• Consensus-development among staff and community members so people enforce the same expectations consistently. What is your community's definition of bullying? What behaviors will you commit to changing no matter what it takes? These might include:
   
  • physical bullying: hitting, kicking, pushing, choking, punching,….
    
  • verbal bullying: threatening, taunting, teasing, hate speech
    
  • And social exclusion.

• Development and consistent enforcement of effective consequences for verbal and physical aggression which are predictable, inevitable, immediate, and escalating and based on uniform expectations for all. Consistent use of consequences will reduce bullying and are a necessary component of effective prevention. Inconsistent enforcement makes the problem worse. Effective consequences are small (so they can be used consistently), escalate with repeated aggression, and typically involve loss of unstructured times like recess, lunch with peers, or extracurricular activities.
• Building positive connections between staff and students and positive feeling tone in staff-student interactions.
• Monitoring to make sure that consequences and education are effective.
• Effective counseling for bullies after enforcement of consequences has generated some anxiety.
• Effective support for targets, including protection from repeat victimization.
• Empowering bystanders to tell adults, support targets, and discourage bullying.

Intervention with Bullies