Description of the Bully Free^® Program

This document reviews the philosophy, targets, structure, major components and elements, and effectiveness of the Bully Free^® Program. This program is the most comprehensive school-wide (and system-wide) anti-bullying program being adopted by schools and districts around the world. It is based on research and includes administrative strategies, teacher strategies, lesson plans for each grade level (preschool through high school), classroom meetings, student involvement, and bystander empowerment. The program also includes parent involvement, community involvement, and all of the elements and components that must be present in effective anti-bullying programs.

What Are the Goals of the Bully Free^® Program?

The goals of the program are:

• To send a clear message to students, staff, parents, and community members that bullying will not be tolerated.
• To train staff and students and to provide information to parents relative to taking steps to preventing and stopping bullying.
• To establish and enforce rules and policies focusing on bullying.
• To reduce existing bullying situations through administrative and teacher-centered strategies and a comprehensive scope and sequence of age-appropriate lesson plans for each grade level.
• To create more peaceful and safer schools.
• To promote a sense of belonging and acceptance in all students so that they feel connected to their school.
• To involve and empower students as bystanders to prevent and stop bullying.
• To involve parents in the program.
• To involve the community in the program.
• To create a school culture where adults are warm, positive, and trustworthy role models and viewed as authorities. Adults are clear authorities but caring and respectful in the way they treat students and other adults.
• To significantly improve adult supervision on school property, especially in high-risk areas.
• To restructure the school culture and social environment in a way that adults and students take action and expect immediate intervention, investigation, and confrontation of students engaged in bullying behavior.
• To implement nonphysical and non-hostile strategies for changing the behavior of students engaged in bullying and follow through with disciplinary actions if the bullying behavior persists.
• To provide intervention for children who are bullied and who bully.

 What Is the Bully Free^® Program’s Philosophy?

The philosophy of the Bully Free^® Program is based on child development research; social psychology; research regarding school climate and development of a peaceful, safe, and meaningful community; effective teaching; learning principles; behavior and classroom management; and current thinking regarding effective anti-bullying programs.

The Bully Free^® Program is based on and maintains the following:

• Bullying is a form of overt and aggressive behavior that is intentional, hurtful (physical or psychological, or both), and persistent (repeated). Bullied students are teased, harassed, and assaulted verbally or physically by one or more peers and often socially rejected by their peers. There has to be an imbalance of power. Although this definition of bullying is well accepted, some children may be hurt so much by a single event that they are changed for life. Therefore, it is not as important to label an event as bullying as it is to help children who are being hurt, regardless of the number of times they have been mistreated.
• Bullying is violence and is a heart problem. Students need to have more empathy and sensitivity regarding the needs and experiences of others. They must overcome their desire to be accepted by those who seem popular and powerful and who mistreat others. They also must have the courage to intervene in bullying situations, when there is no danger of being harmed themselves. An effective program also maintains that children basically have good hearts and that an effective program should emphasize their potential for future leadership, affirm their strengths, and encourage them to do good and remarkable things. Therefore, an effective anti-bullying program discourages labeling children as victims or bullies. There are simply children who are mistreated (bullied) and children who mistreat others (bullies). Both groups need help.
• Bullying behavior should not be labeled as mild, moderate, and severe. How children respond to mistreatment varies too greatly. One child, because of his or her past life experiences (psychological and relational), temperament, personality, sensitivity, and other characteristics, may consider a bullying behavior moderate or severe bullying while another child considers the same behavior as a mild form of bullying.
• An effective program:
  • Should include not only a framework, policies, and procedures but also proactive prevention strategies and intervention strategies that are administrative, teacher centered, student centered, and parent centered, as well as an age-appropriate curriculum (lesson plans, materials, and resources for each grade level) with an appropriate scope and sequence. This eliminates the need for schools to take the time to determine what must be taught at each grade level.
  • Has been systematically implemented district-wide and school-wide and the coordinating team is provided a manual and tools to ensure such systematic implementation. The program must be continuous and become a way of living every day in the school for all school personnel. It’s not enough to have a few teachers or the counselor teaching lessons and responding to bullying.
  • Helps prevent students from becoming targets of bullying, helps those who are bullied, helps children who bully change the way they act, empowers bystanders, and educates all stakeholders (for example, school personnel, parents, and community representatives).
  • Has implementation flexibility that does not jeopardize effectiveness. One size does not fit all. All schools and communities are different, and schools should be allowed to select strategies that are most appropriate for them.
  • Maintains that the main responsibility of a program rests with adults, but also maintains that student-initiated change is critical, beginning with school personnel seeking input from all students and listening to students. An effective program harnesses the knowledge, experience, and energy of the students.
  • Maintains that, when appropriate, students who are bullied need to learn how to clearly state their disapproval of their mistreatment and help themselves in other ways, but it is mainly the responsibility of adults to prevent and stop bullying.
  • Maintains that it is important not to minimize any problem, such as sexual harassment or racism, by classifying it under the umbrella term bullying. Although an effective anti-bullying program will attack these problems, additional efforts are required to prevent and reduce these problems.
  • Maintains that peer mediation and conflict resolution are not usually effective in helping true aggressive bullies to change. These are just important skills to teach students in order to have a more peaceful school.
  • Endorses that consistent application of consequences is important (negative for inappropriate behavior and positive for desired new behavior) but also encourages a healthy dialogue regarding norms, rules, and issues between school personnel, students, and parents that stimulates creativity and solutions to life problems, especially bullying. Pro-social (non-punitive) strategies should also be used. Also, improvement in behavior should be rewarded.
  • Places great value on quality and sufficient adult supervision. Each school should develop a supervision plan that includes strategies for each high-risk area identified and provides training for supervisors. Therefore, the program should include a bank of ideas for increasing and improving the quality of supervision and adding structure to unstructured times. To support these efforts, the program should include behavioral expectations for each high-risk area.
  • Seeks to change the culture of the school and create a “telling environment.” To change the culture of a school, all faculty, staff, and students need to be involved in the program. There must also be strong parent involvement. Students need to see and experience activities and visuals (such as bully free posters, banners, bulletin boards, and bracelets) that communicate that the school is serious about preventing and stopping bullying. These serve as visual safety cues. Students also see an appropriate response to bullying and need to feel that teachers and staff care about their hurt, understand their hurt, and know how to respond in a way that will not make it worse for them.
  • Rewards efforts to make the school bully free and celebrates successful efforts and the achievement of program goals.

For Whom Is the Program Designed?

Any anti-bullying program should be used in every school and have a broad base of impact. The Bully Free^® Program targets students in preschool, elementary, middle or junior high, and high school and, to some extent, the community. Some of the strategies are designed specifically for children who are bullied and children who bully others, while other strategies are designed for all students in a school. Parents, law enforcement officers, and community representatives also play a role in the program. System-wide, school-wide, classroom, and individual components interrelate throughout the program.

What Are the Major Components and Elements of the Bully Free^® Program? (Also see Major Components and Elements of the Bully Free^® Program)

The Bully Free^® Program includes the following major components and elements that should be present in any anti-bullying program:

• Each school forms and trains a coordinating committee called the Bully Free^® Program team. The team is a working committee that meets on a regular basis. When the program is implemented in several schools, a district steering committee is encouraged.
• One member of the team serves as the director or coordinator of the program. This person selects a team member to serve as the team’s recorder or secretary, and another member is asked to coordinate the evaluation of the program (determining effectiveness).
• Mission statement, goals, objectives, a slogan, and logo are established by the Bully Free^® Program team.
• There is an ongoing effort to promote acceptance and a sense of belonging in all students by encouraging them to treat others the way they would want to be treated.
• Anti-bullying policies, procedures, rules, discipline rubrics, and behavioral expectations are established.
• Response plans are developed to allow immediate, consistent intervention by adults.
• Appropriate progressive negative or reductive consequences and positive consequences are used as well as non-punitive, non-blaming approaches.
• A comprehensive bank of research-based and proven prevention and intervention strategies is provided. The components are
  • System centered (district-wide and school-wide)
  • Child centered (the bullied, the child who bullies, followers, bystanders)
  • Peer centered (empowerment of bystanders)
  • Family centered
  • Personnel centered
  • Community centered
• Bullying awareness training and program implementation training are provided for all school personnel.
• Bully free awareness presentation is held for parents and community representatives.
• A bully free awareness assembly is held for students.
• There is an assembly for students to increase awareness and their involvement.
• There is a meeting for parents, school personnel, and community representatives to increase awareness and their involvement.
• Serious talks or interviews are conducted with children who are bullied, children who bully, followers, and bystanders.
• Bully free lesson plans are provided for every grade level, from preschool to high school.
• Classroom meetings are used for reviewing lessons and problem-solving.
• Reporting systems and bulletin boards, posters, banners, pamphlets, and bracelets designed to help change the culture of the school are provided.
• Adults model treating others the way you want to be treated. There are consequences when they are not good models
• Addresses all forms of bullying: physical, verbal, social, relational, and electronic.  
• Does not minimize any forms of bullying behavior and does not classify such behaviors as mild, moderate, and severe because the impact varies too much from one student to another. 
• Uses research-based strategies and an age-appropriate curriculum, with lesson plans for each grade level from preschool through high school.
• Recognizes and allows the creativity and preferences of schools yet ensures systematic and consistent implementation.
• Includes curriculum and a multitude of strategies that promote acceptance and a sense of belonging, empower bystanders, and address all forms of bullying behavior: physical, verbal, social-relational, and electronic.
• Addresses empathy, impulse control, anger management, friendship, supporting children who are bullied, changing the behavior of children who bully, empowerment of bystanders, parent education, community involvement, and much more.
• Provides instruction in peer mediation and conflict resolution. Although these are not usually effective in resolving bullying problems, they are important skills to give children.
• Empowers school personnel, parents, volunteers, community representatives, and students.
• Is process oriented (as opposed to conducting only special events). It maintains that the little things done every day—for example, letting others hear you compliment a student who is bullied, helping students identify what they have in common, and giving a student a list of his or her positive characteristics—are what make a difference in attitudes, thinking, and behavior.
• Includes an ongoing effort to encourage students to treat others the way they would want to be treated.
• Includes student-initiated activities.
• Includes systematic implementation of prevention and intervention strategies that are administrative, teacher centered, student centered, and parent centered and are coupled with curriculum.
• Includes policies and procedures for investigating rumors and unverified reports of bullying, as well as responding to bullying when it is observed.
• Seeks to help all stakeholders (school personnel, students, parents, community representatives) understand the nature of bullying.
• Harnesses the energy and commitment of students and empowers them as bystanders.
• Encourages adults to model treating others the way they want to be treated.
• Identifies high-risk areas and includes supervision strategies and supportive supervisory strategies to be used (for example, adding structure to unstructured activities).
• Recognizes that boys and girls from all walks of life bully and is sensitive to the differences in their behavior.
• Creates a “telling environment”: all adults must be “safe places” to tell about bullying.
• Includes several student-to-student and student-to-adult activities focusing on student thinking, input, and feedback, including student focus meetings and lesson plan activities requiring students to discuss questions, reach consensus, express orally and in writing their thoughts and feelings, and so on.

What Strategies are included?  Program strategies are included for:

• changing the school climate/culuture
• creating classrooms and schools where all students feel accepted, a sense of belonging and safe
• helping students who are bullied
• teaching students who are bullied how to help themselves
• changing students who bully
• empowering bystanders to take a stand against bullying
• responding to rumors and unverified reports of bullying
• responding to all forms of bullying and all bullying situations - students bully students, students bullying adults, adults bullying students and  adults bullying adults in our schools
• addressing administrative needs as they related to a Bully Free^® School
• developing a student involvement and empowerment plan
• developing a parent involvement and education plan
• developing a community involvement and education plan
• identifying children who are bullied, children who bully, and followers
• maintaining the program’s momentum
• communicating leadership’s commitment
• creating a “telling environment”: school personnel and parents must become “safe places” to tell about bullying
• identifying high-risk areas and times
• developing and monitoring a supervision plan that improves the quanitity and quality of supervision and an information exchange system
• adding structure to unstructured times
• evaluating effectiveness of program implementation (focus meetings with staff, parents and students, etc.)
• evaluating the effectiveness of the program
• developing an intervention plan for students who are bullied and those who bully 

What Materials and Resources are Included in the Program?

Materials to Guide the Bully Free^® Program Team/Committee

Each team member is provided a copy of Bullying Prevention for Schools: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing the Bully Free^® Program (Publisher: Jossey-Bass). The team is also given access at www.bullyfree.com to numerous helpful Microsoft Word files of materials, handouts, and examples of such documents as discipline rubrics, policies, and supervision plans, and much more.

Instructional Materials, Resources and Classroom Meetings.

Teachers, counselors, parents, students and principals are provided a variety of instructional and support materials and resources. The Bully Free^® Program includes a comprehensive scope and sequence of lesson plans for every level from preschool through high school and books for teachers, counselors, parents, and students. The program includes supportive materials such as pamphlets, posters, bulletin boards, banners, bracelets, a card games, a CD, and many other materials. Ideally, every teacher and counselor will be given a kit of materials and resources. All materials and resources are available in kits or as individual items. For more information, click on "Products" at www.bullyfree.com. 

The Bully Free^® Program also utilizes classroom meetings.  It is recommended that they be used to review the Bully Free^® Lesson Plans to maintain learning and to discuss bullying issues.
 

School Support Materials

In addition to the kits for teachers and counselors, each school receives the school support materials kit. This kit contains manuals, several Bully Free^® Zone posters for high-risk areas and three PDF files, a book of helpful facts for parents, a book for students and a book for school support staff (secretaries, cafeteria service workers, maintenance personnel).  The school can print an unlimited number of these books and distribute them to the school’s personnel, parents, and students or place them on the school’s Web site.

Is the Bully Free^® Program an Effective Program?

This program is research based and integrates the latest research with proven prevention and intervention strategies. Prior to developing the program, Bully Free^® Systems LLC carefully conducted an analysis of the current research on the topic and related topics (promoting acceptance, hate, prejudice, discrimination, peer rejection, empathy, impulse control, conflict, anger, behavior management, violence, assimilation, sense of community, school climate) and effective instructional practices. Current educational standards were also analyzed. Research was conducted to develop an appropriate scope and sequence of the knowledge and skills to be learned. Many of the strategies and much of the curriculum (lesson plans for preschool to high school) were developed and tested in over 20 schools. Many of the strategies were developed through problem-solving teacher and administrator focus groups and workshops. Since 1999, teachers and other professionals have reported the educational effectiveness of materials included in the Bully Free^® Program. The effectiveness of the Bully Free^® Program has been reported in School Violence and Primary Prevention (Miller, 2008). Visit www.bullyfree.com for an example of the effectiveness data.

Rick Spurling (2006) tested the effectiveness of the Bully Free^® Program in five western North Carolina middle schools (grades 5 to 8). Fifty-four participants (administrators, teachers, and parents) were involved in this study with in-depth interviews. The following summary of his findings in the five schools reflects the variety of areas that can be affected by the Bully Free^® Program:

• Improved the dynamics of interpersonal relationships in the school community (student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher, parent-teacher, parent-parent, and school-community)
• Improved lines of communication among all stakeholders
• Significantly decreased incidences of aggressive and violent behavior
• Improved school attendance
• Improved state test scores
• Created trust among personnel working on the program
• Increased interactions between teachers and students during non-class times
• Increased awareness of the need for and importance of adults modeling positive interactions, as well as made adults more conscious of their behavior • Increased students’ understanding of their role in preventing and stopping bullying
• Increased the comfort level and confidence of personnel in their ability to deal with bullying
• Dramatically decreased fighting among boys
• Changed how discipline was administered
• Increased a sense of security
• Increased school attendance and involvement of students in after-school events
• Dramatic decrease in vandalism
   

 The program was also tested on a two-year period in a middle school with the following results:

Attendance: 

• Baseline data - 90.8%
• After First Year - 97.8%
• After Second Year - 95.7

Students who feel bullies exist at the school:

• Baseline data - 74.6%
• After First Year -  38.9%
• After Second Year - 49.7%

Students who have been bullied in school:

• Baseline data - 44.8%
• After First Year - 20.2%
• After Second Year - 24.67%

Students who believe they have avenues to report bullying at shcool:

• Baseline data - 24.6%
• After First Year - 78.6%
• After Second Year - 86.7%

End of grade (EOG) test scores:

• Baseline data - 74.3%
• After First Year - 84.3%
• After Second Year - 87.6%

Number of aggressive occurances:

• Baseline data - 36
• After First Year - 7
• After Second Year - 5

Suspensions as a result of aggressive behavior:

• Baseline data - 19
• After First Year - 3
• After Second Year - 6