Digital Smarts - Developing a School Culture to Help Curb Bullying

While bullying should never be acceptable, some schools are replacing their zero tolerance policies with a restorative justice approach. Research has shown that zero tolerance policies can worsen school climates, provoke more student misbehavior, and lead to higher expulsion and suspension rates for minorities. The underlying concept to the restorative justice approach is to treat bullying like a hurtful act that violates shared values, rather than as a character defect, and to encourage kids to understand why their behavior was wrong, and to apologize and make amends. If your school or district is struggling with bullying and trying to form or reform their bullying or cyberbullying policy, the article How to Develop a School Culture That Helps Curb Bullying on the Mindshift site could be helpful.