Reducing Bullying in Schools In many schools, pupils are at times ed to a form of teasing, victimization or harassment that involves physical or verbal abuse. This is usually referred to as bullying and it results to emotional and physical suffering, which affects the pupils negatively. Bullying is not restricted to primary school kids but extends to college and beyond as students are subjected to extreme or mild forms of harassment. In many European countries, the United Kingdom was considered the worst concerning bullying in school, which experts say might be caused by the highly diverse nature of the population (James, 2010). This essay aims at examining how and to what extent bullying can be reduced in schools. Rigby defines bullying as an abuse of power where the perpetrator takes advantage of the power imbalance to engage severally in aggressive or belligerent conduct with the purpose of threatening and hurting a certain person. The behaviour can be observable that is, the perpetrator can conduct this behaviour in the open or outside the eyes of an audience. The behaviour can include spreading of rumours, verbal abuse, face-to-face attacks, calculated and sustained exclusions, and the utilisation of technology to cause harm to someone (Rigby, 2011). Bullying has many definitions according to different literatures but all the authors agree on several key that feature in bullying, which are as discussed. Firstly, bullying is usually deliberate and is done with the intention to cause harm. Take the example of two friends teasing one another for fun. This is not bullying but if one intends to make the other upset, then the act is considered as bullying. Secondly, bullying causes a harmful result either physically or emotionally. Thirdly, bullying can involve direct acts such as physically kicking someone, or indirect acts like spreading rumours. Fourthly, bullying is repetitive and persistent. It concerns repeated acts for example; recurring aggressive behaviours towards a student are considered as bullying but do not include isolated acts like a single fight. Lastly, there is imbalance of power in bullying where the perpetrator usually possesses an advantage against the victim either due to age or due to physical strength (Department for Education, 2012). In order to strategize and come up with effective methods of reducing bullying, relevant information on the types of bullying can assist in figuring out the best methods to address various types of bullying. Bullying can be either violent or non-violent. There are several types of behaviours that are considered as bullying. The most obvious type of bullying is physical. It involves direct means or tangible ways of hurting other individuals. This can be seen when a student repeatedly beats another student and causes physical harm. Verbal bullying involves the use of indirect means such as name calling to cause deliberate humiliation to another student, which results to emotionally suffering for the victim. Other ways of carrying out verbal bullying are spreading rumours and abusing the victim (James, 2010). Social bullying, which is also referred to as relational bullying is the act of disrupting victims’ relationships with their friends. This is meant to keep the victim in isolation and loneliness, which results to depression. It causes emotional suffering to the victims as they are excluded from certain groups and forced to spend time alone. It can lead to graver consequences such as suicide if it involves students with very low self-esteem (James, 2010). Cyber bullying is a recent term that has received attention from the authorities due to its impact on people. It is a phenomenon brought about by technological change that is, the internet and mobile phones, and the increasing social interaction through these technological gadgets. Cyber bullying involves the spread of offensive messages or pictures about a person using these latest technological devices and tools. It is usually faster and reaches a wider array of people, therefore, causing greater damage to the victims. The government has found it hard to control cyber bullying but with new rules and regulations being put in place, it will be curbed (Department for Education, 2012). Schools utilise various ways and approaches to reduce bullying as discussed in this paper. Traditional Disciplinary Method This approach is used in almost all schools across the globe to help reduce bullying. Teachers and other school staffs prevent and reduce bullying using this method by punishing the perpetrators. They can also impose sanctions on the perpetrators of the deviant behaviour, therefore, preventing them from bullying other students in school or outside the school environment. This approach also warns other students to refrain from bullying others, as teachers will use the same measures on them. Olweus was a well-known advocate of this approach and suggested that the method should be used conjointly with a few proactive procedures such as, classroom discussions on bullying rules (Rigby, 2011). The approach has proved to deter a significant number of students from bullying. However, this approach seems to change the perpetrators’ style as they continue to bully other students but using covert ways instead of the overt approach. These less detectable methods equally hurt the victims, thus proving that the traditional approach is ineffective to a certain degree. To ensure the effectiveness of this approach, high extent of surveillance on the bullies is needed, which might seem difficult and sometimes impossible. This approach is used on perpetrators of violent types of bullying and attempts on counselling have failed. Some anti-bullying programmes utilise this approach where sanctions and rewards are given to the perpetrators of bullying. However, it proved to be inefficient although in some cases there was observed to be reduced bullying among perpetrators (Ross and Horner, 2009). Strengthening the Victim This directs at helping the victims handle the bullying situation with effectiveness. The students being bullied are trained and advised to act more assertively hence reduce vulnerability to the bullying perpetrators. The victims are taught to use techniques like fogging, where they act undisturbed and less intimated by the bullies’ negative words. This approach may take time before the children adopt it and acquire the ability to respond effectively. It involves a lot of training for the victim to learn how to use the skills and have the ability to practice it effectively. It is appropriate in verbal bullying as it has limitations when it comes to violent physical bullying. However, it helps reduce bullying in school (Rigby, 2011).