TRATAM ì ENTO

Of the direct responses to bullying that teachers (n = 4) reported, the code involving adult

resources (level 3) emerged as most significant. For example, one teacher stated that when she

observed bullying perpetrated by another teacher, she informed administrators:

I sent a long email. And I told them. And I was like, this is not right. And I had a meeting with them, and I'm not afraid at this point. I'm older so I'm not afraid of anybody. My voice was taken away from me. And I don't want to feel my kids, any kids that I come across, to feel like their voice has been taken away from them.

She continued:

So, I had a meeting with the principals and her (the teacher) and I talked to them. And I let them know in front of her face, “we are here to encourage kids and our goal is doing

what's best for kids.” And my thing will always, I don't know what those kids deal with when they're at home. How can a kid fully come in this classroom and be educated if they don't have everything they need to be educated? And then they got a mean teacher who's in front of them versus someone who is kind and loving. I'm not saying that we supposed to baby them, but we're not supposed to be mean to them. They have to know they have somewhere they can come where they feel like this is my safe place.

Another teacher took the same approach when he observed an incident in the hallway between two students and highlighted the complexities and policies that come into play when reporting bullying to administrators at his school. He recounted an incident that he observed firsthand:

The kid who got his books knocked down, he punched the other kid in the face. It was assault. It hurt and it was interesting because the kid who picked up his books and took off, and it was during class change so I didn't really follow him. But I was talking to the kid who got hit and he didn't want to report it. But I got his name and I went to my assistant principal...she's a lesbian and I said, "This was where it happened. This is when it happened. This is who it involved." And she knew the kids. I'd say, "Can you check it out on the camera?" I go, "I couldn't get them to come into your office." And luckily, she investigated. Oftentimes, in these cases, there's a whole behind-the-scenes story where yeah, the kid shouldn't have hit him, but there was stuff that happened before that incident that was building up to it. So, I'm glad that I reported it. I'm glad she investigated. I think they ended up both getting in trouble.

Some teachers reported that they referred bullying situations to the school counselor, noting that the school policies sometimes discourage teachers from addressing the bullying themselves directly. For example, one teacher reported:

If it's a situation that I can kind of... diffuse, then I will. If it's something I think that is more than... because you're limited with what you can say and do, so in that case, I have to defer them to the counselor.

And another discussed how in teaching middle school, she feels less confident to address bullying than when she taught elementary school children. She said: “And seeing that my

(bullying) skillset—addressing it is a little outside of my skillset. I'm quicker to call in a counselor an administrator at this point, than I was at fourth and fifth grade.”

Other reported direct responses to bullying were more punitive. For example, one teacher stated that she has taken bullying personally in the past, had expressed anger toward the bullying student, but was attempting to be more understanding of the bully’s personal story:

I would be more patient with it, and have to understand the ‘why’ behind the behavior more, rather than being so reactive and take it so personally. Because as a teacher it's like, “Why are you here to disrupt my class?”

Another teacher described how she used to “bully the bully,” understanding that this tendency came from her own history of being bullied. She indicated that, as an adult, she

recognized that she had the power to give bullies a “taste of their own medicine.” She explained: I do think in a lot of ways... ‘cause it does set a precedent in your class in front of

everybody that this is not allowed, right? And that's what I used to do, like this is not allowed. I guess I have switched away from that, because even though it sets a precedent that this isn't allowed in my classroom, I just try to be mindful that I don't become that bully to the kid, because I feel like I can just lose it. It won't be about the kid anymore. It's about me, and my trauma, and what I'm going through, and I can just take all of that out on the kids.

Likewise, another teacher described how he overacted to bullying, based on his own history of childhood bullying, pointing out the balance needed between reacting to bullying and responding to bullying by intervening and/or teaching appropriate behavior:

I will say that there are some times that I think I may have overreacted to some situations that I may have seen because my own personal experiences, and luckily, I got the

administration involved and afterwards realized that there was a whole story behind what I'd actually witnessed. So, it's like a dynamic between like my initial reaction and how I want to teach the kids to actually be able to respond to it.

Teachers (n = 3) reported using discipline, which emerged as a level 3 code. For example, one teacher stated:

Instead of being a reasonable person, my initial reaction is “uh-huh, he's got to go, or she's got to go. She can't be in our program at all. She shouldn't have been doing X, Y, and Z.” Parents get upset when their kids are ... We had mean girls last year, and they were offended that their kids were even called mean girls. And I'm like, “Well, they're not nice girls. This is not acceptable. I know you don't condone it as a parent, but you've got to have conversations with your children about things like this.”

Another teacher explained that the environment she was in made it difficult to do anything other than apply discipline in bullying situations. She said: “Most of the teachers that I'm around, they're addressing bullying by doing what I used to do, and instantly get on the kid.”