Bullying success stories?

Baby Nemesis

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Baby Nemesis
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Does anyone have experience of or know about a school or class where there was quite a lot of bullying at one point but the teachers or school staff or other pupils managed to stop it? If so, how did they do it? Did they change the behaviour of the bullies by harsher discipline or by other means such as working with them to try to develop their empathy for others?

Did they train victims in assertiveness skills in the hope they would stand up for themselves against taunts or look more confident in the face of them and so be considered less easy targets by bullies who would hopefully be put off bullying them? If so, how successful was that?
 
There's some great bully comeuppance videos on youtube :)

In my experience, a lot of the leftist philosophies about bullies being people with low self esteem or being all hot air were nonsense.

Some bullies in my life were EXTREMELY tough and skilled at fighting and had no obvious esteem issues.

In every case I could determine, their parents were also very supportive of their bullying

Taking the conflict to a level that the parents weren't willing to support was my only path to success, and it didn't always work

Parents, teachers, principals, no one seemed much help. In third grade actually going to the boss of a bully's dad at his jobsite seemed to shame him into curbing the behaviour a bit

Bricks thru the parents' car windows can cost you some free weekends and a decently long grounding, but it often stops the bullying
 
Baby Nemesis said:
Does anyone have experience of or know about a school or class where there was quite a lot of bullying at one point but the teachers or school staff or other pupils managed to stop it? If so, how did they do it? Did they change the behaviour of the bullies by harsher discipline or by other means such as working with them to try to develop their empathy for others?

Did they train victims in assertiveness skills in the hope they would stand up for themselves against taunts or look more confident in the face of them and so be considered less easy targets by bullies who would hopefully be put off bullying them? If so, how successful was that?
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My experience was that they ran the school while the teachers sat on their hands.
 
FWIW, here's a news story:

Ely school's anti-bullying program proves successful
Friday August 13, 2010

A middle school principal in Ely, Nevada, has developed a strategy to combat bullying. So far, it seems to be working.

He took a school that, just a few years ago, had a bad reputation and turned it into a place where students say they feel safe, respected, and ready to learn.

The first step in changing the bullying culture was to define school values – basically, how people treat others – and then communicate to the students the importance and benefits of those values.

The principal also created what is called a “Defenders Program” that educates students on how to protect others who are bullying targets.

The bullying surveys have gone out over the last three academic years and, slowly, the school has changed from a place where bullying is accepted to an environment in which the students have defined it as “taboo.”
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http://www.mynews3.com/story.php?id=25365&n=5246,5037
 
Whenever I was bullied, I would just smile and laugh along. Eventually, they got tired and acted rather friendly with me.

The worst thing was when people tried to "help".
 
Tsukasa Buddha said:
Whenever I was bullied, I would just smile and laugh along. Eventually, they got tired and acted rather friendly with me.

The worst thing was when people tried to "help".
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Tried to help how?

I can imagine laughing along working better with some kinds of bullying than with others. What type did you use it with?

pipelineaudio said:
It very often is yes

Nice to see that its turning around though

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...201010/do-bullies-really-have-low-self-esteem
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Unfortunately, the link's broken. It gives a "Page not found" error. Can you summarise what the article says? I've heard myself that bullies often have high self-esteem, which can keep them bullying despite the disapproval of others.

Emet said:
FWIW, here's a news story:



http://www.mynews3.com/story.php?id=25365&n=5246,5037
Click to expand...

Hooray! A bullying success story. That's nice to hear about. Thanks.
 
Baby Nemesis said:
Does anyone have experience of or know about a school or class where there was quite a lot of bullying at one point but the teachers or school staff or other pupils managed to stop it? If so, how did they do it? Did they change the behaviour of the bullies by harsher discipline or by other means such as working with them to try to develop their empathy for others?

Did they train victims in assertiveness skills in the hope they would stand up for themselves against taunts or look more confident in the face of them and so be considered less easy targets by bullies who would hopefully be put off bullying them? If so, how successful was that?
Click to expand...

I have ZERO experience with staff stopping bullying. I have had experience with staf *actively* looking away.

I have had experience stopping bullying by kick the ass of every single bully (which attacked me in a group) one by one before they could give each other the tip.
 
I keep hearing stories about bullys in grammar school. The worst bullying I experienced and witnessed occurred in highschool where the kids were bigger, stronger and often mentally disturbed.
 
I harp on this a bit, but i think the " zero tolerance" policies that were instituted during my first year of high school ( about 10 years ago now) have a lot to do with it.

I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but these policies made an environment in which defending yourself incurred at least a severe penalty as being the agressor. And seeing as the aggressor usually doesn't give a **** about getting suspended, it puts the victim at a distinct disadvantage.
 
Emet said:
FWIW, here's a news story:



http://www.mynews3.com/story.php?id=25365&n=5246,5037
Click to expand...

Just a thought- I recall reading an account of a London school being "turned around". I noticed that the story covered a period of 3 years- during which time about 50% of the pupil population there would have changed anyway.

I also don't recall encountering the type of bully who was "really a coward" and ran away when faced up to. My experience was that "facing up" earned you a rather extensive hammering from the lad and his mates. Since at least two of the bullies I recall from my schooldays went on to careers in serious crime, (including at least one murder), I'm a wee bitty sceptical about the idea they are just misunderstood.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Just a thought- I recall reading an account of a London school being "turned around". I noticed that the story covered a period of 3 years- during which time about 50% of the pupil population there would have changed anyway.

I also don't recall encountering the type of bully who was "really a coward" and ran away when faced up to. My experience was that "facing up" earned you a rather extensive hammering from the lad and his mates. Since at least two of the bullies I recall from my schooldays went on to careers in serious crime, (including at least one murder), I'm a wee bitty sceptical about the idea they are just misunderstood.
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I don’t think I have ever encountered a bully who ran away when someone stood up to them. What usually happened in my experience is that the bully would pummel the kid who stood up to him, then pick on other kids in the future. They were looking for easy targets, but if someone stood up to them they had to pound them as an example to others. They might try again to see if you had "learned your lesson", but if you refused to back down even when you knew a beatdown was coming, they grew tired of you quickly. You were basically trading getting beaten up two or three times for personal peace from that particular bully for the indefinite future.

Of course, nothing was as effective as actually beating up the bully yourself.
 
I was bullied at school because I refused to fight back. Finally, I had enough of it. One day the three main bullies decided to run behind where I was sitting and all kick me. I saw them coming out of the corner of my eye and smashed the first in line hard enough to break his glasses and his nose and send him crying to the principal's office. I got in trouble for it, but the bullying stopped.
 
Baby Nemesis said:
Unfortunately, the link's broken. It gives a "Page not found" error. Can you summarise what the article says? I've heard myself that bullies often have high self-esteem, which can keep them bullying despite the disapproval of others.
Click to expand...

Try the link again, its working now. Basically, it backs up your idea, but they add a questionable conclusion
 
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