CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. School Bullying: What It Is and Why It Hurts
2. The Role of Bullies, Victims, and Witnesses
3. Factors Contributing to Bullying and Violence
4. Screening and Assessment
5. Treatment For Children and Adolescents
6. Prevention and Intervention
7. Legal and Ethical Issues

Supplements
Case Studies
Fact Sheets
References
Resources

The ABCs of Bullying
Addressing, Blocking, and Curbing School Aggression

Mental Health Counselors

The mental health field is filled with varying and often overlapping professions. These include mental health counseling, psychology, social work, marriage and family counseling, professional counseling, psychiatry, and school counseling.ref Many, if not all, of these professions work with children, either in private practice, community-based clinics, or schools. All mental health professionals benefit from an understanding of the complexity of bullying and school-based violence. The knowledge is bound to enhance the quality of clinical work with children.

School-based mental health professionals need to work within the framework of the larger school system, paying attention to family and community concerns at the same time. This framework includes a recognition and respect for the increasingly diverse populations within our schools, including many students who may be using English as a second language.

It is important for school professionals to remember that formal interviews with a student about psychosocial/mental health concerns require the signed informed consent from a parent or legal guardian. If possible, students also should provide informed consent.

Further legal and confidentiality concerns are addressed in Module 7.

Cultural Competencies

There are certain cultural competencies that counselors should have in the fight to combat violence and bullying in the schools. These include:ref

• Becoming aware of and changing any of their own "dominator" attitudes toward racial, cultural, and religious differences. This refers to beliefs about a person being better than another or more deserving than another based on his or her race, culture, or religion.
• Modeling how to live using partnership values.
• Teaching students about the role fear and lack of understanding of cultural, racial, and religious differences play in bullying incidents.
• Conducting in-service trainings with teachers and other school staff about the causes and effects of bullying and how to intervene, including those situations that involve racial or cultural overtones.
• Helping to create a positive school climate that involves everyone and designing interventions that ensure that no one is marginalized for any reason.
• Structuring small counseling and cultural awareness groups for students to explore the stereotypes and cultural ignorance to discover what they have in common.
• Becoming part of the proactive process to prevent bullying, such as helping to establish antibullying policies.
• Reaching out to those students who appear marginalized, stigmatized, or victimized, and those who are bullies.