Imagine your students working out problems without teacher, school administrator, adult intervention. Think it can’t be done? Well it can with peer mediation! Educator, Kate Cohen discusses successful bullying prevention methods including peer mediation. Learn how conflict resolution can impact your classroom and schoolyard.

I know you’re going to call me naive. I know you’re going to say that simple solutions to complex problems can do more harm than good. I’m even reminded of a mental health professional who remarked that the ‘Just Say No” campaign to battle teenage substance abuse was like trying to battle the problem of homelessness by giving everyone a button saying “Just Buy A Home”. This would certainly hold true when speaking of dealing with bullies. But I’m going to throw it out there anyhow.

Bullies! Bullying in school has a major impact on teachers, administrators and students. With documentation of one incident of bullying every seven minutes, it pays to look at the characteristics of bullies and the causes of bullying.

As the use of technology both in and out of the classroom has increased, so has the students’ ability to bully others electronically. Cyber bullying in schools has become a major concern over the past few years with students, who were perhaps the victims of traditional bullying themselves, reveling in their ability to take revenge from a distance. As cyber bullying is a distinctly different form of bullying, one must look at cyber bullying facts to develop an approach to halt this insidious form of bullying.

Most children today have experienced bullying either as a victim, a perpetrator, or a witness. School bullying has reached epidemic proportions with close to 77% of all children and young adults reporting that they have been bullied during their school careers. Bullying statistics estimate that 160,000 children miss school every day due to fears of being attacked or intimidated by other students.