• Confront students engaged in BULLYING in a FIRM buy FAIR manner.
     
    When a teacher communicates to the class that bullying will not be tolerated and then intervenes quickly and consistently whenever he or she observes bullying taking place, that instructor send a clear message to students that bullying will not be tolerated.
     
    Bullies are often quite skilled at explaining away situations in which adults have caught them bullying. When confronted, they may say, for example, "I was just kidding around" or "Nothing happened" -even when the evidence clearly suggests otherwise. You can avoid disputes with students by adopting the 'I-centered' rule for evaluating misbehavior.
    • Tell your class that it offends or bothers you witness certain kinds of hurtful student behaviors (e.g., teasing, name-calling). Emphasize that when you see such behavior occurring, you will intervene, regardless of whether the offending student meant to be hurtful.
    • If you witness suspected bullying, immediately approach the child responsible, describe the negative behavior that you witnessed, explain why that behavior is a violation of classroom expectations, and impose a consequence (e.g., warning, apology to victim, brief timeout, loss of privilege). Keep the conversation focused on facts of the bully's observed behavior and do not let the bully pull the victim into the discussion.
    • If the bully's behaviors continue despite your surveillance and intervention, impose more severe consequences (e.g., temporary loss of playground privileges).
    Here are additional tips to keep in mind when confronting students who bully:
    • When you confront a student for bullying, do so in private whenever possible. A private discussion will remove the likelihood that the confronted student will 'play to the audience' of classmates and become defiant or non-compliant. If you must call a student on his or her bullying behavior in public, do so briefly and in a business-like manner. Then arrange to have a private discussion with the student at a later time to discuss the bullying incident in greater detail.
    • Find an adult in the school with whom the student who bullies has a close relationship. Enlist that adult to sit down with the bully to have a 'heart-to-heart' talk. The adult should be willing to discuss with the student the problems created by his or her bullying behavior, to express disappointment with the student's conduct and to encourage the student to stop his or her bullying. This conference is not intended to be punitive. However, the student should fell at the end of the talk that, while he or she is valued, the student's bullying behavior hurts and disappoints those who care about the student.