Stop the Bullying

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A. Indiana's code: B. Bullying/Harassment: Code 20-33-8-0.2 (2005) defines bullying as overt, repeated acts or gestures, including: verbal or written communications, physical acts committed and any other behaviors committed by a student or group of students with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate or harm the other student. Code 20-33-8-13.5 (2005) requires schools to adopt policies prohibiting bullying on school grounds immediately before or during school hours, immediately after school hours, or at any other time when the school is being used by a school group, off school grounds at a school activity, function, or event, traveling to or from school or a school activity, function, or event, or using property or equipment provided by the school. Policies must also include provisions concerning education, parental involvement, reporting, investigation, and intervention.

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A. Physical Bullying: includes hitting, kicking, tripping, pinching, or damaging property. B. Verbal Bullying: includes name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist remarks, or verbal abuse. C. Covert Bullying: indirect, and harder to recognize, but happens "behind a person's back". Designed to hurt someone's social reputation to cause humiliation. 1. Lying and spreading rumors 2. Negative facial or physical gestures, or menacing looks 3. Nasty jokes 4. Mimicking unkindly 5. Encouraging others to socially exclude someone 6. Damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance

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Attention Material: Video A.This is bullying. At some point we have all either been the bully, victim, or even witnessed it. B. However, how many people would actually take a stand to stop the bullying? II. Credibility Material: I can remember several occasions while growing up where I was bullied relentlessly at school by other classmates. A. The humiliation and shame never really fades away, time passes but you still remember the hurt and embarrassment.

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B. Build a safe and supportive school climate to help prevent bullying by: 1. Establishing a school mission statement emphasizing the importance of bullying and creating a vision for the school. 2. Code of conduct describing positive behaviors expected of the school community. 3. Make sure school rules/policies are consistent with state laws. 4. Include school staff, parents, and students when developing rules/policies. 5. Establish a confidential reporting system.

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B. Schools in today's society harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million of their victims. C. 1 in 7 students in Grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying. D. Statistics show that 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school. E. 15% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school. F. 71% of today's students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.

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C. Dating Violence: Code 20-19-3-10 (2010) requires the Department of Education to develop a model policy for dating violence response and reporting. D. Hazing: No state policy addressing hazing in the school environment. Transition To identify bullying it is important to know the different kinds of bullying. III. According to The National Centre Against Bullying there are four different forms of bullying.

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C. Schools can educate students on bullying and the staff can enforce the policies by: 1. Creating activities for children to learn what bullying is and how to prevent it. 2. Presentations, like roleplaying or giving speeches about stopping bullying. 3. Creating writing, such as poems or stories about bullying. Artistic works or musical performances. 4. Having classroom meetings to talk about peer relations. 5. Staff training on bullying prevention

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D. Cyber Bulling: covert bullying behaviors used with digital technology. 1. Harassment over the phone 2. Social networks 3. Pictures 4. Deliberating excluding someone from social networking spaces 5. Emailing Transition Looking further, what can we do to help prevent bullying before it even starts?

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G. Statistics show that 1 out of 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school. There are approximately 282,000 students that are physically attacked in secondary schools each month, and those in the lower grades reported being in twice as many fights as those in the higher grades. H. There is a lower rate of serious violent crimes in the elementary level than in the middle or high schools. I. Stats show that 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying.

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III. I believe that this effort will change schools for the better. By incorporating Bullying Prevention Program students, parents, and staff members will be actively engaged. If you went out of your way to do something nice for someone, once a day; and them to someone else, and so on. The world would be a better place. By promoting these positive behaviors we can change the world.

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III. Preview: Schools should help the cause by enforcing anti-bullying policies in schools and student awareness. Transition Bullying is the number one reason for teenage suicide. I. On the website Wordpress.com on the article Stop Bullying Now 2012 stated Facts and statistics about bullying: A. In the US alone it is estimated that 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by their peers.

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IV. On the Stopbullying.gov website there are methods on how to prevent bullying. A. Parents need to talk about bullying with children. 1. Talk with your kids and help them understand bullying. Make sure they know how to get help and to stand up to it safely. 2. Keep the lines of communication open. Ask about their day, what happened, and understand their concerns. 3. Encourage kids to do what they love. Hobbies, interests, activities help kids make friends and protect them from bullying behavior. 4. Model how to treat others with kindness and respect.

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J. Bullying statistics say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings. In 2009 87% of students said shootings are motivated by a desire to "get back at those who have hurt them." while 86% of students said, "other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them" causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools. K. Sadly enough harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school-shootings incidents in the United States alone.

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L. According to bullying statistics, 1 out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying. M. Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Transition There are many different definitions of bullying; many of them vary from state to state. II. On the National Association of State Boards of Education website bullying is defined for each state.

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Transition In conclusion, enforcing a bullying prevention program in schools can not only change someone's life, it could save it. Conclusion I. Teenage suicide is 100% preventable. II. I have personally been affected by bulling. One of my best friends killed himself 6 years ago, and my little cousin (only 12) killed himself in spring of 2012. Dylan was a constant victim of bullying, and had reported the matter several times at his school in the tiny town of Eaton, Ohio. The school did not take action and therefore the bullying continued, and didn't stop until it was too late.