Lesson 11- Applying Coping Power Skills to a Bullying Situation

Welcome back to the eleventh Coping Power Classroom video! This week, students in the classroom and students in the small group session are learning about slightly different topics, though they do tie together nicely. In the classroom, students are learning about bullying, and how to effectively stand up to bullying. In the small group session, students are learning how to make healthy friendships, which is a valuable skill in both supporting victims of bullying and decreasing the likelihood of bullying occurring in the first place.

We’ll focus the majority of our time on the bullying lesson, since all of your students are engaging with this topic. Unfortunately, bullying can occur with anyone, anywhere. It can happen on the school bus, in the cafeteria, at the gym class or recess, at home, in the neighborhoods, and online. Because of this, it is important for students to recognize what bullying is, what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like, and where it might occur.

Students are learning the different ways they might react in a situation where they witness bullying. It is very common for people to act as bystanders. These are people who witness bullying, and don’t take part, but don’t do anything to help the victim either. Students are learning that being a bystander won’t stop the bullying and could even make the victim feel worse. Instead, they’re building the skills to be upstanders. An upstander is a person who helps stop bullying and supports the victim.

Of course, students must first analyze a bullying situation to determine whether it is safe for them to intervene directly. If it is safe, they should feel empowered to tell the bully to stop, or to state that they disagree with the bully. If they don’t feel safe with such an outright method, there are many other ways they can act as upstanders. Students can find a safe adult to intervene, stay near the bullying victim, or walk with them so that they are no longer an easy target for bullying. They can ask the victim if they’d like to talk about the bullying they experienced, and be a good, active listener to support the bullying victim. Being a friend to the victim of bullying and making sure they recognize that they are cared for and that they matter is critical.

This is why the small group is focusing on building healthy, positive friendships. We know that having friends is one of the biggest protective factors against bullying. Unfortunately, some students struggle with making friends, and so this week they are learning different strategies to make new friends, to recognize which people might be good friends for them, and to understand how to be a good friend to others.

You can encourage all of these skills by helping your students build empathy and by checking in with them about potential bullying situations. If students are comfortable sharing, you might ask them to consider a time or place where bullying might occur, whether this is just a guess or whether they have actually experienced or witnessed bullying in those contexts. You can then ask students to brainstorm different strategies they can use to stop or prevent bullying in these situations.

Again, highlighting the importance of friendships and empathy is a huge part of reducing bullying. Ask students to consider the perspectives of others, especially of children who might experience bullying. Encourage students to get to know and work with all of their classmates, even people they don’t normally talk or hang out with, so that they can continue to get more comfortable with other perspectives and be respectful of everyone’s differences.

This week’s lesson is certainly a heavy one, but we hope your students will see the benefits of taking a stand against bullying and will build their positive friendships and upstander skills. Good luck, and we’ll see you next week for our final video!