Stop Bullying Now!

www.austinimpact.net

• Bullying occurs once every 7 minutes on school playgrounds

• Bullying occurs once every 25 minutes in classrooms

• As many as 160,000 kids stay home daily due to fear of bullies

Playground Intervention

• Adults intervene in 4% of incidents

• Peers intervene in 11%

• 85% of the time there is no intervention

What is Bullying?

• Bullying is when a person or a group try to hurt or control another person in a harmful way.

• There is a difference in power.

• It is repeated.

• It is intentional.

Examples

• Physical: Hitting, Kicking, Shoving

• Control: Making someone do something

• Verbal: name calling, threats, talking behind their back

• Social: Shunning, leaving them out of games, ignoring

• Cyber Bullying: 43% have been bullied online

Bullying Myths

• Myth: “Bullying is just a stage. It is normal, I went through it, my kids will too.”

• Fact: Bullying is not normal or socially acceptable behavior. We give bullies power by accepting it as normal.

Bullying Myths

• Myth: “ If I tell someone it will only make it worse!”

• Fact: Research shows that bullying will stop when authority figures and peers get involved.

Bullying Myths

• Myth: “ Hit them Back!”

• Fact: There are times for people to defend themselves. Many times fighting makes the situation worse and increases the risk for serious physical harm.

Bullying Myths

• Myth: “Bullying is a school problem, the teachers should handle it.”

• Fact: Bullying is a broader social problem that happens in many places.

Bullying Myths

• Myth: “He was born a bully. That’s what he is.”

• Fact: Bullying is a learned behavior. It is taught through observance of interactions between adults, siblings, and other kids.

Why do people bully?

• Makes them feel superior

• Gain attention

• Feel popular

• Fear about something in themselves

• Jealousy

• No empathy for others

Bullies later in life

• By age 24, 60% of childhood bullies have at least 1 criminal conviction.

• Childhood bullies have higher rates of alcoholism, anti-social personality disorders, and a higher need for mental health care.

Bullies in later life

• Childhood Bullying

• Sexual Violence

• Harassment in the workplace

• Spousal Abuse

• Elderly Abuse

What can we do?

“Evil prevails when good men fail to act”

Edmund Burke

What can we do?

3 Main Groups

Bullies

Victims

Bystanders/ Observers

What can the victim do?

• Prevent:

• Be confident in themselves.

• Like themselves for who they are.

• Do not look like a victim.

• Avoid trouble areas and people

What can the victim do?

Act:

• Tell an adult. Do not keep it to themselves.

• Telling is not Tattling.

• Stay calm and do not appear angry or upset.

• Ignore the bully.

What can the victim do?

Act:

• Tell them to stop

• Stay near friends and adults

• Fight as a last resort and a means to escape.

What should bystanders do?

• Do not join in.

• Walk away. The Bully is looking for an audience.

• Help the victim to walk away.

• Bullying usually stops in under 10 seconds when a peer intervenes.

• Do not attack the bully. (verbally or physically)

What should bystanders do?

• Believe the kid being bullied.

• Help the victim tell an adult.

• Be a friend.

• Remember peers are present in 85% of bullying situations.

What about the bully?

• Identify potential “bullies”.

• Remember bullying is a learned behavior.

• Try to separate “bullying behavior” from the perpetrator.

• Sometimes they do not understand how wrong their behavior is and how it affects others.

What about the bully?

• Research shows that peer mediation is effective.

• Be a friend to the “bully,” but do not accept the behavior.

• Teach them to treat others as they would like to be treated.

• Do not bully the bully!

Success

• Education works!

• Drunk Driving Fatalities have dropped 65% from 1982-2011 due to groups (MADD, Century Council, etc.) educating the public.

• Smoking has decreased due to education.

• 1965 42.4% of the population smoked

• 2010 19.3%

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