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National Bullying Prevention Month: Beating down the issue

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Xavier Navarro
  • 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and Grand Forks Air Force Base is training teachers, custodians, lunch workers, and even bus drivers to beat down this issue and take preventative measures.

Members of GFAFB who deal with youth on base met on Oct. 29, 2013 to discuss topics about bullying and to share stories of different situations they had with bullies.

Sarah Shimek, Grand Forks Public School District, and Susan Spivey, Lutheran Social Services, were the instructors of the Bullying Prevention Training at the Airman &Family Readiness Center.

"I learned what to look for and hopefully people can open their eyes to see what is going on with their child during school," said Tech. Sgt. Jason Kinlaw, Vehicle Operator, 319th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

Dr. Mary Koopman, principal at Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle School here, said, "It is my job to figure out whether it is bullying or an isolated incident."

Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is used district-wide and educates the school staff, faculty members and youth centers on GFAFB how to identify components of bullying.

· Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions
· Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time
· Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength

Koopman said that bullying can start from all different ages, genders and grades.

"Some people pinpoint a certain type of student of being a natural bully and those stereotypes are sometimes wrong. It's not the child who has a single parent, comes from a low social economic background or is an abused child. A bully can come from all walks of life. It can be a child with two parents who love their child and live in a higher class."

For the younger students at Twining Elementary in 4th and 5th grade, their bullying consists of things that happen at recess or on the bus, including verbal taunts or even physical violence.

For the older students at Middle School in 6th through 8th grade, girls tend to exclude others, ignore their peers and the use negative body language, while boys are more physical toward one another.

In most cases of bullying, Koopman said that the process of resolving the problem may involve counseling, detentions and interventions.

For students who promote positive behavior rather than negative behavior, they are rewarded and given praise.

The school does a weekly, monthly, and quarterly promotion of Positive Behavior Support Initiative (PBS) which is a system to establish the social culture and behavioral supports needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for all students.

"Every student takes part in a weekly anti-bullying activity called circle time," said Dr. Koopman. "Teachers will engage students in conversations about bullying, how to prevent it and what to do if you are a victim."

There are 4 basic rules that are posted throughout the whole school for bully prevention.

· We will not bully others
· We will try to help students who are bullied
· We will try to include students who are left out
· If we know that somebody is being bullied we will tell the adult at school and an adult at home.

"I feel like the mom of the whole school," said Koopman. "We don't want the bully to be an outcast either; we need to find the fine balance to also help the bully as well. It's tough, we just need to nurture them, give them love and let them know the adults are advocates for them and teach them how to get along with each other."

For more information about bullying go to www.violencepreventionworks.org.