Bullying must be prevented at all schools. And in order to prevent bullying, school staff must learn how to help the bullies – typically school bullies are asking for help and the adults around them are responsible.
Most of the times, bullies are acting out in a negative manner simply because they are having to deal with some difficult issues of their own that they are not able to resolve just by themselves. Maybe they are being bullied at home by other members of the family and the only way they can feel better is to take it out on other innocent children. Also, it is possible that their families are going through a very difficult time (such as divorce or other serious miscommunications between family members, death or serious illness in the family, etc) and their frustrations come out on other children. Typically these bullies are not “bad” kids, but they do not realize that their actions are hurting other children significantly. These bullies need to be in therapy so they can have a way to deal with their own issues.
In my book “A Life Interrupted – the story of my battle with bullying and obsessive compulsive disorder”, I describe an encounter I had (in adult years) with the worst bully from my middle school days. I learned a lot from him about what his home life was like during those school years and how he resorted to bullying to be able to deal with his own stress. Later I have heard from many other adults around the country who admitted to me that they too had similar issues to deal with at home and that’s what turned them into bullies.
It is important for all school staff to be aware of this so they can act accordingly to help bullies so that they do not have to resort to bullying other kids to relieve their own stresses.