Posts by CBPP Admin

One of the great challenges in bullying prevention is addressing contempt. Contempt is a dehumanizing bias that individuals in the school environment, students and adults alike, may hold toward individuals with a particular characteristic or who are part of a distinctive group. Contempt is not natural but learned. Students learn contempt from adults in their…

In the recent Apple TV+ documentary The Super Models, Cindy Crawford told how, as a high school student, she was teased and mocked by her peers after she returned from her first modeling job. That’s right, she was the target of aggression simply for taking the first step in what would turn into one of…

Recently I listened to a presentation by a nationally recognized expert on cyberbullying in an event sponsored by a regional organization focused on kindness and justice. I was curious to hear what he had to say about preventing and resolving cyberbullying problems. The social media landscape changes constantly, and I try to stay current on…

In honor of Banned Book Week, I though I’d mention a great line from the book “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater, a wonderful nonfiction work about two high school students, one thoughtless and impulsive act, and the consequences that followed for them both. The story of the students is fascinating, and Ms. Slater brings…

This will sound like a setup to a joke, so please bear with me. Two students walk into the principal’s office. One points at the other and says, “He’s bullying me!” and the other says, “No I’m not!” Who’s right? They both are. But the principal, as required by policy, launches an investigation and then…

The Rockaway Township School District in New Jersey recently settled with the parents of Mallory Grossman over its failure to take appropriate action to stop the bullying that led to Mallory’s death by suicide. The district of the Covington Middle School in Indiana may be headed for a similar outcome due to its failure to…

The parents of Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old girl who died by suicide in 2017 after being bullied at Copeland Middle School in the Rockaway Township School District in New Jersey, reached a $9.1 million settlement with the district over its failure to do its part in stopping the bullying. This case should be a wake-up…

A reminder to any school principal who is planning bullying prevention education for the next school year: An effective program should include students, educators, and parents. In particular, implementing education and policy components for students and educators are most critical. Students can be educated on bullying and ways to render aggression ineffective; however, educators must…

Given the Governor of Texas’s recent order to treat gender-affirming care as child abuse—which opens the door to investigating parents, teachers, doctors, and others involved in caring for transgender children—and the attempts by some politicians to restrict and deny the rights of people who are transgender, I suggest that everyone read “George” by Alex Gino.…

In my work in bullying prevention, I’ve advocated for dropping the terms “bully” and “victim” to describe, respectively, the one who uses the aggressive behavior and the one who is harmed by it. The terms are labels, are subjective, and carry strong negative connotations. They are grossly inaccurate and can serve as barriers to solving…