National Update 6/04:

An important resource has recently become available. On the national campaign website (Take a Stand, Lend a Hand, Stop Bullying Now), there are now 45 pages (!) of short (1 to 2 pages each), easy-to-download, easy-to-print, FREE, excellent quality handouts on almost any subject a school, community and parents needs to address bullying issues. What is most important about these 'handouts' is that they were developed with the guidance of Dr. Susan Limber, one of Dan Olweus' major associates in the U.S. Again, these handouts are well organized, well written and reliable (evidence-based). We urge all those interested in ending bullying to take steps to get these materials into the hands of school leaders, in particular, and then urge that adequate, effective, 'whole-school' programs to address bullying and support children be implemented. To access the materials, go to the Stopbullyingnow website, go to the 'adult' section of the site, then to 'resources'.  

However, a few cautions about the national campaign, which certainly is not perfect:

·        The federal legislation which created the campaign and allocated the funds required it to primarily address 'tweens' (11 to 15 year olds, if I recall correctly), which is why the 'front section' of the website is directed to children, and you have to take extra steps to get to the 'adult section'. While children have an important role to play in ending bullying, especially as 'activated bystanders' who don't support and actively discourage bullying, it must be remembered that adult behavior is the primary cause of childhood bullying (through modeling bullying behavior toward others and through ignoring, inadequately addressing or even implicitly supporting bullying), and therefore it is adult action which is primarily needed to end childhood bullying. Appealing directly to children can be important but is only likely to be effective and (most important) sustained when there is effective adult action also taking place;

·        The campaign has a program resources section, with a large listing of bullying-specific programs, both for-profit and non-profit. The listing implies endorsement to many visitors but this is not true. Being listing only means that the program developers submitted their information. No review of quality was done. While many programs are helpful, others are not, and there is no reliable or easy way to make that distinction just from the information presented.

·        The national campaign is ridiculously under-funded for the job it has to do (raising national awareness of the importance of bullying and effective approaches to it). We are grateful for any funding, and for the campaign, but the problem is so important and the national approach so far still so limited ...