Essay: Preventing School Violence

Sample Essay

Words 1,320

The second step is to avoid debates and arguments with the aggressors. Students who are involved in any type of misbehavior often indulge in arguments with higher authorities when they are punished or presented with the consequences. Counselors, teachers and anyone dealing with these students should avoid debate and arguments because they convince the person at fault that they are in control of the situation. For example, if a student is given in-school suspension for two days as a consequence of an act of bullying might argue that he or she should not have to serve the second day in suspension because of good behavior on the first day. “To avoid induction into the student’s attempt at control, the supervising teacher or school counselor would be advised to (a) refrain from debating the issue, (b) acknowledge the first-day effort and encourage continued success, and (c) follow through with the disciplinary action as assigned.” (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007) This will instill in the students mind that he or she cannot prove his or her actions valid through an argument and that the student will remain accountable for whatever misbehavior they were a part of. (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007)

The third recommendation is to avoid standardized procedures as rules for behavior standards. “Standardized, predictable responses to bullying behavior (e.g., “When you do this, this is [always] what will happen”) enable proactive aggressors to plan their offenses so as to maximize personal benefit and minimize personal cost.” This allows the offender to plan according to the standards and provides way too many loopholes as a means of justifying the act of violence.  (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007)

Next, positive achievements should be reinforced in all students. (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007) This recommendation is in line with Arnold Lazurus’s behavior theory discussed earlier as a cause of violence in schools. Academic accomplishments are often overlooked and sometimes even criticized when compared to acts of misbehavior. For this reason, students should receive proper positive reinforcements congratulating their good behavior so they do not feel that they need to seek attention through other forms of behavior.

“An important step in helping proactive aggressors change their behavior (and ultimately, their perspective) is to ensure, through careful and continuous monitoring of their activities, that their risks of getting caught are high.” (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007) This fifth recommendation requires that counselors, teachers and other staff members stay highly alert at all times and not overlook anything that might be happening where they are present.

According an earlier rule debates and arguments should be avoided because offenders can tactfully find loopholes and justify their behavior. Keeping this in mind, the sixth recommendation is to contemplate the feelings inflicted by an offender’s action and not necessarily the facts. Objective details such as hard facts can be argue to be right or wrong but subjective details such ash the feelings incurred by the actions can not. By implementing this path of action the counselors will successfully be able to let the bully realize what kind of affect his or her actions has on the victim. In other words, the bully will actually think about the other person’s feelings and might be empathetic the next time he or she goes out to bully someone else. (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007)

To prevent and stop bullying and other types of crime is not the only thing counselors should want to achieve. They must give the students a pathway to a better behavioral pattern and reward it accordingly. In doing this counselors must also beware of stereotyping students as the ones frequently indulge in violent behavior. These students should be viewed like the other students and be taught how to tackle their problems and aggressions in a better way and be acknowledged accordingly. (McAdams and Schmidt, 2007)

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