Bullying in Elementary Schools. Free Essay

Research has demonstrated that students with a commitment to learning and achievement of academic excellence depend on a positive school environment for protection and safety. Academic excellence and school climate are inseparable and bolster one another. These elements characterize the school's ethos and culture, which influence the lives of the students throughout their lifetime In Connecticut. In such a manner, understudies hope to be respected, valued, nourished, care and supported while within the school environment. Contingent on the school's environment and climate, which are the building blocks of academic culture and standards, the school, operates as a hatchery for dysfunction or sound childhood development.

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Importance of Safe and healthy School Climate

Provision of a supportive, safe, and empowering school environment is a social obligation that parents assign to educators, school administrators, and lawmakers. It is hence a public right that the public has generally expected from its teachers, lawmakers, and school administrators (Jensen et al. p.11). Besides, schools that advocates and offers a supportive learning environment rouse positive childhood development and growth, which precursors for academic excellence. Unsafe school environments or ones that fail to provide safe learning conditions are ripe grounds for bullying to thrive and ultimately lead to the depreciation of the school's ethos, climate, culture, and conditions. A breakdown of the school's culture, ethos and climate could be detrimental to academic performance, as well as child development.

In 2013, thirty-seven percent of students nationally reported bullying episodes, twenty percent of them being physical attacks and fifty-two percent as cyberbullying, with eighty-five percent of these incidents being within the school facility (Olweus 19). The revealed rates are critical and highlight the demand for a joint approach to addressing the issue of bullying in schools. In Connecticut, the rates of school bullying differ across districts, and the trend makes it more and more difficult to accurately determine the degree of the problem. The Safe School Climate Coordinator can concentrate on building up a progressively consistent and streamlined approach to accurately tracking the rates of bullying to the Board of Educations and the school district to evaluate fully the effect of the actualized strategies and identification of areas for improvement. Violence prevention initiatives in school should aim at the reduction of violence, improve academic achievement and meet stakeholders' concerns, including faculty and parents. These concerns have contributed to the need for thorough research in the role of the position Safe School Climate Coordinator. The focus of such endeavors has been to examine the efficacy of the position in developing school climate programs and other relevant policies to reduce bullying and enhance the safety of schools.

Strategies for Achieving Safe Learning Environment

Behavior Monitoring

A powerful school climate program is viewed as a viable measure to promote a safe learning environment free from bullying and violence. Few private schools within Connecticut have been involved in pilot projects through the engagement of key personnel influential in the policy development and establishment school climate programs (Iii et al. p21). These initiatives have been successful platforms as scholars have been able to collect important feedback about the effectiveness of sound school climate programs and the position of the Safe School Climate Coordinator in addressing bullying in schools. These action research efforts have been collaborative in nature and allow accurate introspection of the problem at hand. The endeavor served to develop and formulate school safety guidelines, as well as an anti-bullying manual to raise awareness on the effects and impacts of bullying. When such a manual is developed with the input of stakeholders, it is likely to be the answer to the problems associated with school bullying.

Establishment of SSCC Office

The Safe School Climate Coordinator (SSCC) assumes a critical role in dealing with the climate plan of the district and teaming up with others in the area to create approaches to identification, response and prevent bullying in schools. Notwithstanding, over and over again schools come up short on the resources necessary to successfully create and implement practical safe school climate, which is imperative in addressing violent bullying. It is significant that powerful intervention strategies are established to lessen or forestall bullying conduct in schools. For confidentiality reasons and protection of the objectivity and wellbeing of the Safe School Climate Coordinators, schools regularly do not disclose their identities of those responsible for implementing anti-bullying policies. It is, notwithstanding, critical that the role and authority of the office are made known to students to increase the rate of reporting of the cases of bullying.

Positive Relationships and Culture

In the United States, schools' structure is principally intended to guarantee that students are afforded the right tools and opportunities important to successful adult life. However, the absence of a positive relationship with peers and staff, as well as a safe climate could conceivably put into imperil the learning experience (Roussi-Vergou et al p.101). The importance of the above case is reflected numerous scholarly works, which opine that schools ought to better communities that support and care for students, and any failure in that regard could result in enduring and unhealthy outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that a positive relationship between faculty and students, particularly among educator and understudy, is vital to the improvement of the resilience ability of the student and is responsible for the positive environment. When learners feel connected and being a piece of a healthy relationship with the community, the outcome is a decrease in mental and physical illness, as well as a low level of stress. Notwithstanding, school victimization, and bullying could increment when there is a discernment that the school is a cutthroat environment and one that comes up short on a sense of community. School administrators, teachers, principals, and other school staff can cultivate an establishment whose culture ensures that students can easily flourish emotionally, socially, and academically. It is vital for the development of adolescents that the above process is implemented in a healthy and safe environment. In response to the increasing concerns on school brutality, numerous states have initiated measures to actualize anti-bullying policies and approaches. The 2011 anti-bullying law of Connecticut is a critical step to the reinforcement of the school bullying laws and to make it obligatory for schools to act to guarantee that all understudies are afforded the chance to learn in an environment free of humiliation, teasing, and assault.

Reinforcement of Anti-bullying Policies

Administrators ought to evaluate their anti-bullying approaches and policies to deliberate on alternative strategies to reform and manage individuals who involve in the vice. There should be an inspection of the causes of bullying behavior to guide the development of mitigation measure through an exercise that involves parents, teachers and other stakeholders. Action plans may incorporate extra assignments, extracurricular activities, and tutoring. These methodologies might be successful in handling bullying conduct without taking extraordinary reformatory measures, such as expulsion. School administrators should have entrenched policies to advance a secure and safe school environment and counteract victimization in their schools. The installation and use of cameras around and within the school perimeter and use of hall monitors will be the key to protecting students within their learning settings. There should be a continuous assessment and improvement of existing policies to guarantee safety at all times. Conclusion

The objective is to increase awareness and have student clearly comprehend that bullying is disallowed and will be promptly reported and acted upon whenever noted. Connecticut schools can embrace the Climate Assessment instruments of the Board of Education for use as a manual for building up their assessments. Schools would create systems to establish the recurrence of administering evaluations and report the findings to the school administrator. The administrator would work cooperatively with the schools to find inadequacies, which would help in discovering the program or policy changes prompting improved school atmosphere. Expanded parental involvement is vital in the reduction of bullying rates. Guardians must be considered responsible for guaranteeing that anti-bullying strategies are upheld and fortified. Where there is an infringement of these methods, there ought to be a joint effort between the guardians and school managers to address the underlying problems and mitigate future occurrences. Correspondence is significant and where there might be proof that an understudy might be harassed or there are reports that they have been deprived social dynamics within the school, the administrator must be informed immediately and should take necessary measures to safeguard the development and academic success of the identified student.

References

Jensen, P. Zwirs, B. et al. "Observed and Parent Reported Conscience in Childhood: Relation

with Bullying in Early Primary School." Social Development, vol. 26, no. 4, ser. 2017, 24AD, pp. 965-980. 2017.

Lembeck, Paige, O'Connor, Ann, Fluke, Scott & Peterson, Reece. "Bullying Prevention and

Intervention.": International Research and Practice." 2013.

Iii, John S. Moore, et al. "A Comparative Evaluation of Evidence-Based

Violence and Bullying Prevention Programs." PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2011, doi:10.1037/e701932011-001.

Olweus, Dan. "The Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme: Design and Implementation Issues

and a New National Initiative in Norway." Bullying in Schools, pp. 13-36., doi:10.1017/cbo9780511584466.003.

Roussi-Vergou, Christina, et al. "'Coping with Bullying' Program in Greek Secondary Schools:

An Evaluation." Bullying Prevention and Intervention at School, 2018, pp. 95-118., doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95414-1_6