Team Building: A Guide to Preventing Adult Bullying In Our Schools Goals: To reduce incidents of bullying among adults in the workplace To improve the overall school climate by improving the working relationships between adults To create a school environment that offers staff and students the benefits of respectful, non-violent communication   Overview: In a school environment marked by the increased pressure to meet academic performance standards, the high sense of stress, and limited resources resulting in increased responsibilities, it has been found that adult bullying crosses boundaries of employment position, status, and gender.  Teachers often express concerns of being bullied by parents, peers, and superiors.  Often observant of the bullying on the adult level, school administrators express concerns of school climate issues that arise as a result of bullying on various levels: teachers on students, parents, non-instructional support staff, and peers; custodial staff on teachers; parents on administrators and teachers.   Program Description: Using creative techniques and teambuilding exercises, the adult bullying program consists of three phases. In Phase 1, staff is given an anonymous survey, which serves as a needs assessment.  Phase 2 includes an interactive, multi-format workshop that defines workplace bullying, discusses the causes and effects of bullying among adults, and highlights techniques to improve adult relations in the schools.  The workshop also reviews the definition and trends of adult bullying and offers attendees suggested strategies for intervening and handling bullying incidents among adults.  Select team-building activities are given to the schools as a follow-up and are to be completed during scheduled staff development times.  Through these activities, staff will learn more about each other, as well as develop the social skills that are needed to create a friendly, non-bullying environment in their building.  Phase 3 includes a booster training that will allow trainers to follow up with the staff, reinforce program principles, and offer consultation.  At this time, all staff will participate in an anonymous post-evaluation that will allow for the evaluation of the efficacy of the program.  It is anticipated that after the series of training and activities, the staff will understand their role in the development of a Bully-free environment.  In turn, there will be an increase of buy-in the schools anti-bullying initiatives, therefore developing a “win-win” opportunity for staff and students alike.

If you have an idea or strategy that has been successful as part of your school’s bullying prevention efforts, please share it with us at info@philabullyingprevention.org