• Increase supervision. Bullying takes place in areas that are shielded from direct adult view, such as bathrooms, unsupervised hallways, and hidden corners of the playground. One way to discourage bullying is to eliminate these areas--for example, by fencing off areas of the playground that can't be seen easily or by placing adult monitors in the bathrooms and halls.



• Begin when children are young. The peak ages for bullying are between fourth and seventh grades. After that, "successful" bullies often drop out, or join gangs, and move on to more serious illegal activities. So anti-bullying discussions need to start early--by second or third grade, if not before. When young children talk and think about bullies, they are learning important lessons about citizenship, violence, and conflict-resolution that will serve them for life.



• Teach inclusion. The essence of bullying is exclusion: forcing one child to be isolated, apart from the group. A key anti-bullying message is that everyone needs to be included. Given time and a little encouragement by a skillful teacher, children will come to this conclusion themselves. When they do, they realize that they have the power to combat bullying by looking after each other, so no child is left out.



• Teach children to take a stand, not stand by. Bullies play to their audience of frightened, possibly impressed classmates; they count on other children to remain silent. Through classroom discussions, children can come to see that it's not OK to simply be a bystander when another child is being bullied. Instead, children learn that when they stick up for each other, they all are safer.
  
  Another key lesson is that telling an adult is not tattling, but is in fact the brave and responsible thing to do. Children can go in pairs or groups to report bullying, rather than alone, so they don't need to be afraid. Some schools also set up "bully boxes" where children can report bullying anonymously.

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