Recently during one of my presentations I got into an interesting discussion about what can parents do when one of their children is being bullied and it is affecting the child’s well-being. The discussion was about what options do the parents have? We came up with a number of thoughts – some of them are listed below:
- Expect the school staff to be aware that bullying can be harmful and that they need to do something to take care of your child’s well-being. This was not the case 20 or 30 years back. But now all school staff should be aware that bullying can be extremely harmful.
- Work closely with the school staff to make sure they do something significant to protect your child from this undesirable behaviors.
- Let the school staff know that as a parent you expect them to maintain a peaceful environment at school where your child can learn effectively
- Be willing to participate actively, if necessary, with the school staff to maintain a peaceful school environment
- Most states have some form of legal requirements that the schools must adhere to in terms of prevention of bullying. Get to know those legal standards and prepare to act accordingly.
- If nothing improves, consider taking your child to a different school where they truly believe in maintaining a bully-free environment
- Most importantly, listen to your child and provide all the support he/she needs to deal with the situation