School Bullying and the School Counselor

Coun511 Spring 2006 Research Paper

Ron Grego

Website

HolyFamilyUniversity

Spring 2006

Coun. 511 Technology for School Guidance

Revised 2/20/20069:16 PM

Table of Contents

Introduction

Summary Findings

Detailed Findings

Follow Up Action Plan

Appendix

Introduction

The research conducted focuses on the role of the school guidance counselor and school bullying. Bullying in the school system is a tremendous problem facing our nation’s youth. It involves many different areas that not only focus on physical violence but verbal threats and verbal slander. This epidemic has worsened over the years and many people in the education field are having a difficult time finding a way to work through this problem.

Over the years many people thought of bullying as fighting or being forced to do something you did not want to do i.e. giving away your lunch money. Now we have come to see that bullying may look different depending on the school or the population you are working with. For example, a rumor may be spread about a certain individual and the student feels threatened by the situation. This now is considered bullying or may be even a form of school violence. So why over the years has the problem become worse and not better. Is it due to our society or lack of education in the home / school system?

The following websites reviewed give detailed examples of what school violence is, what it looks like, and who is affected. The research conducted focuses on this problem facing our youth. Not to mention possible solutions or standards for educators to help the situation.

Summary Findings

Website:

This is a UK website developed to help understand bullying. It addresses the child’s concerns about returning to school and the threat of being bullied. is a site that notes the myths and misconceptions of bullying. It also discusses the how those children who fall into these myths are part of the problem and not the solution. It also gives links to other websites where children can find more information.

Website:

This website focuses primarily on what teachers can do to help the bullying

problem in their school. It tells them to take simple steps to ensure that their classroom is a place that is conducive to the learning environment. By simply fostering a climate of cooperation and caring, closely monitoring students who are at high risk for being bullied, present classroom lessons that have a bullying theme, and encourage witnesses to bullying to take action. These steps may not provide all of the problems but the site gives many possible solutions to dealing with a bullying situation, should one arise.

Website:

This is another website from education world which focuses on the teacher and dealing with bullying. This site is an excellent resource for teachers as well as school counselors. It provides detailed guidance lessons that are very user friendly. It shows how to use guidance lessons in the classroom and provides detailed objectives to working with your students. It also shows websites that involve taking a bullying reality quiz.

4. Website:

This website is a summary of an article focused on bullying. The article focused on three studies that worked with the problem of bullying. It was found interesting because of the content it used in the introduction. It may not have been the entire article but seemed to be useful because it addresses facts and information derived from these studies.

5. Website:

This website is also another article focusing on bullying. It gives subsections of an article that works with the following: Extent of the Problem, Characteristics of Bullies and Victims,Consequences of Bullying, Perceptions of Bullying,and Intervention Programs.

6. Website:

The Stop Bullying Now website lists information and resources on how to identify and prevent/intervene in bullying in schools. It gives great links to various sites and resources for counselors as well as teachers to use in their school.

Detailed Findings

“Bully OnLine provides unique insight into bullying and explores the profile of the serial bully. Everyone, I believe, has experience of at least one person in their life with the profile of the serial bully. It may be at home with a violent partner or family member, or at work with an aggressive co-worker or boss, or with an aggressive neighbor, or at school with the school bully. Living or working with a serial bully can drive you mad.”

Classroom teachers are at the core of any bullying prevention program. You know your students better than any other staff member because you spend more time with them than anyone else in school. You know their strengths, their weaknesses and their vulnerabilities because you have the opportunity to observe how they perform in a range of situations. You are thus well positioned to observe bullying incidents with your students, to detect behavioral changes that might signal that a child has been bullied, to intervene when incidents occur, and to monitor students to ensure that bullying does not recur.

Education World offers ten lessons designed to teach students to respect diversity and resolve ideological differences peacefully.In response to reports of harassment of Muslim and Arab American students following the terrorist attacks of September 11, educators were called on to help prevent such harassment by encouraging students to discuss diversity constructively and express ideological differences respectfully. The activities, primarily designed for students in grades 2 through 8, will be used to help create a safer learning environment for everyone.

As many as 80 percent of middle school students engage in bullying behaviors, say researchers, who also point to an increase in such incidents when children move from elementary to middle schools. Three different studies on bullying were presented at APA's 1999 Annual Convention, Aug. 20-24 in Boston.

One study, led by Dorothy Espelage, PhD, Christine S. Asidao, and Shontelle Vion, of the University of Illinois at Urbaba-Champaign found that: Many students tease their peers to go along with the crowd, but feel uncomfortable with their own behavior. Students who are physically different (i.e., in race, body size, clothing) are more likely to be victimized, as are those who "are not good at things that everybody else is." Those who report bullying other often state that they are bullied themselves. Another study examined the accuracy of teacher, peer and self-ratings of bullies and victims. Diana L. Paulk, Susan M. Swearer, PhD, Sam Song and pauleete Tam Cary of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln questioned 83 sixth-graders and six sixth-grade teachers about bully and victim behavior. They reported: About 75 percent of students had been bullied, victimized or both bullied and victimized during the1998-99 school year. Students, more than teachers, overidentified other students as bully-victims rather than just bullies or just victims.

In a third study, A.D. Pelligrini, PhD, of the University of Minnesota and Maria Bartini of the University of Georgia used a longitudinal approach. They assessed bullying attitudes of 154 fifth-grade students, following up with them a year later when they had entered middle school. Measurements included self-ratings on bullying behavior and victimization; ratings on their own and each other's popularity, friendships and feeling of isolation; teachers' ratings of the students' behavior; and student diaries.

The findings do support that early adolescence witnesses an increase in aggression while youngsters look for new friendships," said the researchers. "As soon as peer groups are formed, many of the aggressive behaviors subside."

“Bullying is comprised of direct behaviors such as teasing, taunting, threatening, hitting, and stealing that are initiated by one or more students against a victim. In addition to direct attacks, bullying may also be more indirect by causing a student to be socially isolated through intentional exclusion. While boys typically engage in direct bullying methods, girls who bully are more apt to utilize these more subtle indirect strategies, such as spreading rumors and enforcing social isolation. Whether the bullying is direct or indirect, the key component of bullying is that the physical or psychological intimidation occurs repeatedly over time to create an ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse.”

6. Website:

This website gives a detailed program description, and data showing changes in student self-reports of being bullied 1999-2005 at the BeanSchool, where these methods are in use. It also addresses frequently asked questions about rubrics, bystander training, helping young people think about their behavior, and individual plans for persistently aggressive youth.

Follow Up Action Plan

The websites reviewed provide a great foundation for developing a plan to prevent school violence. They are filled with fantastic information addressing the problem that is facing our youth in the school system. Especially those websites that give lesson plans and possible solutions in addressing these bullying situations. The statistics given also help those in the education see what is occurring in our schools and just who feels the effects of bullying. It is a major concern in our society that MUST be addressed.

Although their may not be one simple answer to eliminate bullying in our school system, this is a great place to start. To ensure that our children are safe in school we must first be aware of what is going on in the classrooms. However the problems don’t end there. They may continue on the playground, parking lot, or on the way home from school. This is why this research is so crucial to our society and the lives of school-age children.

Appendix

1. IAB: click here to access my Internet Address Book

2. APA Monitor OnLine.

3. School bullies and bullying at school; Child bullying, school bullying, and bullycide.

4. Bully-Proofing Your Classroom.

5. Education World: Stop Bullying Now.

6. NLD on the Web, Bullying in Schools.

7. Stop Bullying Now!

8. Website:

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