While statistics of bullying in schools may be alarming, organizations such as Network of Victim Assistance (NOVA) in Bucks County are working to prevent occurrences by teaching students of all ages strategies to fend off bullies and how to intervene when they see it occurring. On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Grace Wheeler, NOVA’s director of education and prevention on the organization’s efforts on this front.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How and why bullying patterns can change as students get older
- The importance of creating a climate of support and empathy and teaching problem solving skills in schools
- What it means to be an upstander and how students can become one
Skip to: 01:07 How prevalent is bullying in schools, specifically in Pennsylvania?
“Of these high schoolers as well, we know about 8% of these students said that they miss at least one day of school per month because they did not feel safe in their school or on their school property.”
Skip to: 02:13 I think that most people think it’s more significant of an issue at the middle or high school level. Is this accurate?
“I always like to frame it as it’s not more or less significant, but just it looks different depending on the grade level of the student.”
“What I think really comes at the foundation of bullying prevention is being intentional and taking bullying seriously. It is not an experience that every third grader just has to endure as a part of a typical childhood. It is something that is preventable. And certainly, when we don’t take bullying seriously, we’re really taking away the power and the voice of victims who are experiencing bullying.”
“Upstander intervention can be really impactful, and upstanders are often that piece of the puzzle that has the potential for that positive change.”
Skip to: 06:13 We’re hearing growing concerns this year over potential mask bullying. What advice would you offer to school leaders to address this possible scenario?
“We as adults can be thinking about the tone that we are setting and the expectations that we have of students, and certainly being mindful of the behavior and language that we are modeling.”
Skip to: 08:00 What kind of work does your organization do with school districts? How do you work with the school districts to help in this area?
“It’s an Encourage Upstanders program, and it’s where we work with high school students and we prepare them, we train them to be peer educators in the younger grades of the elementary schools in their districts. They then are the presenters that go into our elementary schools, work with those younger students and talk about upstander behavior.”
Skip to: 09:52 Is there any data or maybe anecdotal success stories that tell you that the preventative training is having an impact?
“Our responses coming out of the post-testing is that 100% of the students were able to identify at least two strategies for supporting classmates who are being cyberbullied, and also to identify two appropriate responses if they were being cyberbullied. Those two responses is really at the core of what we’re looking to do with our programs. When we got that data, we were just really excited to have had that impact.”
Skip to: 11:04 Is there somewhere [districts] can go or look to find an appropriate organization that they might be able to work with?
Q: How prevalent is bullying in schools, specifically in Pennsylvania?
A: Just as you were saying there in your introduction, about one in five students are bullied nationally in any given school year. We find that the CDCs youth risk behavior survey is a really great resource for looking at data that’s specific to states.
For example, 2019 is the latest publication for this report that we have. In 2019, about 14% of high schoolers reported being electronically bullied, and about 19% of them being bullied on a school property. Of these high schoolers as well, we know about 8% of these students said that they miss at least one day of school per month because they did not feel safe in their school or on their school property. It’s really important for us to know the statistics of Pennsylvania and also to just keep that aligned with what we know about national averages and knowing that these statistics are actually fairly similar to what we see as national averages as well.
Q: I think that most people think it’s more significant of an issue at the middle or high school level. Is this accurate?
A: It’s not necessarily a question of more significant or worse, it’s different. When we think about bullying behavior at the elementary school level, we’re often looking at bullying behavior that’s physical bullying, social bullying, verbal bullying.
At the middle school and high school levels is where we start to see that introduction more to cyberbullying. It’s a question of the evidence of bullying isn’t often quite as present in an elementary school. If we’re talking about a bully, who’s bullying a student on the playground, there’s a likelihood that a staff member of that school is not present to witness the bullying.
Whereas cyberbullying has a much larger audience and there’s often the ability to provide evidence or proof. We can show that Instagram post, we can show that text. I always like to frame it as it’s not more or less significant, but just it looks different depending on the grade level of the student.
Q: What are the most powerful ways that school leaders, educators, and parents can teach even the youngest of learners why we shouldn’t bully, and then also how to prevent bullying?
A: Certainly, we can first have this understanding of root causes of bullying behavior, and they fall into some larger categories. We can think about power and control, the pure attention that a student might be receiving, inadequate or ineffective supervision, bias issues, and looking at the overall culture of acceptance of bullying within a school climate.
What I think really comes at the foundation of bullying prevention is being intentional and taking bullying seriously. It is not an experience that every third grader just has to endure as a part of a typical childhood. It is something that is preventable. And certainly, when we don’t take bullying seriously, we’re really taking away the power and the voice of victims who are experiencing bullying.
In terms of prevention, we like to focus on social and emotional learning. Are we delivering programs that are building in emotional regulation and empathy building, and perspective taking? Are we working through some activities that offer social problem solving?
One of the things we really focus on is thinking about the role of a bystander. In bullying situations, about 80% of the time, a bystander, at least one if not multiple bystanders, are present in witnessing that bullying. We know that when children are bullied, if they are defended or supported by those bystanders, they are less likely then to feel anxious and depressed.
What we actually like to do is turn it on its head a little bit and we call those who are bystanders who do take action, we call them upstanders. We know that when upstanders intervene in bullying situations, about 57% of the time that bullying behavior is going to stop within 10 seconds. Upstander intervention can be really impactful, and upstanders are often that piece of the puzzle that has the potential for that positive change.
I think another piece of that puzzle when we think about bullying prevention, going back to something I said earlier, which is are we creating a culture in a given school or any district where bullying is not accepted, and certainly not the norm so that students are not giving an audience to those that are using that bullying behavior?
Q: That’s really important and teachable moments at all age levels, really. We’re hearing growing concerns this year over potential mask bullying, whether students choose to wear masks, not wear masks, obviously absent of mandates. What advice would you offer to school leaders to address this possible scenario just to head that off before it begins occurring?
A: Yeah. I think it goes back to what we talked about in setting that intention and taking this seriously. We as adults can be thinking about the tone that we are setting and the expectations that we have of students, and certainly being mindful of the behavior and language that we are modeling. Certainly, no surprise that children are watching and listening to us, so our behavior, our language is vitally important.
This also, I think, comes to that point of school climate. What are the signals and the enforcement that we are giving? What kind of classroom management are we using within our smaller spheres of students to be, again, mindful and vigilant of masking bullying?
I think it also has the potential to really present students with a real-life example to talk through a bullying situation. It’s a real-world example of practicing their social and emotional skills and empathy and compassion.
But I think really at the end of the day, what we can project for students is that bullying in any form is not acceptable. We can handle any form of bullying, whether it’s something new and specific to the time we live in now or those typical forms of bullying that we’re familiar with, our prevention, our responses, they’re similar.
Q: What kind of work does your organization do with school districts? How do you work with the school districts to help in this area?
A: At NOVA we have a prevention education department, and our bullying prevention programs are the cornerstone of the programming that we offer. We offer parent programs. One of our most frequently requested parent programs would be Navigating Cyberbullying. We hold classroom presentations that start in those lower elementary ages that go all the way on up your high school, and certainly the content, the messaging is going to change and evolve as we’re working with students of the older grades.
We also have a program at NOVA that we’re particularly enthused about because it’s a primary prevention strategy. It’s an Encourage Upstanders program, and it’s where we work with high school students and we prepare them, we train them to be peer educators in the younger grades of the elementary schools in their districts. They then are the presenters that go into our elementary schools, work with those younger students and talk about upstander behavior. Really just the power that that method holds when it’s coming from that older student, the impact is really tremendous.
A lot of this is all supported by our No Bullying Run which we hold every year, and it’s a really great event where our community comes together. It’s a really powerful message, a powerful day that is that stand against bullying in our communities.
Q: Great, so whole community support. I love the program that involves the older students, because what a different conversation that is, older student to younger student rather than adult to student.
A: Absolutely.
Q: Is there any data or maybe anecdotal success stories that tell you that the preventative training is having an impact? Is there anything in that area that you can share?
A: Sure. Typically, our best practice when we’re working with students is to use an evaluation tool. Typically, that’s going to look like pre- and post-testing.
This particular year we presented virtually. Typically, we’re in person. But virtually this year, our responses coming out of the post-testing is that 100% of the students were able to identify at least two strategies for supporting classmates who are being cyberbullied, and also to identify two appropriate responses if they were being cyberbullied. Those two responses is really at the core of what we’re looking to do with our programs. When we got that data, we were just really excited to have had that impact.
We know that our schools call us back year after year. We’re often that call that they make when something has happened, there’s a new situation and they need some additional support. We find ourselves really fortunate to be that resource for our school districts in the county.
Q: And that brings me to the area that you serve, which is Bucks County. I’m wondering if there are districts that are located in other regions across the state, is there somewhere they can go or look to find an appropriate organization that they might be able to work with?
A: Sure. Well, NOVA is what’s called the Victim Services Agency, so I certainly would recommend that school districts identify if they have a Victim Services Agency in their county, and then what their prevention programs look like.
Outside of that, a couple of really great resources, the Pennsylvania Department of Education has a page with just a host of different resources, slides, programs. It’s really a significant, I think, resource for our schools. Stopbullying.gov is another really great resource, and of course, this number that we often use with our students in schools is the Bullying Prevention Consultation Hotline that we have in this state as well. A lot of these resources I just listed may be able to help school districts find who are their local resources when it comes to bullying prevention.
Grace Wheeler, Director of Education and Prevention at Network of Victim Assistance 
Grace Wheeler is the Director of Education and Prevention at Network of Victim Assistance (NOVA), where Grace provides leadership for prevention and training programs to children, youth, community members and professionals. Grace leads the education and prevention team with the strategic development and implementation of prevention and training goals and strategies. Grace has an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution from Arcadia University and is a certified mediator in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and certified facilitator in multiple pieces of training including Stewards of Children, Safe Touches, and Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities. Grace has worked in conflict zones around the world including Rwanda, Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone. Grace is an avid hiker and can be found in the mountains of her home state, New York, in her spare time. Grace can be reached at grace@novabucks.org.
Pennsylvania Office of Victim Services
Pennsylvania Department of Education Bullying Prevention
Stopbullying.gov
Bullying Prevention Consultation Hotline: 1-866-716-0424