How to recognize bullying — and stop it

The term bullying has become commonplace in schools, on school buses, on television, in movies, on the Internet and on playgrounds. Unfortunately, it is a term that is misused and misunderstood and can be extremely harmful. It is no longer a district, school, home or student problem, it is everyone’s responsibility to understand it and take action to eradicate it.

In the Pendergast Elementary School District, one of our premier goals is to “ensure a positive climate and culture for student learning.” To accomplish this we have researched the most effective ways to teach citizenship and character education and work on this with consistency in our schools. According to the Pendergast School District there is a clear definition of bullying, types of bullying and how it can be stopped.

Bullying is defined as: When one or more people repeatedly harm, harass, intimidate or exclude others over time. There is an imbalance of power and it is one sided.

What bullying looks like

Examples of bullying behaviors are:

• Physical, such as hitting, kicking, shoving, choking or tripping.
• Verbal, such as threats, name calling or embarrassing someone on purpose.
• Relational, such as leaving others out on purpose, rumors, gossip or ignoring. It might sound like, "I’m not your friend if ... ” or “If you are her friend, I’m not your friend.”
• Cyber, or using technology to do any of the above behaviors.

Now that we know what bullying is, how can we all work together to stop it?

How Pendergast works to end bullying

In the Pendergast district, we take a proactive approach to bullying that includes a no tolerance for rude or mean behavior towards others and especially any potential act of bullying.  In all of our schools, it is the right of every student to be educated in a positive, safe, caring and respectful learning environment.  A school environment inclusive of these traits maximizes student achievement, fosters student personal growth, and helps students build a sense of community that promotes positive participation as members of society.

The district has adopted a program called, Well-Managed Schools, based on the Boys Town Social Skills Model. It has been used in the district since 2005 with students, teachers and school counselors seeing a marked difference in positive interactions, fewer discipline behaviors and stronger character building and role models.

The program is considered a best practice nationwide, is widely used in the classrooms and by school counselors at each school site who proactively teach appropriate skills and expectations daily to students. If students choose to misbehave after being taught appropriate behaviors, there are consistent and fair opportunities to redirect their behavior.

As part of the program students learn to be respectful to each other as well as to other adults and the appropriate behavior is monitored and rewarded. The program is also shared with parents with hopes that it will be reinforced at home.

Students, teachers, school counselors and other caring adults are taught to look for any potential bullying behavior and report it.

At that point, there are policies and procedures in place that guide how each situation is handled. Our goal is for each student to have a positive, productive and meaningful educational experience in our 12 Pendergast schools.

Since schools are partners with our families and the community, we ask that you take these behaviors to heart and help support our efforts and goal to ensure all 10,000 students have a positive climate and culture to foster their learning and potential. Our hope is for each child and adult to have a fantastic school year both academically and socially.

Please remember, in Pendergast District, We “Bee”-lieve in YOU!

Lily Matos DeBlieux is superintendent of the Pendergast Elementary School District, which has schools in Avondale, Glendale and Phoenix.