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The new SCSS project provides the following resources to all schools in Colorado:

Bullying Prevention

What is Bullying?

"Bullying is repeated exposure, over time, to negative actions from one or more other students. Negative actions can include physical, verbal or indirect actions that are intended to inflict injury or discomfort upon another."

Dan Olweus
Blueprints for Violence Prevention
Bullying Prevention Program

Bullying Prevention Tips

Students:

  1. If bullied, tell your parents. Telling is not tattling.
  2. Tell a trusted teacher, counselor, principal, or have your parents talk to the school.
  3. Do not retaliate or get angry.
  4. Respond evenly and firmly or say nothing and walk away.
  5. Develop friendships and stick up for each other.
  6. Act confident.
  7. Take a different route to and from school.
  8. Avoid unsupervised areas of school.
  9. Do not bring expensive items to school.

Parents:

  1. Encourage your child to share problems with you with the assurance that it is not tattling.
  2. Praise and encourage your child - a confident child is less likely to be bullied.
  3. Help your child develop new friendships - new peers can provide a new chance.
  4. Maintain contact with your child's school. Keep a detailed record of bullying episodes and communication with the school.
  5. Encourage your child to participate in sports or physical activity to improve esteem.

Schools:

  1. Establish a bullying prevention committee.
  2. Create a long-term anti-bullying plan and raise school and community awareness and involvement.
  3. se students surveys to determine if there is a bullying problem.
  4. Involve parents in planning, discussions and action plans.
  5. Establish classroom rules against bullying.
  6. Create positive and negative consequences regarding bullying.
  7. Initiate serious talks with bullies and victims of bullying.

Colorado Legislation on Bullying

Colorado Dept. of Education summary of Senate Bill 01-080, "Safe Schools - Bullying Policy":

  1. Requires each school district to consult with student councils, where available, when adopting and implementing a safe school plan or when revising existing plans or policies concerning safe schools.

  2. Requires each school district to include a specific policy in the school district conduct and discipline code concerning bullying prevention and education.

  3. Defines bullying to mean any written or verbal expression, or physical act or gesture, or a pattern thereof, that is intended to cause distress upon one or more students in the school, on school grounds, in school vehicles, at a designated school bus stop, or at school activities or sanctioned events.

  4. Requires each school to submit, in the annual report to the state board of education, information concerning the school's policy on bullying prevention and education, including information related to the development and implementation of any bullying prevention programs.

To view the full text of the bill, as documented on the State of Colorado official website, please click here.

Bullying is Characterized By

  1. Aggressive behavior or intentional "harmdoing".
  2. Repeatedly carried out over time.
  3. An interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power.

Dan Olweus
Blueprints for Violence Prevention
Bullying Prevention Program

Bullying Links

Bullying Resources/Publications