The bullying started with the bigger kid telling him to shut up. Or asking him if he was changing his diapers when the boy was tying his shoes. Then it escalated to scratching--and hitting.
This wasn't middle school, or even one of the higher primary grades. These were little kids, second-graders at an Irvine elementary school.
"I didn't go to school 'cause he wasn't being nice," the picked-on boy said. "He hurt my feelings."
While eruptions of school violence and their soul-searching aftermath at places such as Columbine High School may have focused attention on bullying among teenagers, some researchers and teachers are now saying it's never too early to try to nip the problem in the bud.
To be sure, anti-bullying research and curriculum are not new. But in the past, schools have usually focused on fourth-grade students and older. Increasingly, anti-bullying curriculum is being aimed at small schoolchildren, starting as early as kindergarten.
"Bullying tends to increase during elementary school and it peaks approximately during seventh and eighth grade," said Nancy Mullin-Rindler, associate director of the Project on Teasing and Bullying at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. "What it means is that our approach to kindergarten has to be more preventive."
The Wellesley project has produced a curriculum program for use in kindergarten through third grade called "Quit It" that has flown off the shelves in the year and a half since it's been out. The program is a series of lessons that include teacher-led discussions and writing exercises on such topics as defining bullying and teasing, on what makes children feel "welcome" or "unwelcome," and what constitutes "courage."
"I believe a heightened interest has come because of Columbine," said Lynette Henley, a Vallejo second-grade teacher who teaches "Quit It" and other anti-bullying curricula to teachers around the country. "The whole teacher family wants to find a way to make sure schools are safe."
The Los Angeles Unified School District for years has had a variety of programs for all its grade levels. And private schools are paying attention too.
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Bullying "is going on more with adolescents, but you need to lay a foundation down somewhere," said Ray Michaud, schoolmaster at John Thomas Dye, a Bel-Air private school. Michaud invited Wellesley researchers to give a presentation at his school after hearing about "Quit It." "They don't just come up with it in fourth grade; it builds over time."
