Nearly everyone in the world has had to deal with a situation involving a bully even if they haven’t been personally targeted. Bullies aren’t always tall and strong but their overbearing demeanor can be jarring, making the most confident of people instantly feel small and defenseless. National Bullying Prevention Month is about acting as well as educating the public about ways they can prevent bullying from negatively impacting their lives.
Though bullying usually starts in childhood, it can be a problem in professional and even social settings with adults. The best way to stop bullying is to speak up and bring it to the attention of teachers, supervisors, and other authority members so it doesn’t escalate. Here is how you can get involved during National Bullying Prevention Month and truly make a difference.
Help to Educate Others on What Bullying Really Is
Bullying isn’t harmless at all, although a lot of perpetrators will attempt to act as though their behavior isn’t damaging. Telling a joke at someone else’s expense repeatedly is bullying, especially if they’ve told you that your words are hurtful. Ganging up on a fellow co-worker and making that person feel unwelcome in places such as the break room is another example of bullying. Putting someone down, making others feel that their contributions aren’t worthwhile, and engaging in any behavior that is meant to make a person feel shame or embarrassment is also the epitome of bullying behavior.
Bullying prevention programs can’t be a success unless people know how to define it so that they won’t second guess themselves when they go to tell someone else what they witnessed. Go beyond stereotypical playground behavior when you want to define bullying behaviors as it isn’t always physical or even all that obvious.
What Are Some Bullying Prevention Activities?
Experts believe that bullying happens for a few main reasons. First, you have the bully who may come from a family where bullying is prevalent. Bullies tend to feel unloved and frustrated at home because they are targeted by their siblings and even their parents, who obviously shrug off bullying behavior and don’t think it is serious. Childhood bullying usually starts with a frustrated, ignored, or even neglected child targeting another child who they feel envious of.
Bullying can start with a few taunts or even turn violent very quickly. What all people who grow up to be bullies have in common is that their behavior was never addressed in a constructive manner. Some bullying prevention activities can include taking a stand against your bully with the backing of others who have been bullied. If you want to avoid confrontation altogether you can try diffusing the situation by trying to find common ground with the bullying and trying to disarm them and their aggressive behavior.
What Do Bullying Prevention Programs Teach?
There are lots of bullying prevention programs that schools and teachers can have kids participate in that help to effectively stop bullying. One of the first things that schools do is take a stand against bullying and enforce a zero-tolerance rule for bullying. They generally require all students to sign paperwork at the beginning of each school year that informs them of all the different recognized forms of bullying. Parents are also brought into the fold and they are asked to take responsibility for their children’s behavior before bullying can become a problem.
Anti-bullying programs also help to empower children who have experienced bullying in the past and not known how to react. There they learn that it is okay to speak up for themselves and that it isn’t necessary for them to deal with bullying in any form.
Reacting to Bullying as an Adult
Bullying behaviors usually end before the end of childhood but there are some people who continue to bully and get bullied by other adults. For instance, in certain workplace settings bullying can be prevalent without most workers even being aware of it. A boss who engages in bullying might be able to get away with threatening his or her subordinates, but only if the employees don’t make a stand and bring their concerns to human resources. Bullying thrives on ignorance and it is also a behavior that tends to take place in secrecy. If you feel that you are being bullied by another adult there are numerous ways that it can be ended but you do have to assert yourself.
If you have accounts on any social networking website, you can help to make more people aware of Bullying Prevention Month by using hashtags and even sharing links to helpful resources. More people don’t realize that bullying is a problem on a national level simply because lots of damaging and disruptive behaviors haven’t been effectively labeled as bullying on a wider scale.
If you see someone being bullied, you can step in and speak up. Let the bully know that it isn’t alright to pick on another defenseless person and let them know that you are going to let people in charge know what they’re doing. Bullies are easily disarmed if you stop them in their tracks rather than let them continue to terrorize those who they believe to be defenseless.
No one enjoys bullying, not even the people who are acting negatively towards others. Bullies can sometimes even be victims. By letting a teacher know what’s going on all affected parties can get help and talk about what has been troubling them. Just know that ignoring bullying behavior won’t make it stop, and sometimes bullies can be even more emboldened if they think that there are no consequences. You can stand up to bullies with your friends or co-workers at your side and feel more confident about knowing right from wrong.
Knowing how to deal with a bully while in adolescence will aid you in keeping it from happening to you again when you grow up, and it will help you to do the right thing when you see someone else being bullied. Get in contact with Georgetown Behavioral Health Institute to help an adolescent you know keep bullying from negatively impacting his or her life.
References:
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/info-facts.asp
http://www.pbis.org/school/tier1supports/tier1faqs
https://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/on-the-spot/index.html