Bullying is one of the words that trigger alarm in students, parents, teachers, and school leaders equally. It’s every student’s right to feel safe at school, and it is the institute’s responsibility to device and put up a bullying prevention plan, to ensure students; comfort and safety.

Bullying can cause significant mental and physical torment to victims in the moment and all through their lives. That is why putting emphasis on anti-bullying is so important in schools.

A study conducted by National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control mentions that students who get bullied are more likely to develop mental health and problems related to behavior. Severe problems can result, if bullying isn’t addressed in a timely manner. Bullying doesn’t just cause torment; it can seriously impact grades and relationships as well (NCPIC, 2018). Other consequences involved are:

• low self-esteem leading to depression
• sleep difficulties
• lower academic achievement
• dropping out of school
• experiencing long term violence

Educating on bullying
Teachers, students, and parents must be educated and made aware about the bullying prevention strategy to make it a success. More support would be provided by the community if they understand the bullying strategy thoroughly. Community can help in spreading the message and ensuring that anti-bullying approached are adopted.

Positive Environment
Aggressive behaviors and bullying can be prevented by creating and encouraging positive relationships. So, wherever possible, positive behaviors should be advocated.

Some of the ways this can be done are:

• Keep the communication open. Students have a lot of insights to share about what’s happening in class.
• Present everyone with kindness and respect in front of children. Students will reflect the same because they learn from watching the adults.
• Create positive relationships for kids with other kids who having similar interests.
• Use of art for students to reflect and express themselves, such as a creative story or a depiction painting.

Bullying Intervention Strategies
A few recommendations of bullying intervention strategies to resolve bullying problems and to stop them from reoccurring can be:

• Restorative justice to focus on mending broken relationships.
• The support group approach to build a positive relationship between conflicting students.
• Shared concern approach to create a positive relationship between the bully and the victim. It this approach, most important outcome is a situation where the victim feels safe.

References:
NCIPC (National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control). 2018. Preventing bullying. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-factsheet508.pdf