Creating Safe and Effective Methods for Reporting School Bullying
Joel Beckles, Contributing Researcher
By current estimates, roughly one in three children globally would have suffered from bullying in schools in the past month alone. However, many victims never speak out while struggling with bullying. Under-reporting of school violence at the hands of bullies is a serious issue. There is literature which indicates that the greater students’ concerns for reporting bullying are, the higher the rates of bullying victimization and aggressive behaviours10.
It is therefore important that both teachers and parents understand what they can do to make students feel more comfortable about disclosing their experiences with bullying, and how best they can respond to these reports. Here we discuss some useful actions.
Pay Special Attention to Confidentiality
Research shows that one of the biggest barriers to students reporting bullying is the fear of peer disapproval. Bullying is a complex phenomenon, and reporting such abuse is not an easy decision for victims as it can negatively impact their social lives. In fact, fear of peer disapproval is such a strong barrier for victims that one study among high school students showed that just over 75% of respondents would not tell about their situation because of potential social repercussions even when they believed that telling would actually stop the bullying.1
Fears of being seen as a “sell-out” or “snitch” are very real among students, so schools should take the utmost care to ensure that there are confidential means by which students can seek help and/or report incidents.
What to Avoid:
· Teachers should try to avoid publicly confronting bullies about sensitive issues which were reported to them in confidence. While open admonition of misbehaviour can be a good thing, teachers must be mindful of the effects this can have on the victim’s future interaction with their peers.
· Avoid having reporting mechanisms for bullying only at fixed physical locations within a school. School environments in which locations for confidential reporting are well-known can increase reluctance of victims to report. For example, one study mentions that anonymous complaint boxes deterred victims because students can easily deduce the likely reporter9.
What To Do:
· Schools should consider setting up confidential online reporting mechanisms.
· Create informal safe spaces in school which are not specifically meant for reporting, but which create comfortable environments with trustworthy adults. Some examples include: libraries, after-school classes and after-school sports sessions. Victims may often prefer “by the way” means of reporting bullying, where it appears like they are consulting adults for other reasons 8. Special effort should be made to put trustworthy adults who are sensitized in dealing with children’s issues in such areas.
Create Trust with your Students and Be Explicitly Anti-Bullying
The manner in which teachers conduct themselves, and the way in which teachers are seen to respond to incidents of bullying both play a significant role in a student’s decision to report bullying. Here are some examples of traits that victims are likely to look for in a teacher when they would like to report their issues:
· Reliably Keeping your Word: Regardless of whether your teaching style is strict or more relaxed, children are often more likely to trust teachers who are predictable2, 9 i.e. teachers who do what they say they will, and rarely make empty promises. Practically, this could mean ensuring that deadlines given to your class are met, or that class rules you set out should be consistently enforced
· Actively Intervene: Teachers should take quick and decisive action when dealing with incidents of bullying. This can be done, for example, by separating victims from their bullies or by appropriately involving parents. Such action has been considered useful by students 3. However, this action should, of course, also be done with due consideration of the victim’s confidentiality.
· Have a Clear Anti-bullying Attitude: Teachers should make zero-tolerance policies for bullying clear to classes. A teacher’s stance on bullying should be declared proactively, and not merely as a response to individual instances of school violence.
Sensitize Students to the Fact that Bullying is Often Subtle
Bullying is often described as repeated unwanted aggressive behaviour involving use of power by an aggressor over a victim. However, this definition does not usually do justice in characterizing the complex dynamics at play during bullying. It is perhaps more beneficial to do away with the black and white notions of a “bully” and a “victim”, especially when dealing with children. An alternative definition for bullying which may be more useful in this context is the following:
“Bullying is an intensification of the processes of marginalisation that occur in the context of dynamics of inclusion/exclusion, which shape groups. Bullying happens when physical, social or symbolic exclusion becomes extreme, regardless of whether such exclusion is experienced and/or intended” 6.
What should be noted about this definition is that bullying is not always intentional. One reason why bullying is sometimes under-reported is that victims are in denial of the fact that they experience it. Children who are victims of ridicule can often “laugh along” with bullies in order to maintain a sense of belonging within their social groups5. The “bullies” themselves may not be fully aware of the extent to which they can cause others pain. Sensitizing both teachers and students to these facts is critical in ensuring that students are more aware of when bullying is taking place. This would be a good step towards ensuring that children know when they should report certain behaviours.
A couple practical tips for sensitizing students to complex forms of bullying are:
· Set boundaries for what should be considered funny: Ridicule is often a mechanism by which children (knowingly or unknowingly) test the limits of what is socially acceptable to say and/or do7. Teachers ought to be acutely aware of this and intervene with negative feedback when a child has crossed a line with their “jokes” to or about other students. Example: Johnny, a student with a speech impediment, has just pronounced a word unusually. His classmate Jack mocks his pronunciation behind his back, causing an eruption of laughter. Johnny begins to laugh along with them. Despite this, the teacher should nip Jack’s “humour” at the bud to prevent Johnny from continual victimization on the grounds of his impediment.
· Encourage reflection and self-awareness with bullying incidences: Teachers who uncover situations of bullying should speak with both the victim and bully to hear their thoughts and feelings about the situation. This should be done when the children are calm. Authoritarian commands to bullies like “say you’re sorry” are often ineffective in preventing repeat incidences of bullying. Rather, it may be more useful to engage with a bully and ask why they think their actions were wrong, or why they felt like it was ok to do what they did. This encourages students to think for themselves about their actions and how they should improve5.
Have Forums which Speak Openly about Victims’ Experiences
Schools should share the experiences of past victims of bullying where possible. This can take place via in-person school talks or online blogs. Diverse stories from other victims have the potential to motivate students to speak to someone about what they are experiencing. It allows students to feel less alone in dealing with their struggles. Teachers would do well to emphasize the strength and maturity it takes to seek help1. This is a quote from one of the respondents in a study about disclosing bullying victimization9:
“I watched Amanda Todd’s video. She was bullied, and she made a goodbye video telling her story, and after that she committed suicide. I remember thinking that I wasn’t the only one. After a few days, I went to a school counselor.
What saved me, in a way, was a lesson with a graph that said that 35% of students in secondary schools are excluded and bullied. I was 15 at that time, and it was a revelation.
”
Pay Attention to Your Students’ Circumstances and Behavioural Changes
Being aware of students’ backgrounds and behaviours and how that influences their likelihood of being bullied allows teachers to take pre-emptive measures which may more easily facilitate reporting. For example, consider a school-teacher who is aware that homophobic attacks are prevalent in their school generally speaking.
The teacher could perhaps make a general comment to the class explaining that students should feel free to approach privately about any issues they might have surrounding their sexuality (bearing in mind confidentiality issues already discussed). If one of that teacher’s students is indeed a victim of homophobic bullying, that student may now feel more inclined to report such incidences to their teacher.
Some circumstances to be cognizant of include:
· Behavioural changes of students in class: this may indicate that the student is being bullied
· Sexuality: Students perceived as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender are at a higher risk of school violence and bullying8.
· Sex: Boys are more likely to experience physical bullying than girls whereas girls are more likely to experience cyberbullying and psychological bullying than boys8.
· Race/Nationality/Colour: This is the second most common reason for bullying reported by students8
· Age: In one study1, students at year 7 (grade 6 in the US system) and below were found more likely to disclose that they were being bullied despites peer disapproval. This perhaps suggests that at younger ages, most emphasis should simply be placed on encouraging reporting, whereas teachers should be more careful about managing the social repercussions of reporting for older students.
Keep Track of Data on School Violence
Keeping a record of the times and details of reported incidents of bullying allows schools to track trends like whether progress is being made in reducing incidence rates for particular types of bullying, or whether one specific group is being especially victimised within the school.
Parental/Guardian Involvement
Parents are another group children can turn to for reporting bullying. Some tips for parents to increase the chances of their child opening up to them include:
· Make Deliberate Efforts to Find out about your Child’s Day at School: Some children do not disclose their victimization because they think that parents should be able to tell that they are being bullied without them having to say4. Fostering communication with children about their school life is therefore very important.
· Get involved in School Activities (e.g. school projects) with your Child to build trust
· Reasonably Monitor you Children’s use of Social Media in a Non-Intrusive Manner: This is to increase the chances of detecting whether your child is experiencing cyberbullying
References
1. Boulton, M. J., Boulton, L., Down, J., Sanders, J., & Craddock, H. (2017). Perceived barriers that prevent high school students seeking help from teachers for bullying and their effects on disclosure intentions. Journal of Adolescence, 56, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.11.0092.
2. Bruney, G. (2012). The Teacher-Student Relationship: The Importance of Developing Trust and Fostering Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom. The Teacher-Student Relationship: The Importance of Developing Trust and Fostering Emotional Intelligence in the Classroom (utoronto.ca)
3. Cortes, K. I., & Kochenderfer-Ladd, B. (2014). To tell or not to tell: What influences children’s decisions to report bullying to teachers. In D. Espelage and S. Low (Guest Eds.). School Climate, Aggression, Peer Victimization and Bully Perpetration. [Special issue]. School Psychology Quarterly, 29, 336-348. Cortes_Kochenderfer-Ladd in SPQ.pdf (asu.edu)
4. deLara, E. W. (2012). Why Adolescents Don’t Disclose Incidents of Bullying and Harassment. Journal of School Violence, 11(4), 288–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2012.7059313.
5. Kovač, V. B., & Kostøl, E. M. F. (2020). Helping children in bullying situations: The role of intersubjective understanding and co-regulation. School Psychology International, 41(3), 295–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034320903789
6. Schott, R., & Søndergaard, D. (Eds.). (2014). School Bullying: New Theories in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139226707
7. Søndergaard, D.M. (2017) The thrill of bullying. Bullying, humour and the making of community. https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12153
8. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2019). Behind the numbers: Ending school violence and bullying. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP, France© UNESCO 2019ISBN 978-92-3-100306-6
9. Wójcik, M., Rzeńca, K. (2021). Disclosing or Hiding Bullying Victimization: A Grounded Theory Study From Former Victims’ Point of View. School Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09447-5
10. Zhang, S., Mulhall, P. F., Flowers, N., & Lee, N. Y. (2019). Bullying Reporting Concerns as a Mediator Between School Climate and Bullying Victimization/Aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519889926