Elementary Harassment

Harassment In schools
The REACH Center, Inc.
Serving Survivors of Crime and Abuse

Our school and community message is:
WE WILL NOT HAVE HARASSMENT, NOT…
. . . on the bus
. . . in our halls
. . . in our classrooms
. . . in our cafeterias
. . . on our playgrounds
. . . IN OUR SCHOOL BUILDINGS!

What is harassment or bullying?
Bullying among children is understood as repeated, negative acts committed by one or more children against another. These negative acts may be physical or verbal in nature or they may involve indirect actions such as manipulating friendships or purposely excluding other children from activities.
Implicit in this definition is an imbalance in real or perceived power between the bully and victim.

What does harassment look like?
Repeated behaviors of
name calling
Teasing
making fun of people
Pushing
Shoving
tripping
Spreading rumors about people
Not letting a person participate in activites

Why do we care about harassment?
Harassment hurts everyone at school. Students become scared at school and don’t learn as much as they could.
Teachers spend more time stopping harassment than helping students do well in school.
Everyone has a RIGHT to be safe at school! School should be a safe fun place for all people.

What to do about harassment?
Tell the harasser to STOP
Talk to a school grown-up
Ignore the behavior
Being a witness to bullying and doing nothing about it is wrong, too.

What happens to people who are harassed?
Students who are harassed do poorly in school
They have low self-esteem
They feel very sad
They get sick from feeling sad all the time
The harassment tends to get worse