A new school year brings excitement. All across the country, young children rush home with stories about new teachers and friends and all the things they are learning and doing in school. However, for children like Marcus, a new school year means another year of getting teased and physically threatened by students who bully him. Marcus is a third-grader who used to love school--before kids began picking on him during recess at the end of last year. His stomachaches started a couple weeks before school began, and he became more anxious and withdrawn as the first day approached.

Most of us have known kids like Marcus--typically a student who is shy, insecure, and physically weaker than most of his peers. Some of us may have been Marcus and experienced bullying ourselves. Because many students don’t tell their teachers or other adults they are being bullied, it is an underreported problem. According to the results of a survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, bullying affects nearly one out of every three U.S. children in grades 6-10, and there are signs it's on the rise. The National Association of School Psychologists has called bullying "the most common form of violence in society."

Bullying happens when someone repeatedly and on purpose says or does mean or hurtful things to another person who has a hard time defending him or herself. Students who are bullied might:

• Be verbally attacked.
• Be socially excluded.
• Be physically threatened, attacked, or forced to do things.
• Be intimidated through lies and false rumors.
• Have things stolen or damaged.
• Experience racial or sexual bullying.
• Be harassed by cell phone or the Internet (cyber-bullying).

In 1983, after three boys in northern Norway who had been bullied committed suicide, Dan Olweus, a professor at the Research Center for Health Promotion at the University of Bergen in Norway, developed the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program as part of Norway's campaign against bullying in schools. Since then, this award-winning program has been used throughout the world with measurable success. In six studies that involved 40,000 students, there was a 30 to 70 percent decrease in bullying after implementing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

Olweus stresses that bullying prevention is not conflict resolution, which assumes that both parties in conflict share some responsibility and the goal is usually compromise. Bullying is about an imbalance of power and a form of "peer abuse," where the student who is bullied cannot be expected to negotiate a resolution. A conflict-resolution program risks placing some blame on the student being bullied while freeing the abuser from some responsibility--in effect, further victimizing the student who is being bullied.

Olweus points out that bullying affects the community at large, because students who bully others are more apt to commit crimes or abuse drugs. One study found that by age 24, boys who bullied in junior high school were four times more likely to be convicted of three or more criminal acts than boys who did not bully.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is a schoolwide, systems-change program that involves everyone who comes in contact with students--administrators, teachers, school support staff, bus drivers, parents, and community members. Program materials consist of an extensive Teacher Guide and Schoolwide Guide, both with accompanying DVD/CD ROMs, and a questionnaire to help measure levels of bullying. With the program, a consistent anti-bullying approach is established, communicated, and enforced throughout the school and community. Trainers are available throughout the country to help schools implement the program.

Oct. 21-27 has been designated as National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week. To support this effort, Hazelden has developed a parent toolkit to help parents identify if their child is being bullied and to help schools adopt a bullying prevention program. To access the free kit (available about Oct. 15), visit hazelden.org/olweus. In several states, legislatures have passed laws requiring schools to adopt anti-bullying programs and policies.

"Clearly this is a big issue for many communities, if not all, across the country," said Kris Van Hoof-Haines, vice president of content development at Hazelden Publishing. "Schools are looking for a solution to the problem of bullying that really works over the long term. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is one of the best solutions."

Hazelden assists schools by providing grant application templates and other guidance for those interested in implementing the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. Call 800-328-9000 or see hazelden.org/olweus for information. For more resources on bullying prevention, visit http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov or http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/15plus/aboutbullying.asp.

--Published October 1, 2007