WHAT IF? BULLYING SCENARIOS

Parents, and any adults who spend time around children can help those children with smart strategies regarding how to react if they are involved in or witness a bullying situation.  We have worked with the experts at Highmark Healthy High 5 to come up with a list of What If? stories that will help you work through some typical bullying scenarios, and talk about the best ways to handle them.  We are proud to say that this Ten Minute Tip is being included in HALT Bullying Prevention resources!

1.  What if you were on the bus and it stopped to let some other people on.  There are plenty of seats, but no one will let a certain girl sit with them.  This seems to happen almost every dday, but the bus driver never seems to notice.  The girl endds up having to ask someone to allow her to sit down, but most of those she asks give her a hard time before moving over.  You can tell the girl looks sad and is uncomfortable on the bus.  What could you do?

• The most powerful thing would be to ask her to sit with you by telling her you are saving a seat for her.
• Tell your principal
• Tell your teacher
• Tell the bus driver
• Ask some friends to help you include this person in your group on and off the bus

2.  What if you are in gym class and you and a group of your friends started making jokes about another one of your friends.  At the beginning, your friend was laughing along, but it keeps going, and you think your friend's feelings are being hurt.  What could you do?

• Say, "it's not funny anymore, stop."
• Say, "Oh, let's talk about (name another subject that will interest your friends)
• Move over to your friend who is the subject of the jokes and say, "Let's go get a drink."
• Say "what you're doing now is bullying and that is mean."
• Speak with the gym teacher about what is happening
• Try to make a joke about something that is going on in school to change the subject

3.  What if the same older student makes it a point to find you and bump into you while you're at lunch.  Every time he does it, he gets a laugh from his friends.  One time, he causes you to drop your whole lunch, and by the time you get it and yourself cleaned up, you dond't have any time to eat anything.  A teacher comes over to help and asks what happened.  The older student is still close by.  What could you do?

• Tell the teacher what happened
• Tell the teacher you will talk to him/her when lunch is over
• Ask your one of your friends to be with you in the lunch line and walk with you to your table
• Say to the student, "That is the X time you've don't that.  It's bullying.  Stop it!"
• Go to the principal and tell him/her what is going on in the cafeteria

4.  What if during recess you overhear two girls fighting about a boy.  Others are standing around watching but nobody's doing anything to stop it.  You are afraid that someone's going to get hurt and you start to walk over to say something, but one of the girls stops you and tells you that if you say anything, they'll come after you.  What could you do?

• Immediately go to an adult and tell them what is happening
• Say, "I want to help solve this something.  Let's talk about it."
• Say something like this, "the only one who wins when girls fight over a boy is the boy!"
• Try to make a joke about the situation

5.  What if you finished your homewok but someone who sits next to you hasn't.  She tries to copy from your paper while the teacher is preparing to start class.  When to try to move your paper out of her sight, she tells you that if you dond't let her see it, she'll spread rumors about you on her face book page.  What could you do?

• Say, "That's bullying."
• Tell the teacher
• Say, "I'd like to help, but that's cheating and I can't do that."
• Try to make a joke by saying something like, "Really?  I'd love to be a feature on your face book page."

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