Statewide promotion of proven anti-bullying programs which are supported with staff training and continuing assistance in implementation would be a powerful intervention toward diminishing the effects of bullying behavior in Maine schools. Schools can utilize existing team resources such as Student Assistance Teams, Civil Rights Teams, Peer Mediation Teams or Safe School Teams to supervise implementation of an approved bullying prevention program. Individual schools can assess the problem in their own school and create awareness and involvement activities for adults. Schools can provide training and information to teachers and parents on the issue of bullying at school. Schools, with parent and student involvement, can develop clear behavioral guidelines which are consistently enforced.
School counselors can advocate for implementation of bullying prevention curriculum.
School counselors can work with students who bully and victimized students individually and in small groups. These students need assistance if they are to become productive citizens. Early identification of, and appropriate intervention for, these students would go a long way toward helping them change these destructive patterns of behavior. School counselors can create groups with a common, empathizing theme such as children of divorce, and make sure to mix the popular students with the unpopular students in the same group to empathize with one another. Teachers can establish and enforce specific rules against bullying, as well as hold regular classroom meetings with students to discuss bullying and related behavioral issues.