Does your child's school handle bullying well?

[Anonymous]

If so, what do they do that you think makes a difference?

[Anonymous]

Yes!

Here's what they do that's so great.
The entire school is very big on conflict resolution, and kids are taught the concepts from day one. There is no tolerance for jerky behavior towards each other, making fun of people, etc.

Also, the school is treated as a community. The school as a whole earns peace days every day the school community goes without an incident. If you screw up and get into it with a classmate, the ENTIRE SCHOOL looses a peace day. A long stretch of peace days earns a party or other school wide reward. Good behavior and setting good examples are rewarded.

I love this about my son's school.

PG County public, by the way.

[Anonymous]

Washington Latin, no.

[Anonymous]

17:25-sounds really good.

[Anonymous]

Our school does the same as what 17:25 describes, but I wouldn't say this makes them good with bullying. The big problem that I see is that when a kid reports something that wasn't witnessed by adults, I've seen our school blame the victim or even ignore it. Also, if there are two conflicting stories, often the school takes the side of the kid whose parents are more involved or they will call it a draw instead of figuring out whether there is a problem or who is the problem.

In contrast, our before/aftercare is wonderful with handling issues that come up with kids. I think the difference is that the kids get more supervision on the playground areas and they really investigate each incident that's reported and will come to concluions even where there are conflicting stories. Also, kids are much more comfortable with the staff at our before/aftercare - maybe because it's smaller and the staff spend a lot of time talking with the kids and really know them. Once a year or two ago there was some really negative behavior that was going on and the before/aftercare set up a class contract that had both rewards and serious consequences built in, including suspension/expulsion. That really got the parents involved in helping to control their kids' behaviors.