Stopping School Violence
The complete guide for parents and educators on handling bullying
By Derek Randel

The author states that every day 160,000 children are too scared to go to school because of bullying. Who can blame a youngster for not wanting to go to an environment where he is bullied before, during and after school?

Randel says there are many definitions of bullying nut in general bullying is when someone keeps doing or saying things to have power over another person. It can be active bullying such as calling names or physical violence or it can be more subtle such as continually leaving someone out of activities or acting as if they don't exist.

The author says that the reason that a particular child may be a victim is broken down into two areas: What can be controlled and What cannot be controlled. He then covers the reasons that another child becomes a bully.

Randel urges parents to tell their victimized children that they are not the problem, the bully is. He offers tools for the child who is being bullied such as:

• Spend your time with your friends
• Always tell a trusted adult
• Stay in safe areas of school at breaks
• Sit near the bus driver and so on.

There are also strategies to make the child less likely to be victimized including increasing the number of friends, body language and maybe even martial arts training.

The book includes sections for What can parents do, Signs your child is being bullied and what to do if your child is the bully.

Particualr attention is given to when girls are the bullies or victims. Modern technology lets bullies terrorize their victims at the speed of the Internet. The book includes sections on Cyber-bullying, Happy Slapping and violent video games.

The book has sample forms and questionairres to be used at school and a chapter devoted to boosting the self-esteem of your child.

Bullying is a terrible thing that we as adults would not wish on anyone. Randel says that "we as adults are not doing enough about bullying." Stopping School Violence: The complete guide for parents and educators on handling bullying is the first step to speaking up and holding people accountable for their actions.