This month is National Bullying Awareness Month, and in celebration of that we are hosting a district-wide contest.

"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:

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

Types of Bullying

Bullying can take on many forms.  As part of the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire, students are asked if they have been bullied in any of these nine ways:

   1. Verbal bullying including derogatory comments and/or bad names
   2. Bullying through exclusion or isolation
   3. Physical bullying such as hitting, kicking, shoving, and/or spitting
   4. Bullying in the form of lies, gossip or rumors
   5. Having money or property damaged or taken
   6. Being threatened or forced to do things
   7. Racial bullying
   8. Sexual bullying
   9. Cyber bullying

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

SISD has adopted The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) which is the most researched and best-known bullying prevention program available today. Backed by more than thirty-five years of research and successful implementation in many different countries, the OBPP is a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying throughout a school setting. OBPP is designed for students in elementary, middle, and high schools.

OBPP is used at the school, classroom, and individual levels and includes methods to reach out to parents and the community for involvement and support. School administrators, teachers, and other staff are primarily responsible for introducing and implementing the program with the goals of improving peer relations and making the school a safer and more positive place for students to learn and develop.

The goals of the program are to:

   • reduce existing bullying problems among students
   • prevent the development of new bullying problems
   • achieve better peer relations at school

For additional information on OBPP in SISD, please contact your child’s school or the Office of State and Federal Programs at 915-937-1600.