Page 11 - 2018_Jour_85-1_Societal-Issues

Schools and Societal Issues 11

child to keep him or her away from dangerous situations, but children should not
be scared into obedience. Spare your child upsetting knowledge about things he or
she cannot do anything about.
7. Remember that you are a role model for your child. Your child is bonded with you
in the deepest love and admiration. That is why he or she wants to be like you, at
least when he or she is young. Whatever you do, your child will do. Whatever you
say or believe, your child will repeat (SAMHSA, 2004).
Roles for educators. According to McCallion and Feder (2013), school-based bullying
prevention programs decrease bullying up to 25%. However, education stakeholders can
go beyond instituting programs.
Policies should be adopted by the school system to address bullying. These policies
should be posted and regularly reviewed with faculty, staff, and students. If a student
handbook exists, these policies should be included and reviewed with students the first
week of school. For new students, a review of the policy should be a part of his or her
orientation to the new school.
Davis and Nixon (2010) found that the
most helpful things teachers can do are listen to Educators must be
the student, check in with them afterwards to
see if the bullying stopped, and give the student acutely aware of the
advice. Students reported that the most harmful
things teachers can do are tell the student to solve many facets of bullying
the problem on his or her own, tell the student and work with parents
that the bullying wouldn’t happen if he or she
acted differently, ignore what was going on, or and others to eliminate it.
tell the student to stop tattling. As reported by
students who have been bullied, the self-actions
that had some of the most negative impacts (telling the person to stop/how I feel, walking
away, pretending it doesn’t bother me) are often used by youth and often recommended
to youth. Bullied youth were most likely to report that actions that accessed support from
others made a positive difference.
Also, educators are urged to train student leaders as an approach to prevent bullying.
Students are often the ones who witness or hear about bullying. Working with student
leaders and teaching them how to intervene when they witness or hear about bullying can
be another method to address this problem. More than half of bullying situations (57%)
stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied (Hawkins, Pepler, &
Craig, 2001).

Conclusion
Although bullying may sometimes be seen as a “part of growing up” or “kids being kids,”
much information exists to address this mental health issue. Educators must be acutely
aware of the many facets of bullying and work with parents and others to eliminate it.