harrassment, intimidation, and bullying (hib) gse training session february 18, 2012

Harrassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB)

GSE Training Session

February 18, 2012

EST. TIME ACTIVITY COMMENTS10:00-10:10 Opening remarks Welcome, purpose, day’s schedule,

& ground rules10:10-11:40 Whole group

trainingMain content coverage

11:40-11:55 Break

11:55-12:40 Facilitated Learning Facilitated table-based learning and sharing

12:40-1:25 Working Lunch Includes working on Assessment #1

1:25-2:55 Whole group training

Main content coverage

2:55-3:10 Break

3:10-3:55 Facilitated Learning Facilitated table-based learning and sharing

3:55-4:10 Break

4:10-4:25 Assessment #2

4:25-5:00 Closing session 15-minute summary of takeaway points followed by 20-minutes Q&A discussion

Today’s Schedule

Ground Rules for Today’s Session

1.Make sure that you signed the attendance sheet

2.Totally focus on the HIB training

3.Phones put away-no texting

4.Laptops/other personal items put away

5.Engage and Learn!

6.Stay to the end and sign out, verifying full session attendance

Main Topics We Will Address Today

• Nature of bullying and harm from bullying

• Key elements of NJ Anti-Bullying Law

• Approaches to prevent bullying

• Specific strategies and skills

• Related school-based issues to consider

• Things to avoid (Danger Will Robinson!)

A Look at Some Basic Bullying Issues

Generally Speaking, What Is Bullying?(not focusing on the NJ Anti-Bullying law definition)

2-minute Table Breakout & Share

1.Intentional harmful behavior that involves unwanted negative actions

2.Involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time

3.Involves an imbalance of power or strength

Types of Bullying?(not focusing on the NJ Anti-Bullying law typology)

1.Verbal

2.Physical

3.Social/Psychological

4.Cyberbullying

Bullying by Grade Level

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, “Student Reports of Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: Results From the 2009 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey” Web Tables (NCES 2011-336).

Percent of all students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied during the 2008-2009 school year, by grade level

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36.3 % of bullied students reported that they notified a teacher or some other adult at school. IMPLICATIONS?

Specific Bullying Behaviors


Percent of students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied at school during the 2008-2009 school year, by type of bullying

Made fun of, called names, or insulted

Subject of rumors

Pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on

Threatened with harm

Excluded from activities on purpose

Tried to make them do something they did not want to do

Property destroyed on purpose

Percentage of Students

Incident LocationsAmong students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied at school during the 2008-2009 school year:

• 47.2 percent of students reported being bullied in a hallway or stairwell.

• 33.6 percent of students reported being bullied in a classroom.

Implications for school practitioners?2-minute Table Breakout & ShareSOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, “Student Reports of Bullying and Cyber-

Bullying: Results From the 2009 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey” Web Tables (NCES 2011-336).

Cyberbullying: Fear and AvoidanceA higher percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being

cyber-bullied anywhere during the 2008-09 school year…


Percentage of Students

Avoided a specific place

at school

Feared that someone would

attack or harm them at school or on the

way to/from school

Skipped school during the 2008-2009 school year

What is the basic message in this data?

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Teens-and-social-media.aspx

Pew Research Center November, 2011 ReportTeens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites

15

Bullying Experiences of Particular Groups

• Student with disabilities tend to experience more bullying than students without disabilities (verbal, physical, exclusion)

• 2009 GLSEN national school climate survey found:

• Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students (middle/high school) experienced harassment at school in past year and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation.

• For 2008-2009 school year (age 12-18), bullied rates for white/black (≈ 29%); Hispanic (≈ 25%); Asian (≈ 17%) [NCES]

• For 2008-2009 school year (age 12-18), rates of being bullied 29.5% for females versus 26.6% for males [NCES]

Consider Harmful Effects of Bullying


1.Think about the 4 videos we have watched

2.What are the short- and longer term issues with respect to harm students experience?

3. How serious is all of this?

Thinking About Harm to Students:

What Does the Evidence Say?

School Climate Matters: Psychological Well-Being

Long-term serious harm results from bullying and day-to-day experiences in a toxic school environment

(Arseneault et al., 2006; Bierman, 2004; Buhs, Ladd, & Herald, 2006; Cornell & Mayer, 2010; Juvonen, & Witkow, 2005; Ladd, 2003; Mayer & Furlong, 2010; Nansel et al., 2001; Mayer, 2010; Schwartz, Gorman, Nakamoto, & Toblin, 2005)


• Being bullied and related victimization experiences produce psychosocial adjustment problems such as:

• depression

• anxiety

• attentional problems

• social withdrawal

which in turn lead to school avoidance and reduced motivation to engage in learning activities



Children who bully are at higher risk of subsequent involvement in the criminal justice system and of continuing bullying in adult life.


School Climate Matters: Analogy To Child Neglect• Severe physical child abuse is analogous to school shooting

• Severe harm

• High profile and obvious

• Quick, visible systemic response

• Long-term child neglect is analogous to long-term bullying, intimidation, and incivility in schools; toxic school environments

• Harm is real, substantial

• Not so obvious

• Marginal systemic response

• Long-term harassment, intimidation, and bullying in schools that remain under addressed constitutes a form of systemic educational neglect (Mayer & Furlong, 2010)

What About Your School?

Consider a situation where the adults at your school tend to look the other way, feel that they are too busy with other responsibilities, or for other reasons, do not address bullying incidents.

If this occurred on an ongoing basis, do you think the adults in your school would be engaging in a form of child neglect? What are the issues here?


Some Elements of the NJ Anti-Bullying Law


HIB Definition

• HIB means any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act, or any electronic communication, whether it be a single incident or a series of incidents, that:

• Is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by an actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory disability, or by any other distinguishing characteristic;

•Takes place on school property, at any school-sponsored function, or on a school bus; or off school grounds, as provided for in N.J.S.A. 18A:37-15.3,

Some Elements of the NJ Anti-Bullying LawHIB Definition (cont.)

• Substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operation of the school or the rights of other students; and that

• A reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, will have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a student or damaging the student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm to his person or damage to his property; or

• Has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students; or

• Creates a hostile educational environment for the student by interfering with a student’s education or by severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student.

Does the following video constitute bullying per the NJ ABR definition?

Look at the boy’s behavior relative to the girl and use of the sliding board .


Key Groups and Individuals in the Process

• The school district chief school administrator (CSA) is required to appoint a district anti-bullying coordinator (ABC)

• Coordinating and strengthening the school district’s policies to prevent, identify and address HIB of students;

• Collaborating with the School Anti-Bullying Specialists in the school district, the BOE and the CSA to prevent, identify and respond to HIB of students in the school district; other duties


Key Groups and Individuals in the Process

• The principal in each school is required to appoint a School Anti-Bullying Specialist (ABS). The ABS must be a guidance counselor; school psychologist; or other school employee trained to be the ABS

• Responsibilities of the ABS include the following:• Chairing the school safety team;• Leading investigation of HIB incidents at school;• Acting as the primary school official responsible for preventing, identifying and addressing HIB incidents in the school.


Key Groups and Individuals in the Process• School Safety Team – A school safety team (SST) must be formed in each school. The SST needs to help facilitate a positive school climate. The SST includes the principal or senior administrative designee, teacher, ABS, parent of a student in the school; and others determined by principal.

• SST responsibilities include:• Receiving records of all complaints of HIB• Receiving copies of all HIB investigation reports• Identifying and addressing patterns of HIB in the school• Reviewing and strengthening school climate and related school policies to prevent HIB; Educating the community on HIB; other duties (Note: parent member has no access to confidential student information from complaints, investigations, or other sources)


Reporting Requirements

• Reported verbally to the principal on the same day when the school employee or contracted service provider witnessed or received reliable information regarding any such incident.

• Reported in writing within two days of the verbal report (the day the incident was witnessed or information about the incident was received).

• Procedure must include a provision permitting a person to anonymously report an act of HIB; however, this must not be construed to permit formal disciplinary action solely on the basis of an anonymous report.


Investigation Requirements

• Initiate investigation within 1 day of receiving report of incident, conducted by a school anti-bullying specialist in coordination with the principal. • Investigation completed no later than 10 school days from the date of the written report of the incident.

• Results of the investigation must be reported to the school district’s chief school administrator (CSA) within two school days of completion of the investigation.

BREAK14 minutes and 59 seconds ☺

which means we begin again in exactly 15 minutes

Facilitated Table Sessions

Approaches to Prevent Bullying


Challenge Question #1: 5-minute table breakout and share

Choose one table member as discussion facilitator and one as note taker to report back to the group

A school can be highly successful in its efforts to prevent HIB if its primary approach and main thrust involves buying a commercial bullying prevention program, training school personnel, and implementing the program as designed.

Identify what you see as the main issues in a school’s approach to preventing HIB and to what extent you agree or disagree with the statement above (and why).




A school can be highly successful in its efforts to prevent HIB if it relies on the overall general input from administrators, teachers, other staff, students, and parents, without any formal survey-based approach to collecting data on school climate and student victimization experiences.

Identify what you see as the main issues in a school’s approach to using data to help prevent HIB and to what extent you agree or disagree with the statement above (and why).




A school can be highly successful in its efforts to prevent HIB without too much attention in its various prevention approaches and activities to HIB bystander behaviors.

Identify what you see as the main issues in a school’s approach to prevent HIB with respect to bystander behaviors and to what extent you agree or disagree with the statement above (and why).




A school can be highly successful in its efforts to prevent HIB if it just focuses its attention to what happens at school, with no regard for larger neighborhood and community issues.

Identify what you believe to be the main issues in a school’s approach to prevent HIB and to what extent you agree or disagree with the statement above in italics.

Working Lunch

Complete Assessment #1

Best Practices From the Bullying Research Base(we’ll consider a few of these in detail-bold items)

• Changing school climate• Assessing climate/bullying/victimization• Training all staff• School anti-bullying advisory team • Actively including staff, parents, and students• Disseminate clear rules and consequences• Increase adult supervision• Provide consistent individual intervention• Allow class time to focus on Social Emotional Learning (SEL)• Sustain efforts annually

Reproduced with text editing from Figure 4.1 in Bullying Prevention & Intervention: Realistic Strategies for Schools. Swearer & Espelage (2009). Guilford

Some Specific Approaches Schools Can Take

Changing School Climate(adapted slide content courtesy of Stuart Green, NJ Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention)

• Emphasize warmth, engagement, inclusion, community

• Positive relations and shared understanding between staff

• Positive staff-student interactions

• Support/inclusion for all (diverse clubs/activities; increase support for vulnerable groups)

• Character education /social-emotional learning/ ‘universal’ social skills training

• Clear/consensus expectations ('how we do things here')


• Emphasize warmth, engagement, inclusion, community

Discuss at your table some specific ways you might

emphasize warmth, engagement, inclusion, and

community in your school.


Consider Adult-Adult Interactions

53

• Students often model behaviors they observe among adults(Bandura, 1969, 1986; Kazdin, 1978)

• Can students be expected to regularly engage each other in a friendly and supportive manner if they don't see this happening between adults at school? (Kasen et al., 2004; Swearer et al, 2010)

• At a recent school professional development session, I asked counselors, teachers and administrators how many in the audience had schools where 90% + of the adult-adult interactions the students observed every day were friendly and positive exchanges

• NO HANDS WERE RAISED!

• About half of the hands were raised when I lowered the percentage to about 60-70% IMPLICATIONS? 54

Consider Teacher-Student Interactions

Key Findings from the Empirical Research Base

• Teacher-student interactions set the stage for school climate

• Academic situations

• Routine behavioral problems

• Indirect influence on bullying/other problem behaviors

• Teachers are models for student behaviors

• If teachers are viewed as unreasonable or even mean, students may mimic what they see

What was going on here?

What did the students learn?

How should the teacher have behaved?


School-Wide:

• Administrative support

• Coordinating group/staff discussions/training

• Assessment (surveys, [real] reporting system)

• Proactive effort to identify all incidents/relationships

• Supervise high-risk areas (schoolyard, lunchroom, school

bus, team activities, locker room, cyberspace)

• Consistent rules and sanctions (staff consensus)

(well-known to students, staff, parents, community)

• Involve parents

• Activate peer bystanders


Classroom

• Clear, consistent rules

• Regular meetings

• Collaborative learning

• Curriculum integration with HIB prevention

• Proactive work on relationships

• Parent involvement


Classroom

• Clear, consistent rules

Discuss at your table how having variable systems of rules

between different classrooms within the same school might

impact HIB prevention efforts.



Individual

• Proactive information-gathering on vulnerability & relations

• Meeting with each child who was bullied and call/see parent

(apologize, take responsibility, absolve-don’t allow blaming

victim)

• Meeting with each child who bullied and call parent

• Consequences for the bullying child (reasonable, invariable,

escalating), then (post-incident) reflection/empathy

• Assure and arrange increased support for the bullied child

• Active monitoring after incidents.


Individual

• Assure and arrange increased support for the bullied child

Discuss at your table some specific ways you might provide

support for a child who has experienced repeated bullying.


It all adds up

So don’t ignore HIB!

Focus seriously on bystander behaviors

Slide Source: NJDOE

What do you see as the realistic limits and related trade-offs in your ability to address bystander behavior issues at multiple levels in the school (schoolwide, classroom, individual level)?


Considerations in Addressing Cyberbullying

What Do We Know About Cyberbullying?

• Variable estimates of U.S. offending and victimization

• Nationally representative sample of 2,051 adolescents (ages, 10-17) as part of the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (2008)

• 6% reported a past-year and 9% lifetime online victimization, and 96% of those reported offline victimization, mainly sexual in nature

• Online victims also reported elevated rates of trauma symptomatology, delinquency, and life adversity. (Mitchell et al., 2011)

• Review of 7 studies 2004-2010 found lifetime cyberbullying victimization rates for youth of ≈ 20-40% (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010)

Slide Source: NJDOE

What do you see as the realistic limits and related trade-offs in your ability to address cyberbullying issues at multiple levels in the school (schoolwide, classroom, individual level)?


Adult Supervision Issues

Adult Supervision Issues • Where are teachers and other school staff when students arein the hallways?

• How are teachers positioned at recess outside?

• Are locker rooms and other areas left unlocked and unsupervised before, during, after school?

• Are there accessible/unlocked areas in and around the school where students are particularly vulnerable to victimization?

• What are the flow patterns for people and places? Might they promote conflict?

Let’s hear from a few people as to what they have experienced in schools.

Consider that while we are doing many things in the school to promote improvements, sometimes our good work can begin to unravel if we don’t pay attention to some important areas.

83

Teachers Using Students as Models for Academic and Social-

Emotional-Behavioral Change

84

Key Findings from the Empirical Research Base

• Research on modeling effects tells us that there are two particularly important requirements for effective modeling: (Bandura, 1969, 1986; Kazdin, 1978; Kendall, 2006; Meichenbaum, 1977)

• The observer must identify with the model

• The model must demonstrate the struggle to succeed, modeling thinking, coping, and adaptation towards success

• We often drop the ball in these two areas

• Using “teacher’s pet” as models

• Quickly and effortlessly running through the skill 85

Teachers/Staff Having the Same Prevention Training as the Students

86

• We sometimes provide anger management, social skills, and other prevention programs to at-risk students. But do the adults in the school receive the same complete training that these students receive?

• If not, what are the potential results?

• Teachers/staff don’t know what the students are learning

• Adults will not understand where and when the critical teachable moments occur when students desperately need cues/prompts to utilize newly learned skills

• Teachers will not realize that they need to make time for students to use these emerging skills in authentic situations at school

• Students with serious problems will be less likely to improve and school-wide problems will continue unabated 87

Addressing Aspects of the HIB Law:

• Differentiating normal conflict from HIB

• Differentiating HIB from rough & tumble play

Slide Source: NJDOE

Differentiating Rough & Tumble Play from HIB(Reproduced from: http://www.cfchildren.org/media/files/str_research_foundations.pdf

• Positive and neutral facial expressions are more typical of rough-and-tumble play, while negative facial expressions characterize aggression

• Children are free to choose to participate in rough-and-tumble play, but they are often forced or challenged to participate in aggression

• Children tend not to use full force in rough-and-tumble play, whereas full force is often seen in aggression

• Children are more likely to alternate roles (for example, chased and chaser) in rough-and-tumble play, while aggression generally involves unilateral roles

• Children tend to stay together after a bout of play fighting, but they often separate following aggression

Differentiating rough-and-tumble play, real fighting, and bullying

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

http://www.windsor-csd.org/Bullying%20Prevention%20Form/similarities%20and%20differences.pdf

Danger Will Robinson!

Things to Avoid or Handle with Caution

Using Peer Mediation and other Conflict Resolution Approaches

It is inadvisable to use peer mediation to address bullying incidents:

• Children who are bullied can be traumatized by such engagement with the peers who harmed them

• Bullied children may be subjected to further bullying as a result

• Conflict resolution miscontrues bullying as peer conflict rather than a type of personal assault.

• Peer mediation often sends a message that each person is partly right and partly wrong—inappropriate for bullying

• Apart from HIB, conflict resolution (lacking a strong evidence base) can be prudently used for mild forms of conflict and to promote social problem solving

Current Zero Tolerance Discipline Practices Lack Scientific Support

Zero tolerance is not effective. Suspension is associated with poorer student outcomes.

Conclusions Regarding Punishment Based Approaches

• Punishment can be used, but should be coupled with methods to teach and reinforce desired prosocial behaviors

• Punishment should comprise a significantly lesser proportion of the corrective approach

• Punishment should be proportional to the offense and surrounding context, and where possible, involve some form of restitution

• Where possible, punishment should logically link to the offense

• Suspension (and expulsion) are last resort procedures because they have little desired effect and generally make things worse

• Punishment must be fair and consistent, which the entire school community must fully understand

Iatrogenic Effects of Interventions for Youth w/ Anti-Social Behaviors

• It is common to group students with anti-social behaviors together in anger management, social skills, and similar intervention classes • Research demonstrates that in most cases, these students reinforce each other’s negative beliefs and attitudes, greatly diminishing intervention effects, sometimes making things worse

• It can be more effective to develop partially heterogeneous intervention groups that include some less at-risk participants

• Such groups require highly trained and experienced group facilitators to help minimize these iatrogenic effects • In addition to participating in interventions, youth with anti-social behaviors can benefit from activities with more pro-social youth, suggesting that schools need to promote such opportunities

BREAK14 minutes and 59 seconds ☺

which means we begin again in exactly 15 minutes

Facilitated Table Sessions





If your table comprised the school safety team at your school, what basic approaches and steps would you take to:

• understand your school’s climate • understand the nature of HIB in your school• facilitate a positive school climate




If your table comprised the school safety team at your school, what basic approaches and steps would you take to fully address bystander behavior issues related to HIB prevention at your school?




If your table comprised the school safety team at your school, what basic approaches and steps would you take to fully address HIB prevention regarding sexual orientation issues and the LGBT community of students in your school?

Assessment #2(15 minutes)

Closing Session15-minute summary of takeaway points followed by 20-minutes Q&A discussion

Takeaway Points

• Bullying/other forms of HIB are pervasive in schools

• 6th-graders are at highest risk among 2ndary students

• Harm from HIB is real, quite serious, and long-term

• Cyberbullying constitutes a serious aspect of HIB

• Harmful effects of victimization experiences add up

Takeaway Points

• Effective prevention is multifaceted

• It involves having the all stakeholders “on board”

• Fostering positive school climate is a central concern

• Some commercial prevention packages can help but should not be the main thrust of the school’s efforts

• Punishment does not work as a primary approach

• Don’t use peer mediation for HIB incidents

Takeaway Points

• Addressing bystander behaviors should be a high priority part of HIB prevention efforts

• Schools should take a close look at the quality of existing adult-adult, and adult-students relationships that exist on a day-to-day basis in the school

• In order to develop plans that have a good chance of success, schools need to systematically collect and analyze data on school climate and student victimization experiences (includes student surveys)

Q & A Discussion

Thank You!

Remember to sign the end of day attendance sheet

harrassment, intimidation, and bullying (hib) gse training session february 18, 2012

Documents

nature of bullying

strengthtypes of bullying

student reports of bullying

bullying specific strategies

basic bullying issues

school year

education statistics

department of education