14 DAY TRIAL // If this piece of news were not about bullying, I would probably smile at the irony of it. Apparently, students who attend schools with anti-bullying programs are more likely to be abused than kids and teens who attend regular schools.
Otherwise put, bullying prevention programs often do more harm than good.
In a paper published in the Journal of Criminology, researchers theorize that this happens because, while trying to teach kids and teens proper behavior, anti-bullying programs actually present them with ideas about how to abuse their peers.
“One possible reason for this is that the students who are victimizing their peers have learned the language from these anti-bullying campaigns and programs,” specialist Seokjin Jeong says, as cited by EurekAlert.
“The schools with interventions say, 'You shouldn't do this,' or 'you shouldn't do that.' But through the programs, the students become highly exposed to what a bully is and they know what to do or say when questioned by parents or teachers,” he adds.
In light of these findings, the researchers recommend that schools that are looking to prevent bullying opt for security measures such as guards, bag and locker searchers and even metal detectors.
What's more, they should try to find new strategies other than bullying prevention programs to address the situation.