Bullying Prevention vs. Anti-Bullying

As an advocacy organization, language is very important to us. When we started looking at the issue of bullying in early 2000, we used the term BULLYING PREVENTION vs. the more popular (at the time) term ANTI-BULLYING. That choice was very deliberate as we believed for real change to occur that we simply couldn't be

against something from happening but that we all needed to make a conscious choice to change societal norms and behavior to reduce bullying from happening.

Below are a couple of great excerpts from a recently published article, Why is Prevention Important?" in our Questions Answered series.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” “A stitch in time saves nine.” These sayings are familiar to many people, but how many of us have ever thought about how we could prevent a big problem like bullying or how our individual efforts could make a difference? Have you ever wondered what changes would need to occur in our daily lives to prevent bullying or reduce the chance that it will happen? If we only think or act when bullying is already happening, we are then solely focused on intervention and we may never see the end of this behavior. Promoting and modeling positive social behaviors before negative outcomes like bullying occur is a good way to create safer, healthier schools and communities for all children.

The painfully common and often overwhelming experience of bullying in our society can make acts of kindness, acceptance of difference, and inclusion seem less powerful or influential than acts of bullying. On the contrary: when we promote and model actions like those above, we are demonstrating our conviction to stop negative behavior before it happens. Kindness isn’t just a “nice” or a good thing to do. It requires strength, purpose, and intention, and provides potent bullying prevention benefits. Far from being a passive or less powerful response, positive behaviors help form the foundation for productive, healthy, and collaborative relationships and create an environment where bullying is not tolerated because people are looking out for one another. When we focus on prevention, the need for intervention decreases.

Read the full article: https://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/questions-answered/prevention.asp