Prevent Bullying
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- Part of Safety & Quality - Part 2: Teaching & Learning
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Bullying is a pattern of unwanted and aggressive behavior. It often occurs when there is a power imbalance. Take firm stand against bullying. Ensure that campers gain self-confidence, make new friends, and go home with great memories. Children being bullied will not get the most out of their camp experience. Therefore, Teachers and Coordinators must take all bullying incidents seriously and promote communication between staff and students so students feel comfortable alerting us to any problems during their camp experience.
Contents
Prevention
The best strategy for dealing with bullying is prevention. Foster an environment that discourages bullying and encourages mutual respect. You are responsible for the overall tone of your program. Learn to recognize the seeds of bullying and weed it out before it grows. See the Trackers Code and follow these guidelines:
- Discuss attitude and boundaries around bullying at the start of the program.
- Immediately correct unacceptable and borderline behavior.
- Actively reinforce mutually respectful behavior.
- Model the behavior you expect from your students.
- Be careful with humor and sarcasm.
- Do not play favorites with campers.
- Be a Constant Witness at all times and in all places with the group and its interactions.
Solutions
In the event of bullying, follow these guidelines:
- Separate the students involved.
- Ensure comfort and security for those who do not feel it. Be sure to check in with all parties.
- Get stories and perspectives from everyone who was involved.
- Start with observations and facts. Who saw and actually experienced what?
- Assess feelings and motivations. Why did the incident happen?
- Have students involved identify the impacts of their choices.
- Have everyone agree to next actions to improve relationships.
- Closely monitor interactions between parties.
- Insist all parties follow through with their agreements. Provide appropriate consequences if they do not.
- Document the incident (see Incident Report) and alert your Coordinator.
- If bullying escalates, take action together with your Coordinator.
- Your Coordinator will communicate with parents about any incident and the actions taken to resolve them.
Tattling Versus Reporting
Have frequent discussions with your students about how to be part of a caring community. Let them know what they should do when they see someone left out, teased or upset by someone else. There is a difference between tattling and reporting. Reporting is when a child informs an adult that they or another child are in need of assistance or in danger. The goal is to help someone. Tattling is when a child works to get their peers in trouble in a situation they could have helped resolve without adult intervention. Teach students the difference between the two.
False or Complex Reports
Not all claims of bullying are completely accurate. Kids are complex human beings and may claim they are being bullied as a way to express dislike for another student, to compensate for lacking social skills, or even to resolve a conflict they instigated. You must be fair, and impartial.
Question Yourself
Sometimes your judgment can be impaired by poor self-care, fatigue, etc. Or you may even have a personality conflict with a particular student, which does not lead to objective decisions. Take care so that other students don’t notice and mirror your bias. Ensure it does not cloud your judgment. If you feel this is happening, rise above it and ask your Coordinator for support.
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