Districts & SchoolsEducatorsFamily & Community

Bullying

** October is National Bullying Prevention Month**

Parents play an essential role in preventing bullying and in responding to their children’s reports of bullying.

To prevent their child from bullying another child, parents are encouraged to talk with their child about respecting others

In response to reports that their child has been or is being bullied, parents are encouraged to consider the following recommendations by the South Carolina Department of Education:

  1. If a child experiences bullying at school, he/she should report it immediately to a teacher, counselor, or school administrator. The child should also tell his/her parents about the incident.
  2. If parents discover that their son or daughter is being bullied, the parents should contact the appropriate school officials (principal or assistant principal) and request an investigation.
  3. If the parents are not satisfied with the principal’s course of action, they should submit a written complaint to the District Superintendent’s office for further review.
  4. If the parents feel they are not getting a prompt response to their concerns from the District Superintendent’s office, the parents may contact their respective School Board Chair.  If the parents still feel their concerns are not addressed, they should then contact the Office of the Ombudsmen at the SCDE so that a course of action involving the parent and the district can be taken to hopefully resolve the parents’ concerns.
  5. The SCDE’s ombudsman cannot take sides in the investigation. Instead, she will investigate the parents’ concerns, connect them with the appropriate local school district staff, and provide them with the local school district’s bullying and harassment policies should they wish to appeal their issues to the District Superintendent or local board.

Resources for Parents

http://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/index.html

http://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/talking-about-it/index.html

www.hazelden.org/store/publicpage/youth-prevention

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/bullying.aspx

Bullying Statistics – PACER Center