Anti-Bullying Resources
Tips and links to web resources for students and parents
Tips for students
- Bullying can be prevented before it starts. Understand what bullying behaviours are such as name-calling, unwelcome teasing or taunting, and then help others understand these are unacceptable behaviours.
- Recognize you have the right to be treated with respect and feel safe in your school and community. If this is not happening, talk to someone.
- Refuse to go along with bullying or harassment – youth who laugh or cheer only encourage the behaviour.
- Gather your friends to help speak out against bullying and harassment.
- Watch out for those being bullied, and tell a teacher or trusted adult if you see bullying happening.
- You can report bullying online, and so no one knows who reported
Tips for parents
- BCCPAC (BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils) has produce this excellent ‘Bullying Stops Here‘ guide for parents.
- Get to know your children’s friends and be involved in their school community
- Discuss with your child or teenager examples of bullying he or she notices on television, in video games or in the neighbourhood. Help your child understand the consequences of bullying.
- Model appropriate behaviour by showing empathy for others, managing angry feelings and accepting differences.
- Watch your child for signs of changed behaviour, such as dropped grades, sleeplessness, anxiety, loss of appetite, angry outbursts or being sick in the morning.
- Notice if your child talks about dropping out of school for vague reasons, skips school, is unwilling or afraid to leave the house, or wants to change their route to school.
- Be aware if your child comes home with torn clothes, unexplained bruises, new clothes or other items, or money not accounted for.
In 2007, the Province of BC passed legislation requiring boards of education to have codes of conduct in all schools that include standards for appropriate school behaviour. In addition, curriculum for students from elementary to high school includes skills for the development of healthy relationships. Government remains committed to proclaiming Anti-Bullying Day each year.
More Anti-bullying Resources
- Province of BC’s ERASE Bullying website
- Stop A Bully website for anonymous reporting of bullying at a school
- Resources for students are available through the Kids Help Phone 1 800 668-6868
- Violence, Bullying and Abuse Prevention information from the Canadian Red Cross
- com is a program of the Crisis Centre. It connects youth with support, information and resources. Part of the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of British Columbia
- Ministry of Education Resources for parents to understand bullying behaviour. This includes ‘Keeping Kids Safe’, a guide for parents in grades K-12 and ‘Internet Safety Tips for Parents’. All guides are available in multiple languages.
- Resources to address thoughts of suicide, from Ministry of Children and Family development (pdf)
- Visit the MInistry of Education’s Safe, Careing and Orderly Schools webpage for more information on the BC Safe Schools Strategy.
- Pink Shirt Day website
- From CBC TV: Bullyproof including advice on coping with bullying from professionals and videos of students talking about being bullied – and being bullies.
- From Kiwanis, a bully prevention web resource.
- Canada’s Media Smarts has a site dedicated to Cyberbullying information
- How to handle bullying is a resource page posted on InformED, by Open Colleges, an online education provider based in Sydney, Australia.
- SnapChat: A New Playground For Cyber Bullies – a blogpost for parents/guardians about ‘Snap Chat’, a popular social media app amongst teens and ‘tweens’. (via Defining Social, February, 2014)
- “Guide to Bullying Prevention” is a resource page about bullying, for parents/guardians developed as a public service by AAA State of Play, a playground manufacturer in the USA.
- Guide to protecting your child from bullying and violence at school (Injury Claim Coach) NOTE: This is a USA based site, and some of the advice/information provided in legal context may not/does not apply in Canada.
- The Bullying Business. (Created as a public service byCommercial Capital Training Group) NOTE: This is a USA based site, and some of the advice/information provided may not apply in Canada.