Discussion Board prompt, and a reply of at least 200 words toa classmate’s thread. Each thread, reply, and cited reference must followcurrent APA format.

Bullying in schools is a hot topic in education right now. Prevention of bullying in schools will have a strong correlation to school safety. Passing laws won’t just stop bullying but passing meaningful laws and having guidelines and policies that schools have to implement will eventually stop bullying and increase school safety. Meaningful laws are laws that will help find the cause to prevent it from happening and not just pass laws that punish and stop it. Research has shown most shooters of schools are victims of bullying or had some problems at home. Requiring social workers and counselors in the schools can help students and families. Counselors can help students learn effective ways to communicate, handle problems and challenges, form support groups, peer counseling etc. which can lead to the prevention of bullying. Social workers will be able to learn about students home environment which plays a crucial role in their academic performance. Will passing a law that requires each school to provide counseling and social workers reduce or prevent bullying and bullying behaviors in students and increase school safety?

The theoretical background is that passing laws that require policies for bullying is the first step then the second step needs to focus on specific interventions that are implemented by the schools stating the goals and strategies of how to prevent bullying in the policy. Laws that are passed that require harsh punishment for bullying are not as effective as policies that are passed that require schools to provide counseling, positive reinforcement and social workers in the schools. These policies are effective because it reduces or prevents bullying and bullying behaviors in students and leads to an increase in school safety. These policies takes action to get to the core of the problem so they can prevent it from happening instead of taking action after it happens by providing punishment like the other policies. These policies involve students, schools, families and communities while the other polices just involve the government laws and schools. I picked this topic because you hear about so many incidents of bullying and school shootings these days. I understand and agree that people who bully others and chose to shoot others should face consequences for their actions; however, I feel that if schools reached these students before they felt that was their only option left then they wouldn’t make that choice. I think if schools spent as much time focusing on student’s as a whole and not just what they can do academically then it would prevent bullying and school shootings and increase school safety. By requiring schools to have social workers would allow the school to look at the students’ environment as a whole and not just the schools, because student’s environment plays a huge role in how they perform academically. Social workers can help families who are struggling to relieve stress in the home, help families who are having difficulties within the family, work with the families as partners, increase parental involvement, and provide resources which could prevent bullying and school shootings. Counselors would be there to counsel the students and know what is going on with each student, provide a safe place for them to talk, provide resources, form support groups where peers can talk and be with people going through the same thing, peer to peer counseling, and teach students effective ways to communicate, teaching empathy and respect, promote activities that join all students, and ways to deal with challenges and bullying which can lead to students not feeling alone, feeling a part of the school community, working through their problems, and finding ways to handle situations.