No Bullying Program
ACCA is proud to offer Hazelden's No-Bullying Program, a comprehensive, grade-specific, K-8 violence prevention program that involves students, parents, school staff, and community members in reducing bullying behaviors at school. The program provides students with a clear understanding of behavioral expectations and helps school staff to learn to respond most effectively when bullying does occur.
Why is it Important to Teach about Bullying?*
Bullying, a form of violence among children, is common on school playgrounds, in neighborhoods, and in homes throughout the United States and around the world.
A recently published report by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) found that 17 percent of surveyed children had been bullied “sometimes” or “weekly,” 19 percent had bullied others and been bullied.
An estimated 1.6 million children in grades 6 through 10 in the United States are bullied at least once a week and 1.7 million children bully others frequently.
Bullying generally begins in the elementary grades, peaks in the sixth through eighth grades, and persists into high school.
Bullying can have long-term and short-term psychological effects on both those who bully and those who are bullied. Victims often experience loneliness and report having trouble making social and emotional adjustments, difficulty making friends, and poor relationships with classmates.
Victims of bullying often suffer humiliation, insecurity, and a loss of self-esteem, and they may develop a fear of going to school. The impact of frequent bullying often accompanies these victims into adulthood; they are at a greater risk of suffering from depression and other mental health problems, including schizophrenia. In rare cases, they may commit suicide.
Bullying behavior has been linked to other forms of antisocial behavior, such as vandalism, shoplifting, skipping and dropping out of school, fighting, and the use of drugs and alcohol.
Bullying may also lead to criminal behavior later in life.
For more information about the Community Education Program, please contact:
Community Education
90 McCarty Avenue
Albany, NY 12202
Tel: 518-465-5829 Fax: 518-449-4876
ce@theacca.net
*The above information is taken from U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention fact sheet: Addressing the Problem of Juvenile Bullying, June 2001.