Bullying simply means when a student or person hurts/frightens someone who is less powerful and orders them to do something against their will. This mostly happens in educational institutions like schools and colleges and it has become a very serious matter in recent times as a lot of students who have been bullied went to depression and some students were scared to go to schools and colleges.
Though Educational Institutions authorities and Teachers try their best to create an environment in school that is safe for students. Some schools like a boarding school in Dehradun maintain high discipline in schools, security cameras have been placed on campuses and they advocate a policy of no tolerance for bullying but still, it is less effective as bullying can happen anywhere outside School, online, at the school hall, playground, etc so the Teachers and authorities can’t be present everywhere so in order to fight against bullying they have to empower the students to curb Bullying by simply teaching them how to act as allies.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN ALLY
Ally doesn’t really mean that the students should straightway confront the person who is bullying as it can be difficult for a lot of young students because it takes a lot of courage and self-confidence for confronting and nobody wants to confront or speak out against the aggressor. So the better way is to follow these tactics which are less risky than confronting but they are effective as they can be used by the bystanders who saw the act of bullying but don’t know what they should do to prevent it.
- Support the Victim – When someone gets bullied they feel embarrassed and their confidence is at their low so first you should support the victim by being empathetic toward them and encourage them to report the incident to high authorities, teachers, or any adults. This will boost the confidence of the victim as a little help and support are all they need at the time.
- Avoid participation – The best thing students can do when they see the act of bullying is be a passive bystander and not participate in it it is very effective as the students can simply save the victim by telling them not to go where bullies are standing and take them to somewhere safe and change the subject so the victim won’t get stressed or feel fear. Once someone initiates ignoring the bullies the rest of the students will follow the same path.
- Tell a trusted Teacher or Staff – Students usually hide these bullying incidents with teachers or any adults as they think it will make the situation worse than what it is now. However, they should never hide these types of bullying incidents as this will only encourage the bullies to continue bullying students so Teachers should create an environment where students feel free to report any bullying incidence and strict action should be taken against the bully.
- Get to know people instead of judging them – The biggest lesson we get from bullying is that bullying mainly happens on the basis of personal identity like their hair, color, religion, caste, clothes, background and etc so if teachers create an atmosphere in the classroom where they should be more empathetic and acceptable instead of judging the person this can stop bullying by a large margin.
- Fight against bullying online – when you see bullying happens online in a group chat you should straightway come to the support by first leaving the group and them sending a personal message showing support and encourage them to report to some adults after consolidating the victim one can message the bully and try to make them understand their wrongdoing and what can be consequences of that. They can take screenshots of bullying behavior to save as evidence for reporting.
TEACHING STRATEGIES
Teachers can teach these above strategies to children in a few ways:
1 – Recreate Bullying Moment
Recreate the same bullying incident and the teacher can turn the bullying incident into a lesson by explaining what others can do as an ally to prevent bullying so that when they see bullying next time they know what they have to do.
2- Teach Explicit Lesson
Teachers should teach explicit lessons about identity-based bullying, Prevention Strategies for Bullying, developing Empathy and practice, and activities that help students learn and practice the skills required to be an ally with scenarios and role play.
