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Let the Bullies Beware

By Ritu Upadhyay

On the playground of Shawnee Elementary School in Grand Tower, Illinois, above the usual uproar of kids running around, every now and then some serious words can be heard: "I don’t like it when you do that. Please stop."

In schools across the country, activities in which kids play the role of bully and victim are designed to stop bullying.

Every student, from kindergarten through fifth grade, has been taught this response as part of an anti-bullying program introduced in the school last year. Principal Shelly Clover says kids are using it in the halls all the time now. "It’s nice to hear them taking care of things without an argument or fight."

More schools around the country have adopted new, anti-bullying policies to help prevent school violence. Last month in California two high school students were killed and 18 were wounded when classmates fired weapons in two separate incidents. Researchers at the National Threat Center found that in more than two-thirds of 37 recent school shootings the kids who attacked had felt "bullied or threatened, attacked or injured" by other kids. School officials, parents and lawmakers are looking for ways to prevent such acts and make schools safer.

States Stopping the Bullies
"Bullying isn’t new, but it’s causing children to take actions that we never dreamed of," said Colorado state representative Don Lee. He is working to pass a state law requiring an anti-bullying policy in all Colorado schools. Georgia, Vermont and New Hampshire already have such rules.

Schools across the U.S. are seeing the benefits of bullying-prevention plans. This year 700 students at Central York Middle School in Pennsylvania signed anti-teasing pledges. The number of fistfights has dropped from 17 last year to four this year.

At McNair Elementary in Hazelwood, Missouri, kids learn step-by-step verbal responses to bullying, such as "I don’t like what you said to me," then "I’m going to ask you to stop" and lastly "I’m going to get help."

Senator Penfield Tate of Colorado hopes anti-bullying programs will open the lines of communication to prevent violence. "Students don’t feel comfortable talking to adults," he says. "School programs will help them open up."

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