PREVENTION resources
Bullying
Crisis Text Line Anywhere, anytime a Stark County teen can text 4hope to 741 741 and a live, trained specialist will receive and respond to the text in real time. Stark County young people are not alone. More about Crisis Text Line »
The Olweus® Program Pronounced Ol-VAY-us, Olweus® is the most extensively researched bullying prevention program available today. When properly implemented, this whole-school program engages and unites students, staff, parents and the community in preventing bullying. The program is now being implemented in 29 Stark County public and parochial schools that serve more than 11,000 students. The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton provided start-up support for the program, and ongoing support has come from both the Sisters of Charity and Stark Community foundations.
The Olweus Program is a comprehensive approach that includes schoolwide, classroom, individual and community components. The program is focused on long-term change that creates a safe and positive school climate. It is designed and evaluated for use in elementary, middle, junior high and high schools (K-12). The program’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among schoolchildren and to improve peer relations at school. The program has been found to reduce bullying among students, improve the social climate of classrooms and reduce related antisocial behaviors, such as vandalism and truancy. The Olweus Program has been implemented in more than a dozen countries around the world and in thousands of schools in the United States. Locally, the Stark County Educational Service Center and Stark County parochial schools have spearheaded this countywide effort to prevent bullying.
For more about the Olweus® program and implementation in elementary, middle and high schools »
Source: Olweus® Bullying Prevention Program, Clemson University, retrieved February 17, 2015
What is Bullying?
Ohio law defines “harassment, intimidation or bullying” as: Any intentional written, verbal, or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both: (a) causes mental or physical harm to the other student; (b) is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment for the other student. O.R.C. 3313.66
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) Office has stated that “bullying may be the most under-reported safety problem in American schools.” Bullying can be committed by an individual or by a group of people. Some forms of bullying include:
- Can be either physical, verbal or both.
- Hitting
- Punching
- Kicking
- Pushing or Pulling
- Spreading rumors in school or online
- Excluding people from being in groups or “cliques”
- Harassing and/or threatening online. This is called “cyber-bullying.”
- Bullies tend to look for people who seem shy or socially awkward in some way.
- Picking on someone makes a bully feel superior to them.
StopBullying.gov Resources
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Stop Bullying Now! campaign website is about bullying and what individuals can do to end it. The site includes games and cartoon webisodes that help you “Take a Stand. Lend a Hand. Stop Bullying Now!” Free DVD toolkits are available for educators and parents. StopBullying.gov »
additional anti-bullying links
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/cyber-bullying-statistics
http://www.violencepreventionworks.org/public/bullying.page
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