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Leadership and Bullying Prevention. Jim Dillon Educational Consultant Retired Elementary School Principal OBPP trainer Author of Peaceful School Bus 518 346 2781 jdillon117@gmail.com. Public Questions.
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Leadership and Bullying Prevention Jim Dillon Educational Consultant Retired Elementary School Principal OBPP trainer Author of Peaceful School Bus 518 346 2781 jdillon117@gmail.com
Public Questions • After a tragic event, a suicide or violent act of revenge that occurs as a result of frequent and persistent bullying, the public is outraged at those people in a school who did “nothing”: • “How come nobody cared enough to do something to stop it?” • “How could the staff be so heartless and callous?”
Perplexing Questions • “How is it that people who care act as if they don’t?” • “Why should it take a tragedy to get a school to finally do something?” • “In how many other schools does a tragedy need to happen before all schools decide to do something to prevent it?”
What can a educational leader do? • Accept and acknowledge the problem. • Define and understand the problem. • Make it clear that bullying affects everyone in the community. • Collect data but put a human face on it
What can educational leader do? • Accept responsibility for the problem by inviting shared responsibility: school, students, parents and community. • Send the right message: No one is to blame but everyone is responsible.
What can educational leader do? • Get the facts out to the community: what is bullying?, its effects, role of bystanders, difference between bullying and conflict, etc. • Reframe the problem: it is about culture and climate not just “discipline”. • Focus on the “verb” (bullying) not the noun (bully)
What can an educational leader do? • Ask for help and be open to the ideas and input of those who offer it • Use the energy of parents to help with your efforts • Be the change you want to see (you cannot bully people into stopping bullying)
What can an educational leader do? • Reframe the problem in positive terms: let’s improve how we all treat each other • Believe that change is not just possible but inevitableif people work together: replace cynicism with hope
Bottom line: • This is not an issue like choosing a program or curriculum. • Think of one student (what if it is your own child). • No reason not to “start” (Think big but start small). • MORAL OBLIGATION • CONNECT PEOPLE TO THE MORAL PURPOSE THAT IS IN THEIR HEARTS