This ongoing problem has forced school systems and the government to implement solutions in order to decrease the severity of students health. A variety of solutions have been introduced into education and to the staff of a school, students, and parents. There has been a recurrence of failed attempts that hardly affect the amount of bullying that goes on. The idea of just informing parents and adults on how to deal with bullies or bullied victims. It has been determined to be unproductive and useless to just say parents and teachers should pay more attention. A parent can be the most observant parent and still miss the signs of their kids being bullied or their kids being bullies. There must be further resolutions in order to fully touch on the matter.
One of the most common solutions that have been introduced to almost every high school is an anti-bullying program or policy. An anti-bullying program consists of making information clear and accessible. These programs commonly have posters, fact sheets, and parent resources, and provide helpful resources such as the crisis hotline. Anti-bullying policies are simply rules put in place that tell students how they are expected to behave, inform them of what unacceptable behavior consists of, and give possible consequences for certain behaviors. While this all is a step in the right direction, the impact unfortunately is little to known. Bullying in Schools: The State of Knowledge and Effective Interventions is a journal that explores how effective certain solutions are on bullying in schools. The article explains that these anti-bullying programs and acts have little to no influence on children and in most cases, arent delivered properly to th
e student body. They can decide to not implement the program as it was designed to be implemented. (Theadvocate.org) So although there are these policies and rules and programs that are set in place, teachers tend to not properly deliver the information correctly. This could be for multiple possible reasons such as the teachers dont have the qualifications or little training on the topic or that some teachers dont make it a priority as it should be. This results in no effect and no assistance to those victims who desperately need it. The effects were studied by researchers; Evans, Fraser, and Cotter. They recorded the minor effects in schools that owned an anti-bullying program and policies and their records presented that out of all the studies in multiple high schools, around 45% of them resulted in little to no effect on bullying acts in schools and they also discovered that 30% of the programs had absolutely no effect on the victims of bullying. Many variables could have resulted in these discoveries but either way, almost half of the schools who take part in anti-bullying programs dont actually get positive effects which means a majority of students continue to play a part in negative and hurtful acts or continue to be targets for bullies. Concluding that the programs that have been put in place are ineffective and there needs to be further research to find ways to tackle this issue. It is determined that you cant expect parents to just be more involved and schools cant continue to neglect programs and policies so there must be. So the questions are, what more can be done, what is missing from the programs, and how do you alter a schools environment to make it safe enough for all children?