Strategies To Eradicate Bullying In Secondary Schools

Strategies for Bully Free Secondary Schools 

Bullying is a problem that occurs in the social environment as a whole. The bullies' 

aggression occurs in social contexts in which teachers and parents are generally unaware 

of the extent of the problem and other children are either reluctant to get involved or 

simply do not know how to help (Charach, Pepler, & Ziegler, 1995). Given this situation, 

effective interventions must involve the entire school community rather than focus on the 

perpetrators and victims alone. Smith and Sharp (1994) emphasize the need to develop 

whole-school bullying policies, implement  curricular measures, improve the school 

ground environment, and empower students through conflict resolution, peer counseling, 

and assertiveness training.  

Secondary schools are responsible for protecting their students’ population. 

Students cannot learn effectively if they fear for their safety. Troubled students, both 

victims and bullies, need a supportive environment to learn and grow. There are a number 

of strategies that the management of secondary schools can adopt to eliminate or 

minimize bullying activities in their schools. These include setting code of students 

conduct and behavior; teaching skills on anger management, friendship, assertiveness, 

conflict resolution, and peer mediation; exploring ways to deal with bullies; promoting 

structured activities and team work; providing effective supervision; building empathy 

and understanding; getting students involve in services; teaching students to be 

affirmative and positive. Each of these strategies is discussed below. 

i. Establishing and Enforcing Rules about Bullying and Behavior 

An international school in  a neighboring country encourages its students to inform 

confidentially their teachers about any form of bullying. The school has a code of 

behavior as follows: “The  school authority does not tolerate bullying, name calling, 

harassment, teasing or intimidation of others including harassment of younger students, 

female students, and students from minority groups. It expects students to show 

tolerance, understanding, and courtesy to the people with whom they come into contact, 

fellow students, teachers, and members of the public. If any students are facing problems 6 

with their friends, family or others, they are encouraged to talk to their coordinator, 

teachers or counselors.”  A code of behavior like this can be adopted so that students are 

aware that bullying behavior is not accepted in the schools premises and they would 

voluntarily come forward to report any forms of bullying activities that they come across 

or witness or even heard of. Such rules clearly communicate a zero tolerance for bullying 

and an expectation of positive behavior. They also meet students’ physical and 

psychological needs for safety for it is hard to learn when they are intimidated, 

threatened, and scared of or when they are witness to intimidating, threatening and scary 

behavior. 

For rules to be effective, they should  be created with student’s input, short and 

simple, easy to understand, specific, agreed upon and accepted by everyone, enforceable, 

communicated to and supported  by parents, others, teachers and staff, and reviewed 

periodically and updated when needed. 

ii. Teaching Anger Management Skills 

When students are in danger or under some kind of stress, they tend to experience the 

“fight-or-flight” response. They battle the cause of the danger they perceive or the stress 

they experience or they run as fast as they can to get away. When students are bullied, 

running away is an option and sometimes it’s the only option. They need to know that 

fighting is not an option except in cases where self-defense is essential. What can they do 

instead of fighting or trying to hurt someone back? They can learn and practice other 

ways to manage their anger. These ways  include like don retaliated or do anything right 

away but consider various  options. For example the options of walking away, finding 

another person to be with, telling an adult of what happened or counting slowly from 1 to 

10 and backwards to cool anger or control your temper and remain cool and calm.

iii. Teaching Friendship Skill

Some secondary schools students become bullies because they don’t have friends, feel 

lonely and seek attention by bullying. Some kids become victims because they’re isolated 

and easier to pick on. All students, be they bullies or victims and others can benefit from 

learning and practicing friendship skills. Students can be taught skills on how to make 

and keep friends. These skills include reaching out to people first, involvement in social 

clubs, letting people know that you are interested in them, not showing off, be honest, 

kind and accepting or accommodative. 

iv. Teaching Assertive Skills 

Some secondary schools students do not know what to do or how to react when they are 

being bullied. Should they cry, run away, fight back or get even? Victims tend to be 

passive that is behaving as  if other people’s right matter  more than theirs. Assertive 

people respect their own rights and other  people’s right. Students should know their 

rights like the right to stand up to people who tease, criticize or look down upon them and 

the right to respond when someone violates  their rights. Secondary schools students can 

be taught how to look assertive like standing up straight, keeping head up, looking people 

in the eye and so on. When students appear  assertive, they are  more likely to feel 

assertive and fellow students will treat them with respect. 

v. Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills 

Conflict between people is normal and inevitable and not all conflict is harmful or bad. 

Destructive conflict damages relationships, creates bad feelings and lead to future 

problems. But constructive conflict helps people learn, grow, and change for the better 

like seeing things from other  perspectives, become more open minded, tolerant and 

accepting. Everyone benefits from learning  and practicing conflict resolution. Bullies 

discover the real power of solving problems without using intimidation. Victims are 

empowered to seek solutions instead of giving up and giving in. Students who are taught 

in conflict resolution are more likely to face conflicts, use problem solving to negotiate 

solutions. They can benefit  from learning conflict resolution skills that will empower them, increase their confidence  in their ability to handle a situation and teach them how 

to respond assertively, particularly in cases of verbal bullying. Conflict resolution steps 

are begins by cooling down, describing the conflict including caused and effect, 

brainstorming solutions and trying the best solution. It is about communicating, listening 

and problem-solving techniques.  

vi. Exploring Ways to Deal with Bullies 

Students can be taught of several answers to the question of what should a victim does 

when being bullied?  The answers depend on the situation but the common ones are like 

tell a friend, or tell a teacher or tell parents, stay calm and walk away or standup straight 

and look the bully in the eye and say in a firm confident voice to leave you alone. Using 

peer mediators (impartial fellow students) another way to deal with bullies. Mediators are 

facilitators who do not take  sides. They will ask open-ended questions, encourage 

discussion, and guide students involved in the conflict to come up with and try their own 

solutions. Ideal mediators are  students who are calm, listen carefully, remain objective, 

avoid taking sides and be patient. However, peer mediation may not work if victims have 

low communication skills in the presence of bullies. 

vii. Effective Respond to Reports of Bullying 

Much bullying occurs where adults cannot see it and intervene as confessed by an ex 

student of a secondary school mentioned under introduction  and background above. 

Bullies do not want adult audiences. Therefore the school authorities  like the principal, 

his assistants, disciplinary teachers, counselors and other teachers rely on students for 

information about bullying that are not aware of. Students must be encouraged to come 

forth with information on bullying activities having code of behavior as mentioned earlier 

on and putting up notices saying that if you see or know or thought that someone is being 

bullied, report it to the school  authorities. No matter how much the school authority encourage students to report on bullying; reporting will stop if there is no quick and 

effective response. The students will lose trust in the authority to handle the menace.  

viii. Promoting Structured Activities 

As a result of the tragic case of bullying mentioned in the introduction and background 

section, the government i.e. the Ministry of Education immediately responded by setting 

up a hotline for the public to report bullying activities in schools through the country. To 

date 348 people has responded on issues about the misconduct of students and on school 

management as well proposals to overcome  the problem. One of the proposals received 

was to see how students could help their peers overcome problems they faced in school 

and one of the ways of fostering this relationship is through extra-curricular activities.  

The cabinet wants to place more emphasis on extra-curricular activities to curb 

indiscipline and promote national integration.  The Education Ministry is to reassess all 

activities and students' participation in uniformed bodies, clubs and societies and sports.  

There are 24 uniformed bodies, 120 clubs and societies and 30 sports and games 

registered with the ministry.   

Much bullying takes place during unstructured activities especially during recess 

time or waiting for the afternoon class session. Students can be encouraged to plan ahead 

for those times and tell their plans like playing a particular game. Try also to get those 

students who do not play games to have the habit of deciding in advance how they will 

spend unstructured time. If they have difficulty making plans, offer them suggestions. 

Since bullies tend to be older, stronger and more powerful than their victims, explore the 

possibility of assigning older and younger students to different playground areas. 

Getting students involve in services is  a form of involvement in structured 

activities. Examples of services are doing cleanliness work in a nearby villages, or 

helping out in the home for handicap children or home for the age. When students work 

together to reach a common goal especially when that goal  involves helping others they 

experience a sense of unity, personal worth and belonging. 

This has a bonding effect on the group as a whole. It also gives students an opportunity to observe and appreciate each others’ knowledge and skills. The benefits to students involved in voluntary service 

include learning to respect others, learning to get along with and relate to others, learning 

to understand people who are different from them and learning to be helpful and kind. 

Through involvement in structured activities and voluntary services which are 

group work, promotion of team work also takes place. Students who participate in group 

activities are more likely to have positive feelings about others.  They develop fewer 

biases and prejudices. Good team members accept each other as equals, support group’s 

goals and rules, participate in discussions and express their needs and feelings honestly, 

have positive attitude and disagree without being disagreeable.  

ix. Providing Effective Supervision 

One the contributing factors to the death of a form four student highlighted in the 

introduction and background section above is the lack of supervision or being vigilant by 

the school authority. An ex-school administrator pointed out that “leadership is very 

important for without good leaders, things at schools will spiral out of control and, in 

some instances, students may control the  school. Residential schoolteachers must be 

committed, must be proactive and not operate on a reactive basis. Teachers must make 

their presence felt and join in student activities. One of the steps is to monitor the 

wardens and ensure that they carry out their duties, especially on weekends and public 

holidays.”    

It is believed that some students become bullies because the supervision they get 

is minimal or nonexistent. And bullies tend  to do their bullying where adults can’t 

observe and intervene. Close supervision of students at schools may be one of the most 

effective bully prevention strategies available. It’s true that spending more time 

supervising students will increase teachers’ workload. But more positive supervision 

where you interact with students, suggest ways they can interact with each other and 

model kindness, acceptance, affirmation and getting along promotes positive behavior.  

x. Building Empathy and Understanding  

Empathy is the ability to identify with  and understand another  person’s feelings, 

situation, motives and concerns to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Empathy is 

basic to positive relationships with friends, peers, family members and everyone else tht 

one encounters throughout his life. Often when students are not liked by others it’s 

because they lack empathy. It’s not enough  for students to empathize with people they 

have things in common with. They also need to empathize with people who are very 

different from them in their needs, experiences, points of view, life circumstances, 

beliefs, ethnic and cultural background, talents, abilities, accomplishments etc. They also 

need to be able to think about how other people might feel in response to specific events 

and circumstances. 

Understanding on why do bullies bully and why do victims put up with it is 

another strategy. There are no easy answers to these questions but some students bully 

because they love having power over other  people, because other people bully them, 

because they want attention, because they are jealous of other people and because they 

have their own problems. Some students are victims because they are different in some 

way, they do not know how to make friends, and they are socially awkward. Students can 

be invited to contribute their own reasons on why some students are bullies and why 

some are victims. With this information  it will help them to  understand why they and 

their classmates or schoolmates do some of the things they do. 

xi. Teaching Students to be Affirmative and Positive  

Everyone appreciates a compliment. Students especially enjoy knowing that their teacher 

thinks well of them. Take every opportunity  to say something positive to each of your 

students through out the day. Get students to know about what they like, what they are 

good at, their positive characteristics, what make them proud of themselves and what 

good things they would like other people to know about them. This information can be 

shared with other students to encourage them to recognize and acknowledge each other’s positive characteristics and notice similarities. When students affirm each other, everyone 

feels accepted, appreciated and valued. 

Positive thinking can be powerful especially positive thinking about ourselves and 

our abilities to solve problems, reach goals,  cope with hard times and accomplish what 

we set out to do. Positive self talk creates positive beliefs. Positive beliefs lead to positive 

attitudes and feelings about oneself and others. Positive attitudes and feelings promote 

positive behaviors.  

Conclusion 

Bullying is a serious problem that can dramatically affect the ability of students to 

progress academically and socially. A comprehensive intervention and prevention plan or 

program that involves all students, parents, and school staff is required to ensure that all 

students can learn in a safe and fear-free environment. Even the government, in the wake 

of public outcry on bullying in schools, is setting a task force to monitor and overcome 

discipline problems in schools.  The government is very serious in combating bullying 

problems and the education minister was quoted in a news report as follows: “Finally to 

those who prefer to bully rather than learn, I have this to say to you: ‘If I accept you as 

you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are 

capable of becoming, I will help you become that.' (Johann Wolfgang Goethe).”   

 The minister has since directed state education departments and schools to work 

hard to eliminate the bullying phenomenon in the country. In the coming months, schools 

will be under tremendous pressure to formulate, develop, implement and review 

strategies, program and plans to control bullying activities. There will be training courses, 

seminars, workshops and symposium on techniques, methods and tools to prevent 

bullying in schools. Therefore, this article offers to the schools and education authorities 

the various strategies and ideas to be adopted and adapted in carrying the directive from 

the Minister of Education to eliminate the menace of bullying in secondary schools.  

Adapted from Yahaya, Azizi and Ma'alip, Halimah Strategies To Eradicate Bullying In Secondary Schools. In: Seminar antarabangsa APECA 15 Biennial Conference-Workshop 2004 23-24 Nov. 2004 Eden Hotel. Johore Bahru.. (Unpublished)

POSTED BY CHIA YONG SIANG