Reducing School Bullying with Parents’ Help

Reducing School Bullying with Parents’ Help

Working with parents to identify and address bullying is an appropriate practice and a natural response of the school staff. The relevance of this interaction is complemented by the aforementioned markers of silence and isolation when some children are not ready to share their experiences at home. In turn, it is crucial for parents to take into account some obvious criteria that can be regarded as the criteria of bullying and take the necessary measures if they are detected.

As a reminder to parents, some recommendations can be made, which directly address the problem of bullying in their children. One of these markers is the student’s persistently depressed state after attending school. If a child refuses to go to school and mentions poor health conditions or other reasons without factual justification, this is a serious reason to check their interaction with peers at school (Hicks et al. 197). Another factor that psychologists advise considering is conversations about school life. In case that, when mentioning the school, the child does not talk about his or her classmates, this may indicate unhealthy communication in the class (Ronksley-Pavia et al. 21). Refusal to participate in extracurricular activities can also be a reason for assessing the student’s relationship with peers. Real physical manifestations of bullying are also possible, and parents should be the first to identify them. This includes sleep disturbances, signs of auto-aggression, nervousness, isolation, and some other symptoms associated with depressive states (Hasan et al. 1). All these factors are essential criteria to take into account.

A school bullying prevention program requires close cooperation between staff and parents if clear cases of the problem are identified. Inviting parents to talk is a natural practice, and the age of the child plays a big role. If bullying occurs in elementary school, it is critical to involve parents as early as possible, discuss with them the warning signs of bullying, as well as what response strategies should be (Malm et al. 412). However, despite parental involvement, key work must be done directly with children. School personnel are responsible for the well-being of the child during classes, and psychological services are required to respond promptly to any reasoned cases of any form of violence in the school environment. Otherwise, risks arise because the aggression of a vulnerable child can affect not only his or her psychological state but also others. Cases of school shootings with the use of weapons are often the result of ignoring long-term and continuous bullying (Raitanen et al. 96). Therefore, it is important to develop a program in the form of a system of recommendations for school staff on how to deal with bullying.