How can Bullying Really be Stopped?

How can bullying really be stopped? Everyone talks about how to get the school systems involved so that there is a process in place to prevent children from being bullied. I am in agreement with that idea. However, that process takes too much time. Oftentimes, it can take years, and by the time the program has been discussed, written up, agreed upon and passed through the superintendent’s office, the staff has changed and the children to whom this program would have helped no longer attend the school. What can be done to stop bullying faster than an implemented program?



Get the word out to all students that the most effective way, arguably, to stop bullies in their tracks is for witnesses to the bullying, or bystanders, to tell a person in authority that they have witnessed a child being bullied. That type of report by a person who saw the event validates whatever the child who was bullied told that authority.


I cannot tell you how many times a child who has been bullied has said to me “I told an adult and they told me to stop being a tattletale.” Amazing, right? Children who are bullied are told to tell adults what has happened to them, but when they do, they are criticized for doing so. Why don’t more witnesses step up and speak out?


Those children typically are afraid of the possible repercussions that they think might be done to them, which I can certainly understand. One of the children with whom I work, told me that if he witnessed someone being bullied that he would not tell anyone because he was afraid that the bully would come back and bully him. So, how can we ensure that children will report incidents of bullying?


As I said before, we must make all children understand how effective it is when a witness to a bullying event tells an authority figure, in terms of diminishing the amount of bullying that is done in schools. Once a bully learns from that authority figure that a witness saw him do the bullying and what the consequences that he will suffer as a result of bullying someone, I guarantee that the last thing that he will do is to bully the witness.