Take the following tips into consideration when preventing bullying

Understand What it Means to Be Bullied

According to the American Psychological Association, bullying is aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. There are many different types of bullying, but all have one thing in common: they involve unprovoked negative actions. If you are being bullied it can be difficult to know how to stop it. You may feel scared, sad, and powerless. Here’s what you need to do if you’re being bullied:

Tell someone right away. Keep records of incidents by writing down when they happened, where they happened, who was involved (including any witnesses), and what happened. Report bullying if your school has a policy on this – some schools might even have a system for anonymous reporting so bullies don’t find out who said something about them. Get support from friends, family members, teachers, counselors – anyone who makes you feel safe and loved when talking about your feelings and experiences with bullying.

Strategies for Parents

In order to prevent bullying, parents need to be proactive by providing kids with the tools they need to stand up for themselves. Parents also need to pay attention when their kids are engaging in certain behaviors, as this could be a sign that they’re being bullied. Finally, take a look at your child’s social media activity and make sure they’re not posting anything that could put them at risk for bullying. Allowing access to these sites is a tough call. What if your kid is constantly getting bullied online? What if he or she isn’t? It can be difficult to decide what to do here. Talk with other parents who have children about your age of yours and see what approach works best for them. One thing you’ll want to avoid is taking away all access just because there may be some negative stuff happening online-this could cause more problems than it solves!

Strategies for Teachers

There are many strategies that teachers can use in order to prevent bullying.

1) Don’t wait for the victim to tell you, intervene when you hear or see someone being picked on.

2) Use the word bully in a sentence that doesn’t involve bullying, like My friend is such a bully! This will help students who are not familiar with what it means to understand the term better.

3) Have all students read a book about bullying and let them watch videos about it.

4) Involve students in brainstorming ways to stop bullying.

5) Hold an assembly where you speak about your own experiences with bullying and have different speakers share their stories as well.

Strategies for Kids

1. Stand up for yourself when you see bullying happening.

2. If a bully is harassing someone, tell the bully to stop or get help from an adult if possible.

3. Report any incidents of bullying that you saw or experienced so that the school can take action against the bully and prevent it from happening again.

4. Support the people who are being bullied by not joining in on making fun of them and also by encouraging them to speak up when they need help. If you are being bullied please reach out to someone.

Tell your parents or friends who will be supportive and listen without judgment. You should never have to go through this alone.