Bullying is one of the most serious behavioral issues encountered and perpetrated by students. The impacts of bullying can significantly challenge students’ academic, psychological, and social development.
Bullying is an aggressive behavior with the intent of harming others. It is characterized by purposeful and repeated acts of disrespect and harm toward less powerful individuals in the school. Bullying is exhibited by boys and girls alike and it occurs in rural as well as urban communities.
What we offer:
MSSC staff offer trainings in the widely respected Steps to Respect bully prevention model and offer trainings and educational materials on cyberbulling. Additionally we draw from our own research and clasroom training backgroudns as well as from our experiences with interventions such as Bully-Proofing Your Schools.
Research has shown that there are effective and relatively inexpensive ways of preventing bullying in schools. DERS' Montana Safe School Center services can assist schools in the development of a positive environment that encourages respect and discourages bullying activity. Additionally, PK-12 students can receive training that helps them prevent and respond appropriately to bullying behavior.
Our trainings range from 2 hour to multi-day programs and are customized to be appropriate for teachers, staff, administrators and students of all ages. The trainings may be packaged with complementary topics such as conflict resolution, suicide prevention and school-based childhood mental health interventions.
The impacts and prevalence of bullying:
In Montana, as in many other states, bullying is a significant problem. According to eight years1 of data gleaned from over 50,000 respondents to the Montana Safe School Center’s statewide survey, the Safe Schools Assessment and Resource Bank (SSARB), bullying consistently ranks as the number one self-reported safety concern among Montana’s middle and high school students.
Every other year, the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey also indicates that bullying, and the fear that results from it, impacts student’s willingness to regularly attend school. The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service cite victimization from bullying as one of the very few, common traits among school shooters.
Similarly, the sense of isolation that often stems from bullying may lead young people to seek out trusting relationships with strangers via the Internet, thus increasingly exposing these same children to further victimization by potential sexual predators and abductors.
The emotional impacts of bullying can be far reaching and may predispose certain individuals for contemplating and attempting suicide. This is of particular concern in states like Montana where suicide rates are exceptionally high. For example, the rate of youth suicide in Montana is twice the national average, and in 2003, Montana ranked third overall for death by suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of preventable death for Montana children between ages 10-14 and 12% of Montana’s middle school students and 10% of high schools students report having recently attempted suicide.
In Montana’s Indian Country, these numbers climb substantially. For example, approximately 16% of both the rural- and urban-residing Native students indicated that they had attempted suicide. Within the 15-24 age range nationally, American Indian youth have the highest rate of suicide of any group.
Clearly, putting an end to bullying behavior in schools is critical for ensuring the academic, social, and mental well being of our young people.
Please contact us if you would like assistance in addressing this topic in your school or organization.