To raise more awareness of bullying, every October is National Bullying Prevention Month. This nationwide campaign, started by PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center in 2006, reaches out to communities, school administrators, and families around the world to educate about the need to keep kids safe in school.

More than one in five students reports being bullied at school each year. From name calling, being made fun of, threatened or physically harmed, adolescents who are picked on by bullies find that it can be fearful or emotionally damaging to go to school!

WEEK OF RESPECT

WEEK OF RESPECT ACTIVITIES - Oct 4th-8th

Monday 10/4: Random Acts of Kindness Challenge
- Flyers will be posted around the school and that have pull-off tabs with random acts of kindness.

Wednesday 10/6: Let’s #BlueUp Together!
- Staff & Students should wear the color blue to show their support for the Week of Respect.
- Activity: Show your respect. Say “Thank you” to a friend, teacher, counselor, staff member who has had a positive influence on you.

Friday 10/8: Team Up Against Bullying!
- Wear a Team Jersey or Uniform
- Let’s “Team up Against Bullying” by wearing team jerseys or uniforms! Let’s all work together to respect others!

DID YOU KNOW?

160,000 kids per day skips school for fear of being bullied.
When bystanders intervene, bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time.
28% of U.S. students in grades 6–12 experienced bullying.
20% of U.S. students in grades 9–12 experienced bullying.
Approximately 30% of young people admit to bullying others in surveys.
6% of students in grades 6–12 experienced cyberbullying.
16% of high school students were electronically bullied in the past year.
However, 55.2% of LGBT students experienced cyberbullying.
70.6% of young people say they have seen bullying in their schools.
70.4% of school staff have seen bullying
62% of school staff witnessed bullying two or more times in the last month
41% of school staff witness bullying once a week or more.

LEARN THE SIGNS

Parents play a key role in preventing and responding to bullying. If you know or suspect that your child is involved in bullying, there are several resources that may help.

Recognize the warning signs that your child is involved in bullying. They could be being bullied, bullying others, or witnessing bullying. Although these signs could signal other issues, you should talk to your child if they display any sort of behavioral or emotional changes. Many times kids won’t ask for help, so it is important to know what to look for. If your child is at immediate risk of harming himself or others, get help right away.

Learn what bullying is and what it is not. Understanding what constitutes bullying is the first step in forming a plan to prevent or respond to bullying with your child.

Talk to your child about bullying. Keeping the lines of communication open with your child will make it easier to talk to them if an incident occurs. It is also important to work with your child’s school to help prevent bullying before it starts.

NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights and HIB Law

What is the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights?

Over the years, student bullying has received increased attention as a serious problem in schools. School bullying has been reported to be involved in student suicides across the nation, including in New Jersey. The importance of protecting students from bullying has been emphasized through the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (ABR) that became a law in New Jersey in January 2011. This law mainly added requirements to the original bullying law that began in 2003. The new law made New Jersey’s response to student bullying stronger. The ABR is intended to strengthen New Jersey's standards and procedures for preventing, reporting, investigating and responding to incidents of HIB of students that occur on school grounds* and off school grounds under specified circumstances.

What Is considered Harassment, Intimidation & Bullying (HIB) under the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act?

In order for an event to be considered an incident or harassment, intimidation, or bullying, there are specific criteria and ALL criteria must be met for it be affirmed as a HIB event. Those criteria are:

Any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act or any electronic communication, whether it be a single incident or a series of incidents.
The gesture(s) is reasonably perceived as being motivated by either an actual or perceived characteristic such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or mental, physical or sensory disability or by any other distinguishing characteristic.
The event takes place on school property, at any school sponsored function, on a school bus, or off school grounds and that substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operations of the school.
One of the following criteria must be met:
- A reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, that it will have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a student or damaging a student’s property or placing a student in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm to his person or his property; or
- Has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students; or
- Creates a hostile educational environment for the student by interfering with a student’s education or by severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student.

Bullying vs. Conflict

During a conflict, name-calling, threats and other conduct that might look like bullying can occur. However, a conflict and bullying are very different.

Unlike bullying, during a conflict, people are equally involved in some type of disagreement. Conflict is considered mutual, meaning everyone is more or less evenly involved.

Bullying, on the other hand, involves one or several people (the bullies) intentionally committing a mean or violent act against another person(s) or a group of people (the victims). When bullying occurs, there is no mutual participation in the disagreement; it is one sided.

Conflicts and bullying can interrupt the school day, damage property and cause injuries to the people involved. However, when the behavior involves a conflict, the school will take action based on its code of student conduct instead of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act

Bullying occurs when:

One or more students are victims of unwanted or uninvited aggression, as the behavior applies to the definition of harassment, intimidation and bullying in the ABR;
The aggressor’s behavior would lead a person to reasonably believe that the aggressor is motivated by a desire to physically or emotionally hurt someone;
The aggression is one-sided; and
The behavior is not an attempt to positively or negatively address or resolve a problem.

Types of Bullying

There are many different forms of bullying. **Remember that in order to be considered bullying under the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, whatever is said or done needs to be motivated by a distinguishing characteristic and create a hostile educational environment for the victim. If it does not meet the above criteria, it is a violation of a school’s code of conduct.** An act that is proven to be a violation of the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill or Rights Act is always a code of conduct violation. However, a code of conduct violation is not always a violation of the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.

Verbal Bullying: This involves using words to hurt people.
- Teasing
- Name-calling
- Inappropriate sexual comments
- Taunting
- Threatening to cause harm

Physical Bullying: This includes repeated aggressive physical acts that hurt somebody’s body or hurts or destroys someone’s property or possessions. Physical bullying includes consistent acts of aggression such as
- Hitting, kicking, pinching
- Spitting
- Tripping or pushing
- Taking or breaking someone’s things

Psychological Bullying: Includes spreading rumors, purposefully keeping people from activities and breaking up friendships or other relationships.

Relational Aggression: Relational Aggression is consistently excluding another student from the peer group, repeatedly ignoring someone, spreading gossip about someone, and/or withholding friendship. It also can take the form of manipulating a group of friends to exclude one member of the group.
- Boys: According to decades of human aggression studies, boys traditionally act in a more physical way than girls, and they are not typically as relational. Social status among friends for boys in middle and high school comes from how “tough” they are.
- Girls: Most girls will use words to hurt other girls. This behavior usually peaks in middle school and focuses on consistently attacking someone’s relationships with others.
- Cyberbullying is a type of relational aggression. Cyberbullying is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person, often done anonymously.” Cyberbullying can include mean text messages or emails; rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and the creation of fake websites or profiles with embarrassing photos and videos. Today, in the age of social networking, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, and texting, the cruelty of cyberbullying can be anonymous, faceless, and sometimes difficult to track if kids share electronic devices or make up fake online profiles. Other times, it can be easy to track as many kids taunt others openly on social media in order to get more reactions. It is much harder for a victim to walk away from cyberbullying because it is more difficult to ignore. With cyberbullying, even in the safety of your own home, in your own room, or at your own desk—a bully can find you.

How to report a potential HIB

Contact your grade level Assistant Principal to speak with them about the situation.

You can also use the reporting forms on the bottom of the NH-V district page under Anti-Bullying Information.

Guidance for Parents on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act

Guidance for Parents on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act developed by the New Jersey Department of Education. This extensive document shares information about the law, policies and processes involved with HIB along with resources for parents.

Guidance for Parents on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act

Parents Tutorial on the ABR

HIB Resources

StopBullying.gov

Stomp Out Bullying

PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center

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Report abuse

More than one in five students reports being bullied at school each year. From name calling, being made fun of, threatened or physically harmed, adolescents who are picked on by bullies find that it can be fearful or emotionally damaging to go to school!

WEEK OF RESPECT

WEEK OF RESPECT ACTIVITIES - Oct 4th-8th

DID YOU KNOW?

160,000 kids per day skips school for fear of being bullied.

When bystanders intervene, bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of the time.

28% of U.S. students in grades 6–12 experienced bullying.

20% of U.S. students in grades 9–12 experienced bullying.

Approximately 30% of young people admit to bullying others in surveys.

6% of students in grades 6–12 experienced cyberbullying.

16% of high school students were electronically bullied in the past year.

However, 55.2% of LGBT students experienced cyberbullying.

70.6% of young people say they have seen bullying in their schools.

70.4% of school staff have seen bullying

62% of school staff witnessed bullying two or more times in the last month

41% of school staff witness bullying once a week or more.

LEARN THE SIGNS

Parents play a key role in preventing and responding to bullying. If you know or suspect that your child is involved in bullying, there are several resources that may help.

Learn what bullying is and what it is not. Understanding what constitutes bullying is the first step in forming a plan to prevent or respond to bullying with your child.

Talk to your child about bullying. Keeping the lines of communication open with your child will make it easier to talk to them if an incident occurs. It is also important to work with your child’s school to help prevent bullying before it starts.

NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights and HIB Law

What is the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights?

What Is considered Harassment, Intimidation & Bullying (HIB) under the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act?

Bullying vs. Conflict

Types of Bullying

How to report a potential HIB

Guidance for Parents on the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act

HIB Resources

StopBullying.gov

Stomp Out Bullying

PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center