***After reading the information below, please contact your child's teacher or the counselor to report suspected bullying behavior.  

Bullying Prevention

Frisco ISD believes that a safe and civil environment is necessary for students to learn and achieve high academic standards. We realize having a safe and welcoming school climate is a prerequisite to learning. Bullying, harassment and other aggressive behaviors is conduct that disrupts both a student’s ability to learn and a schools ability to educate its students in a safe environment. Demonstration of appropriate behavior, treating others with civility and respect, and refusing to tolerate bullying or harassment is expected by staff and students alike. It’s our goal to produce an environment where all students feel safe and are confident in achieving success in school.

Bullying is not a new phenomenon. It’s been around since the beginning of time. Most adults can usually recall incidents of bullying from their own schooldays. Either, they were bullied, they were the bully, or they were the bystander. For many of us, it’s not a pleasant memory. In addition, historically, bullying was thought of as “kids being kids,” “it’s normal behavior,” or “they probably deserved it.” Fortunately, in today’s world, those beliefs have changed. There’s nothing “normal” about people intentionally hurting each other and no one deserves to be bullied. It’s deviant, destructive, and wrong. Due to this paradigm shift, schools across the country take proactive measures in responding to bullying. In Frisco ISD, all campuses are trained to use the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program

With over thirty-five years of research and successful implementation all over the world, The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is a whole-school program that has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying throughout a school setting. The program, used in grades k-12, was developed by bullying prevention pioneer Dr. Dan Olweus of Norway. The OBPP serves as the main source of information for most state laws on bullying prevention.

The OBPP is not a curriculum, but a program that deals with bullying at the school wide, classroom, individual, and community levels. As part of the program, staff and students are trained annually, each campus has a bullying prevention committee and there is a heavy focus placed on building a positive school climate. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is designed to improve peer relations and make schools safer, more positive places for students to learn and develop. Goals of the program include: 

No bullying prevention program will completely eliminate bullying, but our goal is to decrease the possibility that it does occur and respond appropriately when an incident takes place.

The Differences Between Bullying and Conflict

It seems today the media, and often educators, label any type of aggression or disagreement between people as bullying. If two students fight . . . it’s bullying. If one football team beats the other team too badly, it’s bullying. If one student doesn’t want to play with another student, it’s bullying. But, many times, what’s called bullying is not bullying at all. For example, bullying is not actually about conflict or anger. You do not have to be angry at someone to bully them. Bullying tends to be more about arrogance, control, and power. It’s the feeling that I’m better than you and I have a right to treat you this way. All bullying is mean, but not all mean behavior is bullying. So, if bullying is not the same as pure peer aggression or conflict, what is it?

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