Points To Remember 4

1. Teachers need to learn the symptoms of being exposed to domestic violence in children, know their community and school resources, teach personal safety skills, and help students ensure their safety.
2. When intervening with families of domestic violence, you must break the code of silence that protects the abuser, establish a safety plan, let the student and the victim know that the abuse was not their fault, teach that violence is not acceptable, and teach new attitudes about violence.
3. Know strategies for teaching violence prevention in your classroom, including offering information about sex role stereotypes, anger management, assertiveness skills, communication skills, conflict resolution, etc.
4. By the time a child is 3, you can predict how aggressive he or she will be as an adult. By the time the child is 8, if you have not remediated the aggression, then you will only be able to manage it, not remediate it, as the child gets older. How aggressive a child is at age 8 is directly correlated to whether that individual engages in criminal and/or violent behavior as an adult.
5. Juvenile violence has been decreasing over the past decade, even though the population of teens has grown. This is partly because of schools’ stance on violence prevention and zero tolerance for fighting, guns on campus, gangs, etc.
6. Children are at a much higher risk for being a victim than a perpetrator of violence.
7. Schools remain one of the safest places for children.
8. The second leading cause of death in youth ages 10–24 is suicide.
9. If you suspect a student is suicidal, you should talk to them about it, refrain from leaving them alone, get them to a counselor or mental health professional, and take away any potential weapons.
10. The group with the highest risk of completed suicide are LGBQ youth who are rejected by their parents.
11. Common warning signs of suicide include becoming moodier and more negative, choosing more dangerous behaviors, withdrawing from normal activities and/or giving possessions away, and making threats of self-harm.
12. Factors that increase aggressive behavior in students include violence in the home, exposure to violence in the media, being the victim of abuse, genetic factors, use of guns or drugs or alcohol in the home, and stressful socioeconomic factors in the home.
13. Warning signs that a student is at risk for becoming violent include increased aggression, explosive temper tantrums, extreme irritability, extreme impulsivity, intense anger, and being easily frustrated. Other symptoms include lack of empathy toward those who are weak or hurt, hurting animals, violence in the student’s artwork or writing, threats of violence, being teased or bullied, social withdrawal or isolation, lack of interest in school, and being noted by peers as being different.
14. Early intervention and teaching of anger management strategies does help remediate children with angry or violent tendencies.
15. Victims of bullying have difficulty learning because they fear going to school, have frequent absences, feel anxious, are unable to concentrate, are easily distracted, have low self-esteem and low social skills, and have a lack of focus.
16. 16. Bullies have black-and-white thinking, are unable to think of alternative strategies, distrust adults, are unwilling to take academic risks or learn new ideas, blame others, don’t take responsibility for their learning, and often are difficult for teachers to like or bond with.
17. 60% of bullies in junior high have at least one criminal conviction by the time they are age 24. Chronic bullies maintain their behavior into adulthood.
18. Bullying behavior consists of direct behaviors such as teasing, intimidating, threatening, taunting, hitting, or stealing initiated by one or more individuals against a victim. It always includes physical or psychological intimidation that repeatedly creates a pattern of harassment and abuse.
19. Girls tend to bully through actions (such as passing rumors) that cause social isolation.
20. 15% of students are either victims or bullies at any one time in school.
21. Bullies tend to have a need to feel powerful and in control. They derive satisfaction from inflicting injury and suffering on others. They have little empathy for others and often defend their actions by stating that the victim asked for it. Contrary to popular belief, bullies usually have strong self-esteem.
22. Bullies often come from homes where physical punishment is used, where domestic violence is common, and where parental involvement is low.
23. Victims tend to be perceived as different or weak by peers. They usually suffer from low self-esteem and poor social skills. They rarely defend themselves or retaliate against their bully. They often lack friends and are socially isolated. Their parents often tend to be overprotective.
24. School interventions for bullying need to include whole school policies; anti-bullying curricula; increased supervision; parent and staff training; and empowering students through conflict resolution, peer mediation, and assertiveness training.
25. The 5 reasons for increased community violence include: 1) a desensitization to violence and death; 2) becoming more practiced/efficient at killing behaviors through video games, easy access to weapons, etc.; 3) becoming more detached from other humans; 4) increased hateful ideological thoughts that do not tolerate differences; and 5) the increased use of drugs or alcohol that inhibits self-control.
26. Cyberbullying is any online technique that is used to intimidate, harass, or insult others. More than 50% of students report having been cyberbullied, yet only 10% of students tell an adult about the incident. Sexting is a form of cyberbullying that includes sending pictures involving sexual content, including photos of personal sexual images.
27. Effects of cyberbullying include increased suicidal ideation, depression, decreased self-worth, loneliness, and hopelessness. Victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely as non-victims to attempt suicide.
28. Schools can decrease incidents of cyberbullying by teaching safe technology use, enforcing technology use policies, and encouraging youth to reveal incidents of cyberbullying to a trusted adult. Students need to know that if they are cyberbullied, they need to save the message, tell an adult, block the sender, and not respond to the bully. Consequences for cyberbullying can include school discipline such as suspension as well as criminal charges.
29. In the last 50 years, the effect of the media on children has exploded. The media includes not only television, but also new technology for video games, music, movies, the Internet, computers, etc.
30. Numerous research studies show that exposure to violence in the media correlates to increased aggression in children.
31. American children average 28 hours of television viewing per week. Children’s programming includes five times more violence than adult programming.
32. By the time a child is 18 years of age, he or she has probably witnessed 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders in the media.
33. Effects of media violence include increased aggression; increased anti-social behavior; being less sensitive to violence and less empathetic to those who suffer from violence; viewing the world as a violent, mean and unsafe place; having a desire to see more real-life violence; and increasingly using violence to solve problems.
34. Young children are particularly affected by media violence because they cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, learn through observation, or discern the motives for the violence; in addition, they are more impressionable.
35. Factors that affect how media violence affects a child include the child’s age and stage of development, whether the character is attractive, whether there is a motive and a consequence for the violence, whether the child’s attention is solely focused on the violent act, and whether the program is forbidden by parents.
36. Teachers need to encourage parents to monitor their children’s television and video game viewing, their access on the Internet, and the lyrics of their music.
37. Teachers can reduce the effects of media violence in their students by teaching them to be intelligent consumers, by teaching violence prevention, and by teaching them to question what they see and to consciously choose programming.
38. Review the steps for reducing the effects of violence in their lives of students.
39. Be able to discuss strategies for implementing the teaching social skills and violence prevention curricula into your existing curriculum. Know how to evaluate a social skills or violence prevention curriculum.