Bullying is assault and should be treated as such. The perpetrators should be punished because it causes injury. We do not tolerate individuals who cause physical injury to others and we should not tolerate those who inflict psychological/psychiatric injury on others. I have encountered lots of bullies in my professional life and they do not respond to 'tender loving care', which they invariable view as a weakness to be exploited, but can be deterred by punishment. I would support Giuseppe's views on rehabilitation if I did not have the many years of experience I acquired dealing with violent criminals. Some can be rehabilitated but sadly the majority think that giving others a hard time is either 'fun' or their 'right'. They need extirpating from decent society and no one should have to put up with them for the sake of 'their' rehabilitation

Educating students: not only those who practice bullying, but also those who watch but do not help the victim. If this does not help, then remove bullying students from the lecture room for a week or more, and if this also does not help, then tell them to study elsewhere.

In India ragging in colleges is predominant and sometimes it lead to some suicides by the affected students. In spite of stringent laws it is a scourge. Solutions suggested by Dr. Ahed and Dr Kamal are excellent. Yes some students were rusticated because of this. Still the problem is there.

In my opinion the students who practice bullying should be kicked out of the school or university completely.

Dear colleagues, I believe that Prof. Rauf I Azam's question is asking to identify measures and methodologies to solve, and - even better - to prevent bullying, in the broadest sense possible.

The "expulsion" of the bully, solves — if possible —  the problem of a single class, and perhaps a single school. However, it does it in the worst way, getting rid of a single individual and sending the same problem to another school, in another classroom — or to the vague housing of "society".

If someone intends the kick-out method as a "deterrent", I would like to point out that, in any context, the use of the principle of "sanction", if not accompanied by a proper "rehabilitation", is totally useless [as dumping waste into the sea, thinking to dispel it only because you could not see — for a while. The sea will return waste in a more deteriorated measure]. And what is the place dedicated to rehab? Isn't it just *the school*, dear colleagues?

I believe that we are facing a binary way:

#1. or bullying is a matter embedded in the rampant culture, more and more cynical and competitive, so it is unsolvable;

#2. or bullying is a form of diversion of social organizations, including the school that is its main scenario, as the hosting place of youth, so it is only if the school will be reinforced that we could moderate bullying extremes and aberrations.

I vote for # 2.

—g

Education at home.

Bullying is assault and should be treated as such. The perpetrators should be punished because it causes injury. We do not tolerate individuals who cause physical injury to others and we should not tolerate those who inflict psychological/psychiatric injury on others. I have encountered lots of bullies in my professional life and they do not respond to 'tender loving care', which they invariable view as a weakness to be exploited, but can be deterred by punishment. I would support Giuseppe's views on rehabilitation if I did not have the many years of experience I acquired dealing with violent criminals. Some can be rehabilitated but sadly the majority think that giving others a hard time is either 'fun' or their 'right'. They need extirpating from decent society and no one should have to put up with them for the sake of 'their' rehabilitation

I am sure that some bullies can be educated out of their appalling habits but many cannot. I am hesitant to use psychiatric labelling but many bullies fit the psychopath designation all to easily. Often superficially charming, lacking in empathy, narcissistic and fundamentally an inability to benefit from adverse experience. The last of these criteria make educating people out of aberrant behaviour very difficult to impossible. I have heard many bullies adopt another common trait of the psychopath by rationalising their behaviour, often inverting the blame onto the victim. Yes, by all means attempt to educate them but where they do not respond punishment is a perfectly ethically acceptable way of dealing with them.

Prevention at School

A teacher talks to her classBullying can threaten students’ physical and emotional safety at school and can negatively impact their ability to learn. The best way to address bullying is to stop it before it starts. There are a number of things school staff can do to make schools safer and prevent bullying.

Getting Started

Assess school prevention and intervention efforts around student behavior, including substance use and violence. You may be able to build upon them or integrate bullying prevention strategies. Many programs help address the same protective and risk factors that bullying programs do.

Assess Bullying in Your School

Conduct assessments in your school to determine how often bullying occurs, where it happens, how students and adults intervene, and whether your prevention efforts are working.

Engage Parents and Youth

It is important for everyone in the community to work together to send a unified message against bullying. Launch an awareness campaign to make the objectives known to the school, parents, and community members. Establish a school safety committee or task force to plan, implement, and evaluate your school's bullying prevention program.

Create Policies and Rules

Create a mission statement, code of conduct, school-wide rules, and a bullying reporting system. These establish a climate in which bullying is not acceptable. Disseminate and communicate widely.

Build a Safe Environment

Establish a school culture of acceptance, tolerance and respect. Use staff meetings, assemblies, class and parent meetings, newsletters to families, the school website, and the student handbook to establish a positive climate at school. Reinforce positive social interactions and inclusiveness.

Educate Students and School Staff

Build bullying prevention material into the curriculum and school activities. Train teachers and staff on the school’s rules and policies. Give them the skills to intervene consistently and appropriately.

http://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/at-school/

Thank you folks for your thought provoking answers several of which are education for me. However, the ideas like kicking the bullies out of a school, rusticating them or getting rid of the bullies might be an easy solution or perhaps the only solutions in many cases but it may not be the desired treatment. Being a bully is a problem with the mind that actually need correction. Kicking a bully out of the school may save the victims at the school but the bully may continue same attitude elsewhere and find some other targets. Besides, schools being the places burdened with the responsibility of building and correcting the characters of the youth need to find ways for dealing with it rather than turning away from the problem.

Bullying at school is a problem for which the teachers are not responsible. The families concerned should take care of this problem. Indeed, the school authorities should take steps to stop such matters. Such students should be punished officially.

Schools could tackle bullying more effectively by taking a step back and employing a wider perspective on the problem. Any intervention can choose to focus on reducing anti-social behaviour, or on increasing pro-social behaviour. A specific focus on the behaviour of children who bully and those who are victimized may be justified in certain cases, but a more positive constructive approach may be to include more work in reducing the possibility of peer rejection and marginalization; a social phenomenon that reinforces the creation of both bullies and victims. That means, that there is an urgent need to (a) re-examine the dominant values and beliefs which inform the organization of schools as well as the organization of views of relationships within and outside of schools and (b) investigate, in addition to the individual, the socio-cultural and educational expectations and practices that may promote bullying attitudes, cognitions and behaviours. For instance, there is a great body of research indicating that schools, which value competitiveness, may tacitly encourage bullying whereas, many studies have demonstrated the positive effects of a warm and participative school environment. From this perspective, the principles and practices entailed in efforts to promote more inclusive schooling communities may be of great value in promoting more supportive interpersonal relationships by reducing the academic and social mechanisms that isolate and marginalize specific groups of children. Within a more inclusive context positive attitudes may result in more willingness either to react against peer aggression or to support victims of bullying who traditionally feel alone at school to a greater extent than other students and are often rejected by peers.