According to the California Department of Education, bullying is defined as:

Bullying is exposing a person to abusive actions repeatedly over time. 

Being aware of children's teasing and acknowledging injured feelings are always important. Bullying becomes a concern when hurtful or aggressive behavior toward an individual or group appears to be unprovoked, intentional, and (usually) repeated. 

Bullying is a form of violence. It involves a real or perceived imbalance of power, with the more powerful child or group attacking those who are less powerful.

Bullying may be physical (hitting, kicking, spitting, pushing), verbal (taunting, malicious teasing, name calling, threatening), or emotional (spreading rumors, manipulating social relationships, extorting, or intimidating). Bullying can occur face-to-face or in the online world. Bullying is also one or more acts by a pupil or group of pupils directed against another pupil that constitutes sexual harassment, hate violence, or severe or pervasive intentional harassment, threats, or intimidation that is disruptive, causes disorder, and invades the rights of others by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment, and includes acts that are committed personally or by means of an electronic act, as defined.

Every year millions of children across the nation deal with bullies and bully behavior. Dealing with the prolonged effects of bullying can have adverse reactions on our children and stay with them al the way into adulthood. Common symptoms of bully related stress include depression, low self esteem t, thoughts of suicide, and aggressive behavior. It’s important to be able to recognize the signs of bullying and more importantly, learning how to deal with the bullies without getting hurt or getting expelled from school.

Students have rough time these days. They need the support of their friends, their teachers, and their administration to help protect them from overt acts of coercion and physical violence. Gone are the days when students could fight out their differences. Now, the only ones who are “allowed” to be violent are the bullies. School are over run trying to deal with not only the bullies, but with everything it takes to keep a school running. The administration and the teachers don’t have the time or the skills to effectively deal with inter personal violence. It is up to the parents and the students to take charge of their own safety and well being.

Bullying, in short, is an abuse of power. The only way to truly defeat a bully is to take the power away from them. Returning physical violence isn’t a viable solution anymore- not on the school grounds, and not on the street, so we have to find different ways to deal with them. Although, not necessarily ideal or perfect for every situation, the strategies below are a good start.

Easy Strategies for Dealing with Being Bullied:

Practicing one or more of the following techniques can help to take away a bully’s power:

• Ignore the bully
• Avoid the bully
• Walk away
• Hang out with friends
• Use humor, crack a joke
• Talk your way out of the situation
• Expect respect from your classmates
• Like yourself and all of your goofiness
• Develop a passion that can relieve stress after school
• Have three one-liner’s that will help in a bullying situation
• Confuse the bully
• Tell bully when you are near adults to “knock it off”
• Create a distraction or loud noise
• Get an adult

Easy Strategies for Dealing with a Friend Being Bullied:

• Don’t leave them to deal with the bully by themselves!
• Take your friend out of the situation and away from the bully
• Get help fast!
• Be supportive - Sometimes friends don’t want to tell an adult, but they need to
• If beat up by a bully, help your friend get medical help if needed. Otherwise, help them tell the authorities
• Be a friend, defend!

Additional Information

Much of the information on our website has been graciously provided by like minded people and organizations who have been various generous with their time and efforts in building awareness and bringing attention to the problems of bullying either at school, on the street, or in the workplace. We feel that these people and organizations are due proper credit for what they have accomplished….

• The National Bullying Prevention Center   http://www.pacer.org/bullying/     

The National Bullying Prevention Center is a program of the Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER). The mission of PACER Center is to expand opportunities and enhance the quality of life of children and young adults with disabilities and their families, based on the concept of parents helping parents.
Founded in 1977, PACER Center was created by parents of children and youth with disabilities to help other parents and families facing similar challenges. Today, PACER Center expands opportunities and enhances the quality of life of children and young adults with disabilities and their families. PACER is staffed primarily by parents of children with disabilities and works in coalition with 18 disability organizations.

• Project Anti Bully   http://www.projectantibully.com/home.html

Anti-Bully was founded by students for students. Their mission is to Raise Awareness of the prevalence of bullying in schools globally and create strategies that will that will decrease its impact among students. Their studies show that 86% of students are being bullied constantly in schools across America. Violence is not a way to fight back this problem that lurks in the hallways of middle schools. Instead we will fight back with action and draw more attention to this problem.

• StopBullying.gov   http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/

StopBullying.gov provides information from various government agencies on how kids, teens, young adults, parents, educators and others in the community can prevent or stop bullying. StopBullying.gov is an official U.S. Government Web site managed by the Department of Health & Human Services in partnership with the Department of Education and Department of Justice. They can also be found on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/StopBullying.Gov

• The Bully Police  http://www.bullypolice.org/

Bully Police.org is a watchdog organization dedicated to advocating for victims of bullying and reporting on state anti-bully laws

• The Bully Police Squad http://www.thebullypolicesquad.com

The Bully Police Squad was founded by Karen Wojcikowski after the numerous cases of bullying that had been reported, many cases involving death. Karen and the Bully Police Squad work to educate parents, teachers and children about bullying and social cruelty.
The Bully Police Squad uses real-life examples to educate all on bullying and social cruelty.  Through a partnership with bullypolice.org, the Bully Police Squad is also able to expertly discuss bullying laws across the country.

• STRYVE   http://www.safeyouth.gov/Pages/Home.aspx

STRYVE, or Striving To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere, is a national initiative led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent youth violence before it starts among young people ages 10 to 24. STRYVE’s vision is safe and healthy youth who can achieve their full potential as connected and contributing members of thriving, violence-free families, schools, and communities. STRYVE’s goals are to:

• Increase awareness that youth violence can and should be prevented.
• Promote the use of youth violence prevention approaches that are based upon the best available evidence.
• Provide guidance to communities on how to prevent youth violence.