Why School Policies Cannot Protect Your Child From Bullying

Bullying is a national issue. In order to help control it, most schools have adopted a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to any sort of physical conflict.

What that means is that if your child defends themselves against a bully, BOTH your child and the bully can be suspended from school.

This works well for some things. It reduces physical fights. Kids don’t want to get in trouble. Let’s try to reduce all forms of violence. It is an anti-violence policy that offers no tolerance for fighting between students. It intends to end bullying, but it also means children are not able to stand up for themselves. Kids are taught to be passive with bullies. They should laugh it off or tell an adult. This causes the cycle of bullying to continue. The kid being attacked comes off as weak.

But another problem with this kind of policy is even more serious. Zero tolerance policies cannot stop VERBAL bullying. What we are talking about here is constant verbal abuse where a bully finds an easy target for a victim and constantly harasses the child with name-calling, teasing, texting, and so on. Zero tolerance polices don’t do anything to stop this kind of bullying.

What should a kid do in this situation? Sometimes people say “ignore them”. But that’s not a very realistic option. How can someone ignore ongoing teasing and name calling in public? That old saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is NOT true. Getting made fun of for weeks, months, and even years can be much more damaging than any punch.

The sad suicide stories we read about in the news are a testament to how damaging psychological bullying can be. We all know what its like to be hurt by words. A lot of times words hurt more than being hit in the stomach. So it is not realistic to just try to ignore the problem.

BBMA offers bully protection programs that teach your child how to overcome both kinds of bullying. We offer a whole course in “verbal jiu jitsu” that teaches a child exactly what to do in these kind of situations. Best of all, our program produces CONFIDENCE. Self confidence is a key component to standing up for yourself in any situation. Programs at BBMA leave kids feeling confident and assertive. Enrolling your kid will teach them the skills they need to defend and protect themselves. Studies show that children and adults who learn self-defense are less likely to be a target. They stop a problem before it starts by being confident!

Parents, please develop your kid’s right to defend themselves in a way that schools don’t. Ask yourself if a bully struck your child, how would you want them to respond? Enroll in BBMA and your kid will learn to how to keep from being a victim!