Olweus Bullying Prevention Program at Niagara Charter School

Bullying occurs where young people gather. It can occur on the way to or from school, playgrounds, school washrooms, eating areas, change rooms and in classrooms. It happens at camp, sports groups, and recreation centers and at home. It can also happen on the cell phone or on the internet.

What is Bullying?

Dan Olweus, creator of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, provides us with this commonly accepted definition for bullying in his book, Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do:

“A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself.”

This definition includes three important components:

• Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions.
• Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time.
• Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength.

Why Students Bully

Information about bullying suggests that there are three interrelated reasons why students bully.

• Students who bully have strong needs for power and (negative) dominance.
• Students who bully find satisfaction in causing injury and suffering to other students.
• Students who bully are often rewarded in some way for their behavior with material or psychological rewards.

Students Who are Bullied

Students deserve to feel safe at school. But when they experience bullying, these types of effects can last long into their future:

• Depression
• Low self-esteem
• Health problems
• Poor grades
• Suicidal thoughts

Students Who Bully Others

Students who intentionally bully others should be held accountable for their actions. Those who bully their peers are also more likely than those students who do not bully others to *:

• Get into frequent fights
• Steal and vandalize property
• Drink alcohol and smoke
• Report poor grades
• Perceive a negative climate at school
• Carry a weapon

* Not all students who bully others have obvious behavior problems or are engaged in rule-breaking activities, however. Some of them are highly skilled socially and good at ingratiating themselves with their teacher and other adults. This is true of some boys who bully but is perhaps even more common among bullying girls. For this reason it is often difficult for adults to discover or even imagine that these students engage in bullying behavior.

Witnesses to Bullying

Students who see bullying happen also may feel that they are in an unsafe environment. Effects may include feeling:

• Fearful
• Powerless to act
• Guilty for not acting
• Tempted to participate.