Las Cruces Public Schools
Anti-Bullying Policy and
Curriculum Plan
Presented by:
Dennis Zamora- Las Cruces Public Schools Title I/IV Coordinator
Dr. Martin Greer- Las Cruces Public Schools Lead School Psychologist
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Model Policy Prohibiting Bullying
Intimidation, and Hostile or Offensive Conduct
The effective education of our students
requires a school environment in which
students feel safe and secure. The Board of
Education is committed to maintaining an
environment conducive to learning in which
students are safe from bullying, violence,
threats, name-calling, intimidation, and
unlawful harassment.
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JICK-Model Policy Prohibiting Bullying
Intimidation, and Hostile or Offensive Conduct
Definition:
1.“Unlawful harassment” means verbal or physical conduct based
on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin,
gender, religion, or disability and which has the purpose or effect of
substantially interfering with a student’s educational performance or
creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment. Sexual
harassment of students and hazing are addressed by separate Board
policies.
2. “Bullying” means intimidating or offensive verbal or physical
conduct toward a student when such conduct is habitual or
recurring, including, but not limited to, threats and name-calling.
3. “Name-calling,” means the chronic, habitual, or recurring use of
names or comments to or about a student regarding the student’s
actual or perceived physical or personal characteristics when the
student has indicated by his or her conduct, that the names or
comments are unwelcome, or when the names or comments are
clearly unwelcome, inappropriate, or offensive by their nature.
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JICK-MODEL POLICY
PROHIBITION OF STUDENT HARASSMENT BASED ON
RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, NATIONAL ORIGIN, OR
DISABILITY
The Board forbids discrimination against any
student on the basis of race, color, religion,
national origin, age, or disability (referred to
herein as “protected characteristics”), on
school premises, at any school sponsored
activities, or during any school supplied
transportation, by any students, employees,
non-employee volunteers, or any other persons
who are subject to the control of school
authorities.
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JICK-MODEL POLICY
PROHIBITION OF STUDENT HARASSMENT BASED ON
RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, NATIONAL ORIGIN, OR
DISABILITY
Definition of Harassment on the Basis of Protected
Characteristics
For purposes of this Policy, “harassment on the basis of
protected characteristics” is verbal or physical conduct that
denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual
because of his or her race, color, religion, national origin, or
disability, and that:
A. Has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating,
hostile, or offensive work environment;
B. Has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with
the student’s ability to benefit from any educational program
or service provided by the School District; and
C. Is so offensive or pervasive as to adversely effect the
educational performance of the student.
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PROPOSED POLICY
JICK-SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF STUDENTS
• The effective education of our students requires a school
environment in which students feel safe and secure. Sexual
harassment of students, whether by employees or by other
students, impairs the proper atmosphere for education, and
often creates an inequitable climate for learning.
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JICK-SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF STUDENTS
Definitions and Standards of Conduct
• Between an employee and a student, sexual harassment is any conduct of a
sexual nature. Between students, sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct
of a sexual nature. Specific definitions follow.
1.Conduct of a Sexual Nature
• Conduct of a sexual nature may include, but is not limited to:
• verbal or physical sexual advances, including subtle pressure for sexual
activity;
• repeated or persistent requests for dates, meetings, and other social
interactions;
• sexually oriented touching, pinching, patting, staring, pulling at clothing, or
intentionally brushing against another;
• showing or giving sexual pictures, photographs, illustrations, messages, or
notes;
• writing graffiti of a sexual nature on school property;
• comments or name-calling to or about a student regarding alleged physical
or personal characteristics of a sexual nature;
• sexually-oriented "kidding," "teasing," double-entendres, and jokes; and
• any harassing conduct to which a student is subjected because of or
regarding the student's sex.
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JICK- MODEL POLICY PROHIBITING HAZING
The Board of Education finds that practices known under the
term “hazing” are dangerous to the physical and psychological
welfare of students, and should be prohibited in connection
with all school activities.
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JICK- MODEL POLICY PROHIBITING HAZING
Definition
Hazing includes, but is not limited to,
• engaging in any offensive or dangerous physical contact,
restraint, abduction, or isolation of a student, or
• requiring or encouraging a student to perform any dangerous,
painful, offensive, or demeaning physical or verbal act,
including the ingestion of any substance, exposure to the
elements, deprivation of sleep or rest, or extensive isolation, or
• subjecting a student to any dangerous, painful, harmful,
offensive, or demeaning conduct, or to conduct reasonably
likely to create extreme mental distress,
• as a condition of membership in, or initiation into, any class,
team, group, or organization sponsored by, or permitted to
operate under, the auspices of, a school of the School District,
or for similar or related purposes, provided, that such conduct
shall not be considered hazing when it is a recognized and
integral part of the particular sport or activity.
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“Training Manuals”
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Bullying Facts and Statistics
Prevalence
•
Almost 30% of youth in the United States (or over
5.7 million) are estimated to be involved in bullying
as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both. In a
recent national survey of students in grades 6-10,
13% reported bullying others, 11% reported being
the target of bullies, and another 6% said that they
bullied others and were bullied themselves.*
* Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth:
Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment., 285(16), 2094-2100.Journal of the American Medical Association,
285(16), 2094-2100.
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Bullying Facts and Statistics
• More than 50% of teens (ages 12 to 17) witness at
least one bullying or taunting incident in school each
week (NCPC, 2005).
• Students in grades 7 to 12 say revenge is the strongest
motivation for school shootings; 86% said, “other
kids picking on them, making fun of them, or
bullying them” can cause teenagers to turn to lethal
violence in schools (Cerio, 2001).
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Male vs. Female
Bullying takes on different forms in male and female
youth. While both male and female youth say that others
bully them by making fun of the way they look or talk,
males are more likely to report being hit, slapped, or
pushed. Female youth are more likely than males to report
being the targets of rumors and sexual comments.[*]
While male youth target both boys and girls, female youth
most often bully other girls, using more subtle and
indirect forms of aggression than boys. For example,
instead of physically harming others, they are more likely
to spread gossip or encourage others to reject or exclude
another girl.
* Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth:
Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment., 285(16), 2094-2100.Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16),
2094-2100.
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Mean Girls
Relational Aggression-RA
Relational (or Alternative) Aggression
• Behavior that aims to manipulate the web of 3rd party
relationships in order to hurt a particular individual.
Spreading rumors, gossip, lies,-- telling secrets; eyerolling, exclusion, and 'the silent treatment' all aim to
promote cruelty through the social networks.
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Risk Factors for Bullying Behavior
While many people believe that bullies act tough in order
to hide feelings of insecurity and self-loathing, in fact,
bullies tend to be confident, with high self-esteem.[*],
They are generally physically aggressive, with proviolence attitudes, and are typically hot-tempered, easily
angered, and impulsive, with a low tolerance for
frustration. Bullies have a strong need to dominate others
and usually have little empathy for their targets. Male
bullies are often physically bigger and stronger than their
peers.[*] Bullies tend to get in trouble more often, and to
dislike and do more poorly in school, than teens who do
not bully others. They are also more likely to fight, drink
and smoke than their peers.[*]
* Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth:
Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment., 285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16),
2094-2100.
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Risk Factors for Being Targeted by Bullies
• Children and youth who are bullied are typically anxious,
insecure, and cautious and suffer from low self-esteem, rarely
defending themselves or retaliating when confronted by
students who bully them.[*] They are often socially isolated
and lack social skills. One study found that the most frequent
reason cited by youth for persons being bullied is that they
"didn't fit in."[*] Males who are bullied tend to be physically
weaker than their peers. Long-term Impact on Youth
• There appears to be a strong relationship between bullying
other students and experiencing later legal and criminal
problems as an adult. In one study, 60% of those characterized
as bullies in grades 6-9 had at least one criminal conviction by
age 24.Chronic bullies seem to maintain their behaviors into
adulthood, negatively influencing their ability to develop and
maintain positive relationships.[*]
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• “In a nutshell: Don't Feed the Bully is an important self-help
book for pre-teens that is cleverly disguised as a hilarious,
fictional novel. Don't Feed the Bully provides practical advice
to children on the extremely important topic of bullying. Yet it
delivers that advice in a humorous, captivating plot that makes
putting the book down nearly impossible. I urge educators to
adopt this as required reading for your middle-school children.
Doing so would be a major step forward in tackling the serious
problem of bullying, which continues to lead to escalating
violence in our schools.” Barnes and Noble.com reviewer,
5/12/2007 *****
• “'Don’t Feed the Bully' has been critically acclaimed for helping
kids become aware of bullying behavior and solve situations
before they become violent. It has won the Top Choice Award for
best teen novel from Flamingnet.com." Amie Slevin, Noblesville 20
Ledger
Risk Factors for Being Targeted by Bullies
• Bullying can lead the children and youth that are the target of
bullying to feel tense, anxious, and afraid. It can affect their
concentration in school, and can lead them to avoid school in
some cases. If bullying continues for some time, it can begin to
affect children and youth's self-esteem and feelings of selfworth. It also can increase their social isolation, leading them
to become withdrawn and depressed, anxious and insecure. In
extreme cases, bullying can be devastating for children and
youth, with long-term consequences. Researchers have found
that years later, long after the bullying has stopped, adults who
were bullied as youth have higher levels of depression and
poorer self-esteem than other adults
* Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth:
Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment., 285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16),
2094-2100.
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Make a Stand and Take the Lead
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Effective Programs
Effective programs have been developed to reduce bullying in
schools. Research has found that bullying is most likely to
occur in schools where there is a lack of adult supervision
during breaks, where teachers and students are indifferent to or
accept bullying behavior, and where rules against bullying are
not consistently enforced.[*]
* Nansel, T.R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Simons-Morton, B., & Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth:
Prevalence and Association With Psychosocial Adjustment., 285(16), 2094-2100. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16),
2094-2100.
23
Effective Programs
While approaches that simply crack down on individual
bullies are seldom effective, when there is a school-wide
commitment to end bullying, it can be reduced by up to
50%. One approach that has been shown to be effective
focuses on changing school and classroom climates by:
raising awareness about bullying, increasing teacher and
parent involvement and supervision, forming clear rules
and strong social norms against bullying, and providing
support and protection for all students. This approach
involves teachers, principals, students, and everyone
associated with the school, including janitors, cafeteria
workers, and crossing guards. Adults become aware of the
extent of bullying at the school, and they involve
themselves in changing the situation, rather than looking
the other way. Students pledge not to bully other students,
to help students who are bullied, and to make a point to
include students who are left out.
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Bullying Warning Signs
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Bullying Warning Signs
The following may be signs that your child is being bullied:
• Avoiding certain situations, people, or places, such as
pretending to be sick so that he or she does not have to
go to school
• Changes in behavior, such as being withdrawn and
passive, being overly active and aggressive, or being selfdestructive
• Frequent crying or feeling sad
• Signs of low self-esteem
• Being unwilling to speak or showing signs of fear when
asked about certain situations, people, or places
• Signs of injuries
• Suddenly receiving lower grades or showing signs of
learning problems
• Recurrent unexplained physical symptoms such as
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stomach pains and fatigue
Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others
• When evaluating a child or adolescent who has been
bullying others, it is helpful to understand the context in
which the child or adolescent acted. It is also important to
screen children who bully for ADHD, depression,
suicidality, bipolar disorder, child maltreatment, and
substance abuse disorders. Ask the child or adolescent
about exposure to violence in his/her home, neighborhood,
and school, and through the media.
• Talk to family members whenever possible, in order to
assess family functioning and any parental symptoms and
distress (e.g., substance/alcohol abuse problems, mood
disorders, and/or marital conflict). If parents are having
difficulties, encourage them to seek outside support (e.g.,
from relatives, parent support groups, faith-based
communities, mental health services) and make
appropriate referrals.
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Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others
• Discuss the seriousness of bullying behavior.
• Help parents or caregivers to develop reasonable
expectations for their child or adolescent.
• Educate them about the negative effects of physical
punishment.
• Help them to develop strategies to set limits, to
monitor and closely supervise their child's behavior,
and to effectively discipline their child or adolescent.
• Encourage parents and other caregivers to
communicate and collaborate with staff at their school
in order to develop a consistent approach to their
child's bullying behavior.
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Bully by Definition
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Helping a Youth Who Bullies Others
• When the bullying problem is severe, a combined
intervention with both the child or adolescent and the
family may be required, addressing the child's or
adolescent's functioning in the areas of family life,
relationship with peers, and school. Primary care
health professionals need to determine when mental
health referrals for the child or adolescent and/or the
family are appropriate and when social service and/or
legal agencies should be involved.
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Being Bullied
• First, listen to your child. Just talking about the
problem and knowing that you care can be helpful and
comforting. Make sure that your child knows that you
do not blame or feel disappointed in him or her. Ask
your child what he or she thinks should be done. What
has your child tried? What worked and what didn’t?
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Being Bullied
• Encourage your child not to retaliate against the bully or
to let the bully see how much he or she has upset your
child. Getting a response just reinforces the bullying
behavior. Tell your child that if at all possible, he or she
should stay calm and respond evenly or firmly (e.g., "I
don't like your teasing and I want you to stop right now"
or "Stop doing that now. If you keep on, I'm going to
report you to the principal."). Some children find it works
to just say nothing and walk away. At other times, it can
be more effective to make a joke, laugh at oneself, or to
use humor to defuse the situation. Brainstorm with your
child to develop some effective responses. Then role-play
different approaches and responses with your child so that
he or she will be prepared the next time.
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Being Bullied
• Encourage your child to go immediately to a teacher,
principal, or other nearby adult if he or she feels
seriously threatened.
• You may also want to help your child to develop
strategies to avoid situations where bullying can
happen and to avoid being alone with bullies. If
bullying occurs on the way to or from school, your
child may want to take a different route, leave at a
different time, or find others to walk to and from
school with. If bullying occurs at school, your child
may want to avoid areas that are isolated or
unsupervised by adults, and stick with friends as
much as possible.
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Being Bullied
• Encourage your child to form strong friendships. A
child or teen who has loyal friends is less likely to be
singled out by a bully, and they can be valuable allies
if your child is targeted. If your child lacks friends,
help him or her to develop more friendships.
Encourage your child to participate in positive social
groups that meet his or her interests, such as afterschool groups, church groups, extra-curricular
activities, or teams. In addition to helping your child
make friends, these activities can help to develop
your child’s special skills and rebuild his or her selfconfidence.
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Learned behavior from their “Masters”???
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Being Bullied
• In many cases, bullying won’t require your
involvement. If the bullying is persistent and is
harming your child’s emotional health, you need to
intervene by talking to your child’s teacher, school
counselor, or principal about the problem in order to
make sure your child is safe, that effective
consequences are applied toward the bully, and that
monitoring at school is adequate. Advocate for the
involvement of the bully’s parents. Suggest that the
school implement a comprehensive anti-bullying
program.
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Bullying Others
• If you learn that your child is bullying others, sit down and
talk with your child immediately. It is important to take the
problem seriously, because children and youth who bully
others are at a greater risk for serious problems later in life.
Give your child an opportunity to explain his/her behavior,
but do not accept any excuses or justifications. Make it
clear that bullying will not be tolerated and outline the
consequences for further unacceptable behavior. If the
problem is occurring at school, tell your child you support
the school’s right to punish him/her if the behavior persists.
• Encourage your child to try to understand how the bullying
feels to his/her victim. Bullies often have trouble
empathizing with their victims so it is important to discuss
with your child how bullying feels. How would your child
feel if it happened to him/her? If you or someone close to
you has been bullied in the past, you might want to share
the story with your child, discussing the emotional impact.
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Parent Response to Bullying
If Your Child Is Bullying Others
• Increase your supervision of your child’s activities and
whereabouts, and know who your child is spending time
with. Make an effort to observe your child in one-on-one
interactions. Stop any show of aggression immediately
and help your child find other, nonviolent ways of reacting
to certain situations. Praise your child for appropriate
behaviors.
• If the bullying continues, you need to seek help for your
child. Without intervention, bullying can lead to serious
academic, social, emotional and legal difficulties. Talk to
your child's pediatrician, teacher, principal, school
counselor, or your family physician. If the bullying
continues, a comprehensive evaluation by a child and
adolescent psychiatrist or other mental health professional
should be arranged. The evaluation can help you and your
child understand what is causing the bullying and help you
develop a plan to stop the destructive behavior
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Pitched Arm Wrestling Match
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Treating a Bullying Victim
• Tell the child or adolescent that you care and are concerned.
Ask the child to tell you what is going on and provide an
opportunity for the child to talk to you openly. Explain that
telling is not tattling and that you need the information in order
to help. When the child begins to talk, respond in an accepting
and positive way. Make it clear that the bullying is not the
child's fault, and that telling you was the right thing to do.
• Gather a complete violence history from the child or adolescent
that addresses exposure to violence, safety issues, stressors in
school, family, and community.
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Treating a Bullying Victim
• Talk to the child's parents/caregivers about bullying and its
seriousness. Address any myths they might hold about
bullying. Some parents may believe that bullying is a normal
part of childhood and that children are best left to work it out
among themselves. Some believe that fighting back is the best
way to stop bullying.
• Provide the child's parents with information about bullying and
how to help their child respond to bullying.
• Provide the child or adolescent with information on bullying.
• Encourage the child's school to implement a comprehensive
violence prevention plan that includes an anti-bullying
component.
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School Bullying Prevention
• Effective programs have been developed to reduce bullying in
schools. Research has found that bullying is most likely to
occur in schools where there is a lack of adult supervision
during breaks, where teachers and students are indifferent to or
accept bullying behavior, and where rules against bullying are
not consistently enforced.
42
School Bullying Prevention
• While approaches that simply crack down on individual bullies
are seldom effective, when there is a school-wide commitment
to end bullying, it can be reduced by up to 50%. One approach
that has been shown to be effective focuses on changing
school and classroom climates by: raising awareness about
bullying, increasing teacher and parent involvement and
supervision, forming clear rules and strong social norms
against bullying, and providing support and protection for all
students. This approach involves teachers, principals, students,
and everyone associated with the school, including janitors,
cafeteria workers, and crossing guards. Adults become aware
of the extent of bullying at the school, and they involve
themselves in changing the situation, rather than looking the
other way. Students pledge not to bully other students, to help
students who are bullied, and to make a point to include
students who are left out
43
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Reacting to Bullying
Complied by Dennis ZamoraTitle IV Coordinator- Las Cruces Public Schools
The way schools react is important• The most effective thing that a school can do to reduce
bullying is to have a policy outlining how the issue is
raised within the curriculum, and how incidents are
dealt with after they have happened i.e. the policy must
acknowledge the need for both pro-active and re-active
strategies. But no school has the answer to every
problem, and no single method can be used to deal with
all bullying incidents.
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Reacting to Bullying
The way schools react is important• The way in which adults react to bullying contributes
to the ethos of the school and can help to make it
more or less likely that bullying will happen in future.
Ignoring the problem encourages it to flourish. A
heavy-handed approach can drive it underground.
However, a positive, open response will encourage
young people to speak up about matters that concern
them and will improve the learning environment by
promoting more caring and responsible patterns of
behaviors.
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“To Teach and Protect”
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Reacting to Bullying
How should schools react?
This will depend upon:
• The circumstances - always assess the true nature of
an incident before applying any strategy. Group
bullying or "mobbing" needs to be handled differently
from problems created by an individual who
persistently bullies others. Such a person's bullying
may be merely one manifestation of a plethora of
problems.
• The existing practices and resources of the school for example, there is no point trying to encourage a
counseling approach if potential counselors are not
given the training, time and support needed to fulfill
the task.
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Which strategies are best?
• Schools are getting better at dealing with bullying but
it will be some time before a quick resolution of all
incidents can be guaranteed. Sometimes all that is
needed is a simple word or two from a teacher to
make children realize that what they are doing is
wrong. At the other extreme some bullying remains
intractable. The development of new ideas continues
and all it is possible to do at the moment is to list
some of the strategies for which success has been
claimed and to provide a few words of commentary
on each.
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Which strategies are best?
• Punishments such as suspension or expulsion can mark the
seriousness with which an episode of bullying is viewed and
can also help to provide a safer environment for victims. It
also has to be recognized that some types of bullying are
crimes. Schools are subject to the law of the land so the
possibility of punishment in response to very serious incidents
cannot be denied. However, the great majority of bullying goes
unpunished so some new ways of helping the thousands of
hidden victims of bullying are needed.
• Assertive discipline - a method developed the United States
which involves a rigid system of rewards and sanctions
consistently applied by all teachers in a school. It is claimed
that this method helps to motivate learning and to reduce the
level of classroom indiscipline, but its effectiveness in coping
with bullying is not clear.
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Which strategies are best?
• Bully boxes - a simple method whereby students can put their
concerns on paper and place them in a "bully box". What
happens to these notes is the key to the success or failure of
this technique. Can genuine comments be distinguished from
frivolous or malicious ones?
• Bully courts - the idea that young people should play a part in
making school rules and in deciding what should happen to
those who break them is not new. Some progressive schools
introduced councils to do this over fifty years ago. More
recently a few schools have tried to establish courts or councils
solely to deal with cases of bullying. However, the principle
that young people should sit in judgment on their peers, and
punish wrongdoers remains controversial. What is clear is that
adults must play an active and guiding role in such
proceedings in order to protect the welfare of all the young
people involved. ( sole adult?)
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Which strategies are best?
• Advisement - a teacher or another adult may have the skills
and time to offer support to young people involved in bullying.
Both bullies and victims can benefit from this process. The
main problems are that it is time consuming, the youngsters
must take part voluntarily and there is a lack of trained
counselors in schools.
• Mediation - some schools have introduced schemes where
two parties to a relationship problem agree that a third person,
who may be either an adult or another young person, helps to
negotiate a solution. This seems to be helpful in many
situations, especially where there is not too large an imbalance
of power between the protagonists - but not in all cases of
bullying. A bully may refuse to take part because he or she has
no interest in ending the bullying. A victim may feel that a
negotiated solution is not appropriate when it is the other
person who is entirely in the wrong. (“Let’s Say We Can Work It
Out” and “We Can Work It Out”)
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Which strategies are best?
• Peer counseling - a small number of elementary and
secondary schools have used older teenagers as peer
counselors. Good training and continuing support is vital
if these young volunteers are to be able to help victims
who may be quite seriously distressed. (“Let’s Say We
Can Work It Out” and “We Can Work It Out”)
• The 'no blame' approach - a step by step technique
which allows early intervention because it does not
require that anyone should be proved to be at fault. A
group of young people, which includes bystanders as well
as possible bullies, is made aware of a victim's distress
and is asked to suggest solutions. This approach is
particularly useful in dealing with group bullying and
name-calling, when it may be difficult to use more
traditional remedies.
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Which strategies are best?
• The 'shared concern' method - a Swedish technique which
has much in common with the "No blame" approach, although
it has not been widely used in Britain, perhaps because it is
more elaborate and time consuming. Both of these methods
have been criticized for failing to allocate blame but both aim
to encourage bullies to accept responsibility for their actions as
well as bringing the bullying to an end.
• "Solution focused approaches" share much of the philosophy
of the previous two strategies but can be applied to problems
other than bullying. This is helpful because the task of finding
out the facts of an incident and then of making a judgment
about whether it should be called bullying or not is sometimes
impossible. Relationship problems amongst a group of children
can be very complicated indeed. They can also be very
damaging to the personal development and education of some
of the individuals involved. Being able to intervene without
wasting too much time trying to untangle emotional knots has
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obvious attractions for busy teachers.
Which strategies are best?
• Reporting systems - it is most important that schools
should have efficient ways of recording reports of
serious bullying so that a check can be kept of patterns
of behavior. This can also help to ensure that incidents
are not overlooked.
• "Safe rooms" have been set up in some schools at
break and lunch times as a refuge for bullied children.
Although this may provide safety in the short term, it
could have the effect of making the rest of the school
seem even more hostile to the children who use it.
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Which strategies are best?
• Telephone help lines - services such as ChildLine provide
valuable support to children who are afraid to speak out
about bullying. However, the fact that they exist is a signal
that some schools are failing to provide conditions in
which children are able to discuss their problems openly.
One or two schools have set up their own internal help
lines in an attempt to increase the opportunities for
worried children to seek help.
• Talk - no strategy will be effective unless all members of
the school community, pupils, parents, teachers and
others, are prepared to talk about bullying openly and
seriously
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Which strategies are best?
• When peers intervene, bullying stops
within 10 seconds, 57% of the time.
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Las Cruces Public Schools
Anti-Bullying Policy and
Curriculum Plan
Presented by:
Dennis Zamora- Las Cruces Public Schools Title I/IV Coordinator
Dr. Martin Greer- Las Cruces Public Schools Lead School Psychologist