Principal's Bulletin

Friday March 28, 2008

Bullying Prevention and the

Bullying Prevention and the "Philosophy of Winning"

Parents and teachers want to know that their children are safe, both in school and outside of school. Even with the best precautions in place, children may still find themselves in a bullying situation, either as the bully, the bullied or the bystander. Few people think of the bystander as someone who plays a role in bullying. Research shows that bullying stops within 10 seconds when peers intervene on behalf of the person being bullied.

Bullying is a conscious, willful, deliberate, hostile and repeated behaviour by one or more people, which is intended to harm others. Bullying takes on many forms, and can include many different behaviours, such as:

• physical violence and attacks
• verbal taunts, name-calling and put-downs
• threats and intimidation
• extortion or stealing of money and possessions
• exclusion from the peer group
• use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior (cyber bullying)

Darwin students will begin to learn about a “Philosophy of Winning” (POW) approach that is designed to help students have the courage and conviction to do what’s right. Guest instructor Mike Maidment will be sharing this approach with parents at 6:30 p.m. on April 14th. Please come out and join us for this information session.

For more bullying facts, prevention, statistics and a myriad of other information, please see the following websites:

Bullying.org - http://www.bullying.org
Cyberbullying.org - http://www.cyberbullying.org
Not In My School! – Manitoba Government Document - http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/safe_schools/pdf/Not_in_my_school.pdf
Safe Canada - http://www.safecanada.ca/topic_e.asp?category=28
Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System - http://www.lfcc.on.ca/bully.htm
RCMP Youth Strategy - http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/youth/bebrightbully_e.htm