Teachers and school administrators play a critical role in preventing and ending bullying.
“Teachers need to role model acceptance in a manner that is not patronizing or demeaning. I have seen situations where teachers interpret TS symptoms as purposeful disrespect and they can fall into the role of being a bully. One teacher let the class know that she was disappointed when the student with TS entered the room and was relieved when he was absent. Children pick up on whether the teacher respects the youngster with TS as ‘having’ a problem or as ‘being’ the problem,” Kathy said.
She encourages parents to educate teachers and school administrators, but also keep in mind that drowning them in too much information will likely mean they will read none of it. She suggests a one-page description emphasizing the child’s strengths and interests. It’s important to start with a positive, brief message.
“I think the video ‘I Have Tourette’s but Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me’ can be helpful in educating teachers to the damage that can be done to youngsters by their peers who make fun of their disability,” Kathy said.
She recalled how a middle school principal turned a bullying situation around. The boy had TS and OCD. His obsession with being the last to touch another person was exploited by bullying classmates.
“A few boys knew about his difficulty and devised a plan where three of them would touch this boy at the same time and then run in three different directions so that he could not get ‘the last touch.’ The boy’s anxiety resulted in an extremely negative response that encouraged the bullies to do this at every opportunity. When the principal learned of this she invited the three boys to stay after school to watch a video about TS and to write an essay. One boy was very moved by the experience and wrote a letter of apology to the boy without anyone asking him to do this,” Kathy said.
The other two boys continued their bullying ‘game’ so the principal calmly told them that they had not understood the video and would need to stay after school and watch it until they did. A second boy apologized and the third stopped bullying. It took time, but persistence and education succeeded in ending the harassment.
Megan teams teachers and classmates as they are both bystanders to bullying and therefore key to successful prevention. This works when the school takes bullying seriously by educating students, faculty and staff and by having a clear message about the responsibility of bystanders.
Because bullying is an antisocial behavior, consequences limiting social privileges are natural and logical. As most classmates are bystanders and not perpetrators, teachers need to be open to reports of bullying from bystanders and classmates need to understand that they have an important role to play. Passively witnessing another student being bullied enables the bully to continue.
“As adults we need to empower students with tools and strategies to help and communicate our expectation that they must do something. Student actions can range from verbally intervening when bullying is occurring and speaking up in defense of the student being bullied to an anonymous note in a teacher’s mailbox,” Megan said.