English:Bullying Prevention and Response
Bullying Prevention and Response
Introduction
Bullying can make school, clubs, sports, games, and online spaces feel unsafe. This course helps you recognize bullying, prevent it, respond safely, and support other people. You will practice what to do as a person who is targeted, a witness, a friend, or someone who realizes that their own behavior has hurt others.
Important: You never have to handle bullying alone. If someone is in immediate danger, badly hurt, threatened with serious harm, or afraid to go somewhere safely, get a trusted adult right away. Adults should use local emergency help when needed.
Look at the poster in the image. What message do you think the student wants the school community to remember?
Learning Goals
By the end of this course, you should be able to explain what bullying is, tell bullying apart from an ordinary conflict, identify different forms of bullying, choose safe response steps, act as an upstander, use safer online habits, and help build a respectful school community.
Understanding Bullying
What Makes Behavior Bullying?
Bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior between school-age children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or could be repeated, over time. Power can come from things such as physical strength, popularity, a group of supporters, access to embarrassing information, or control in an online space.
This means that not every argument, rude comment, or disagreement is automatically bullying. A conflict can happen between people with similar power who disagree. Bullying involves a power imbalance and repeated behavior, or behavior that could be repeated. Even when something does not meet the definition of bullying, hurtful or unsafe behavior still deserves attention.
The image above shows that clear school rules are part of prevention. A good school response also depends on adults noticing problems, listening carefully, and acting consistently.
Forms of Bullying
Verbal bullying can include repeated name-calling, insults, cruel teasing, or threats.
Social or relational bullying can include spreading harmful rumors, embarrassing someone on purpose, or repeatedly excluding someone to hurt them.
Physical bullying can include hitting, pushing, tripping, damaging belongings, or using physical strength to frighten someone.
Cyberbullying happens through digital devices and online spaces. It can include sending or posting hurtful messages, sharing private or embarrassing information, spreading harmful rumors, or repeatedly targeting someone in chats, social media, games, or other digital spaces.
After the video, explain one way cyberbullying can spread farther or last longer than a face-to-face comment.
Bullying, Conflict, and Accidents
Ask three questions when you are trying to understand a situation: Is someone using more power over another person? Has the behavior happened more than once, or could it happen again? Is the behavior meant to control, harm, scare, or humiliate someone?
An accident is different because harm was not intended, although the person who caused the harm should still take responsibility. A conflict is a disagreement that may be upsetting but does not automatically include a power imbalance. Bullying is a pattern in which power and repeated aggressive behavior are important clues.
Prevention: Building a Safer Community
Bullying prevention is not only about reacting after harm happens. It is also about building a community where respect, inclusion, and help-seeking are normal.
A sign can share a rule, but people make the rule real through their actions.
Everyday Prevention Skills
Include people. Invite classmates into games, group work, and conversations when it is appropriate.
Use respectful language. Jokes are not harmless if they repeatedly target someone or continue after a person asks for them to stop.
Notice group pressure. Laughing, liking, forwarding, or joining in can encourage harmful behavior even if you did not start it.
Know your trusted adults. Think of at least two adults you could tell at school and at least one adult outside school.
Learn school rules. Schools may have different reporting systems. Find out how your school asks students to report bullying or unsafe behavior.
Practice digital citizenship. Before you post, share, or forward, ask whether the content is true, kind, necessary, and safe to share.
Class and Team Agreements
A useful agreement is short, clear, and connected to actions. For example, a class might agree to avoid humiliating jokes, include others when possible, report unsafe behavior, protect private information, and support people who are targeted.
Communities can speak together about safety and respect. In school, change can begin with a class agreement, a student council idea, a campaign, or a conversation with adults.
Responding When You Are Targeted
Your first goal is safety, not winning an argument.
If it feels safe, you can use a calm, clear statement such as “Stop. That is not okay.” If speaking up feels unsafe or too difficult, walk away and move toward supportive people or adults. Do not fight back. Tell a trusted adult what happened. If the first adult cannot solve the problem, tell another trusted adult and keep asking for help.
Try to remember or record useful details: what happened, where it happened, when it happened, who was involved, and who saw it. You do not need to investigate the situation yourself.
As you watch, notice what changed after the student told a trusted adult. Why can asking for help be an important problem-solving step?
A Simple Response Plan
Get safe. Move away from danger and toward trusted people.
Tell. Explain what happened to a trusted adult using clear facts.
Keep telling if needed. A problem may take more than one conversation to solve.
Stay connected. Spend time with supportive friends, classmates, family members, teachers, coaches, or other trusted people.
Follow the plan. Work with adults on next steps and check whether the bullying stops.
Being an Upstander
A bystander is someone who sees or knows about bullying. An upstander is a person who takes a safe action to help.
Safe upstander actions can include getting an adult, standing near the targeted person, inviting the person to leave with you, changing the subject, refusing to laugh or join in, saying “That is not okay” when it is safe, or checking in with the person afterward.
Do not put yourself in physical danger. You can help without directly confronting someone.
After watching, name two different ways a witness can help. Which one would feel safest in a crowded school hallway?
Support After the Moment
A small action after bullying can matter. You can sit with the person, include them in an activity, send a kind message, or ask, “Do you want me to go with you to tell an adult?” Avoid demanding details or sharing the story with other students.
Think about the role of friends in the video. How can a group show support without turning the situation into another argument?
Responding to Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying needs calm, careful steps. Do not reply with more hurtful messages and do not forward harmful content. Save useful evidence such as screenshots, messages, dates, and times. Tell a trusted adult. Use the platform's reporting tools when appropriate, and block the account if that helps protect you. Keep private information and passwords protected.
Do not secretly collect more harmful content than you need for evidence. The goal is to document enough for a trusted adult or platform to understand what happened.
After the video, create a four-step cyberbullying response card using your own words.
Think Before You Share
Before sharing a screenshot, photo, joke, rumor, or private message, ask: Do I have permission? Could this embarrass or harm someone? Am I helping solve a problem, or am I making it spread?
If evidence is needed for a report, show it privately to a trusted adult rather than posting it publicly.
If You Have Bullied Someone
People can change their behavior. If you realize that you have bullied someone, stop the behavior and take responsibility. Do not blame the other person for your choice. Talk with a trusted adult about what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.
A sincere repair may include an apology, replacing or fixing damaged property, removing harmful posts, correcting a rumor, giving the other person space, and showing respectful behavior over time. Do not pressure the harmed person to forgive you or become your friend.
How Adults Can Help
Trusted adults can listen, check safety, gather facts, follow school rules, and make a plan. Adults should avoid forcing students to confront each other or apologize immediately. They should speak with involved students separately when gathering information and continue checking whether the behavior has stopped.
Students can help adults by sharing clear facts and saying what they need to feel safe.
Practice Scenarios
Scenario A: A student is repeatedly left out of a group chat, and classmates post jokes about the student so others will laugh. What clues suggest bullying? What could an upstander do?
Scenario B: Two friends disagree about the rules of a game and both become angry. What information would you need before calling it bullying?
Scenario C: A student receives repeated cruel messages in an online game. What should the student save, who should they tell, and what should they avoid doing?
Scenario D: You laughed when someone was mocked, but later you realize you helped the bullying continue. What could you do next to repair the harm?
Reliable Learning Sources and Media
This course uses child-focused guidance from StopBullying.gov, including its explanations of what bullying is, what kids can do, bystander actions, and reporting cyberbullying.
The Wikimedia Commons images used above are freely accessible media. Their file pages provide the creator and license information for reuse.
Interactive Tasks
Quiz: Test Your Knowledge
Which description best matches bullying? (Repeated or repeatable aggressive behavior with a power imbalance) (!Any disagreement between two friends) (!One accidental bump in a hallway) (!A fair competition with clear rules)
What is the safest first goal when you are targeted by bullying? (Get to safety and seek help) (!Win the argument) (!Fight back) (!Post about it publicly)
What can an upstander do? (Get a trusted adult and support the targeted person) (!Forward the hurtful message) (!Laugh so the group accepts them) (!Ignore every unsafe situation)
What should you do with cyberbullying evidence? (Save useful evidence and show a trusted adult) (!Share it with the whole class) (!Edit it to make it more dramatic) (!Send it back to the person who posted it)
Which action can encourage bullying even if you did not start it? (Liking or forwarding a hurtful post) (!Reporting the post privately) (!Walking with the targeted student) (!Asking a teacher for help)
What is a power imbalance? (One person or group has more power in the situation) (!Both people have exactly the same influence) (!A teacher gives homework) (!Two teams have the same score)
What should you do if speaking up to the person doing the bullying feels unsafe? (Walk away and get a trusted adult) (!Stay and argue) (!Challenge the person to a fight) (!Keep the problem secret)
What is a good way to support someone after bullying? (Include them and offer to go with them for help) (!Ask them to tell everyone the story) (!Post the story online) (!Tell them to solve it alone)
What should you do if you realize you bullied someone? (Stop the behavior and take responsibility) (!Blame the other person) (!Delete all evidence and say nothing) (!Ask friends to defend what you did)
Why are class agreements useful? (They turn shared values into clear actions) (!They guarantee no conflict will ever happen) (!They replace the need for trusted adults) (!They allow students to punish each other)
Memory Game
| Bullying | Repeated or repeatable aggressive behavior with a power imbalance |
| Upstander | A witness who takes a safe action to help |
| Cyberbullying | Bullying that happens through digital devices or online spaces |
| Evidence | Useful records such as screenshots, dates, and messages |
| TrustedAdult | A responsible grown-up you can ask for help |
| Inclusion | Helping people feel welcome and able to take part |
Drag and Drop
| Match the correct terms. | Topic |
|---|---|
| Get a trusted adult | You see a situation that may become unsafe |
| Save useful screenshots | Hurtful messages keep arriving online |
| Invite the person with you | A classmate is being excluded on purpose |
| Stop and take responsibility | You realize your own behavior has been bullying |
| Refuse to forward | Someone sends you a humiliating post about a classmate |
...
Crossword Puzzle
| Upstander | What do you call a witness who takes a safe action to help? |
| Cyberbullying | What is bullying through digital devices or online spaces called? |
| Respect | What value means treating other people with care and dignity? |
| Evidence | What word means useful records such as screenshots or messages? |
| Report | What action means telling a trusted adult or platform about harmful behavior? |
| Support | What can friends give a person who has been targeted? |
LearningApps
Cloze Text
Open-Ended Tasks
Easy
- Safety Poster: Create a one-page poster with three safe actions a student can take when bullying happens.
- Trusted Adult Map: Draw a simple map of people and places where you could find trusted adult help at school and outside school.
- Upstander Phrases: Write six short, respectful phrases an upstander could use without starting another conflict.
- Kindness Comic: Draw a four-panel comic that shows someone noticing exclusion and choosing an inclusive action.
Standard
- Interview a Trusted Adult: Interview a teacher, counselor, coach, or caregiver about how students should report bullying, then summarize the main steps without naming real students.
- Cyberbullying Response Card: Design a pocket-size or digital card that explains how to save evidence, tell an adult, report, and avoid forwarding harmful content.
- Role-Play Workshop: With classmates, perform two short scenes showing an unsafe response and a safer response to the same bullying situation.
- Bullying Prevention Video: Produce a one-minute video public service message that teaches one prevention skill and one response skill.
Advanced
- School Climate Mini Project: Create an anonymous class survey about belonging, respect, and help-seeking, then present patterns without asking anyone to reveal personal bullying experiences.
- Case Study Analysis: Analyze three fictional situations and explain which are bullying, conflict, or accidents using evidence about power, repetition, and intent.
- Prevention Campaign: Plan a one-week school campaign with a slogan, poster, announcement, upstander challenge, and a way to measure participation.
- Policy to Practice: Read your school's bullying or behavior policy with an adult and create a student-friendly flowchart that shows how reporting and follow-up should work.
Learning Assessment
- Scenario Reasoning: Explain how power imbalance and repetition change your judgment in two fictional school situations.
- Safe Response Plan: Build a step-by-step response plan for a student who is targeted in person and explain why each step protects safety.
- Digital Transfer Task: Apply the course ideas to a group-chat problem by deciding what to save, what not to share, who to tell, and how an upstander could help.
- Community Design Challenge: Propose three realistic changes that could make a classroom or team more respectful and explain how each change may prevent bullying.
- Repair and Responsibility: Write advice for a fictional student who bullied someone and explain how responsibility, repair, and changed behavior are different from making excuses.
- Upstander Decision: Compare two possible witness actions and defend which one is safer and more helpful in a given situation.
Evidence of Learning
Knowledge: You can explain power imbalance, repetition, different forms of bullying, cyberbullying, and the difference between bullying and ordinary conflict.
Skills: You can choose safe response steps, ask adults for help, use upstander strategies, protect evidence online, and communicate respectfully.
Products: Your posters, response cards, comics, videos, flowcharts, role-plays, surveys, and campaign plans show that you can turn ideas into useful prevention tools.
Transfer: You can apply the same safety and respect principles in classrooms, sports, clubs, group chats, games, and other community spaces.
Reflection: You can notice how your own choices may help, ignore, encourage, or repair harmful behavior.
OERs on the Topic
You can also explore StopBullying.gov for Kids and the freely licensed media collections in Wikimedia Commons: School bullying.
Linked Learning Areas