Bully-Proofing Our School

We are working hard to implement the Bully-Proofing Your School program at Rancho. Teachers have added this instruction to their curriculums and Yard Supervisors have attended a Bully-Proofing seminar to reinforce appropriate behavior on the playground. We are hosting a parent education night on this topic so that we can encourage consistent messaging at home and at school. Here is some valuable information directly from our Bully-Proofing manual.

"All children are the victims of occasional teasing behavior or aggression, but some children are repeatedly targeted. True bullying is repeated exposure over time to negative actions. Bullying means there is an imbalance of power so that the child being
victimized has trouble defending him or herself. Bullying is aggression. It can take many forms, including physical, verbal, or psychological. Bullying is when one person uses power in a willful manner with the aim of hurting another individual repeatedly.
Bullying is not normal peer conflict. 85% of the students in schools are neither bullies nor victims. This caring majority of students, though, observe the behavior of bullies, live with an uncomfortable feeling about their own safety, and often believe that
if they get involved, the aggressive actions will be transferred to them. It is our belief that developing the caring majority's intervention skills so they feel confident to be involved is crucial. Their power is implicit by number and explicit by positive acts of
kindness toward victims. By developing a strong identity, it can help set the tone of a school and dictate its environment."