We at Reportbullying.com educate students to speak up to an adult if they witness bullying. For most students this can be very terrifying, wondering if they may become the next target or will their peers shun them after they hear they spoke up? With that being said I think most students feel this way because fear is our #1 instinct.
Teachers know to keep reports confidential and they’re always asking students to speak up if they witness bullying. Schools use posters, assemblies, monthly exercises, and with all that some students still don’t speak up! So what other options do we have as bystanders to help reduce bullying without having to speak up?
There is a balanced approach. The balanced approach is used when someone is talking behind someone’s back and trying to degrade that particular student. For example, you have two girls together and one girl turns to the other and says “Joanne is such a loser, she couldn’t do anything right” We can see that is comment is negative so to balance it off we say something positive. “I’m surprised you said that because she is the captain of our volleyball team and she gets in the 90s in all her subjects in class”
by using the balanced approach you can defuse a negative comment which could have easily turned into gossip and started to ruin this girl’s reputation. By adding the opposite you basically our telling your friend that it’s not nice to say lies about someone.
This is a great format for educators to teach to their students to give them other options on how they can reduce bullying before it even gets started.
we offer assemblies for all grade levels but only teach the 5 different options to reduce bullying to middle and high school students. Grades K-5 are taught to speak up to an adult. Statistics show that students from K-5 are more likely to speak up to an adult than 6-12 grades. Our assemblies are educational, interactive, and fun.
Read More: Cyber Bullying are your kids safe? by Jim Jordan
