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Question: Hello, Thank you for working on such an amazing and valuable website. I am a social worker in a small City. One school has bullying programs that are quite good. It is a grade 6,7,8, school. When I met with teachers to ask what they would like to work on, they stated the school is divided. The kids from the 'social housing projects'go home in fear of being beat up. When they are, their parents say 'don't tell' and parents do not come to school meetings to learn about bullying prevention and intervention. How can I advise the school to begin to reach out to the community and take steps to involve the families/parents in that neighbourhood? What would your advise be? So far, parents do not come out, and the school does not go in to the community..... Many thanks! Kathie
Answer: Bullying is such an important problem that requires unique solutions. It is so good to hear that at least one of the schools has an effective program to reduce such activity. You have so wisely sought advice and input from the teachers, and it is an excellent idea to encourage the school to try and enter and reach out to the community more, but not necessarily give up on other efforts to get parents to visit the school to help work on this problem. Bullying is one of those behaviors that is likely to benefit from a 'restorative justice' approach. You might want to do some reading and gathering of articles about restorative justice and other theories about the problem that incorporate the community. The more you can demonstrate to the school and to parents and other stakeholders in the community that this is a challenge that requires the whole community, you might find that the school will better understand the need for such outreach efforts. Perhaps one of the problems is that some at the school would rather not advertise any type of problem the school might have. In this case, the more statistics the school can see that most communities face this problem and that they would only look innovative by addressing it, the more favorable they might be to your suggestions. Hopefully, whatever you can all achieve can spread to other locales, and have a positive radiating effect. Best of luck!
Question Date: Tue, 04/01/2008