Preventing and Countering School-Based Harassment: A Resource

Every day in virtually every school, students and staff suffer the pain and indignity of being a target for harassment ranging from written or verbal abuse to physical violence, which, in some cases, causes serious injury or death. This guide addresses the more comprehensive issue of school-based harassment by capturing similarities in cause of, type of, and remedy for all forms of harassment, while also addressing the unique and legal aspects of racial and sexual harassment, as appropriate. The hope is that the material will help school staff, families, students, and communities to create a safe and bias-free learning environment. After the introduction and overview, which describe the characteristics and scope of school harassment, six sections highlight school harassment issues, describe some effective remedies and prevention strategies, present analyses of schools' responses to actual incidents of harassment, provide brief summaries of relevant legislation and court cases, and describe additional resources. Three sections on what school employees, families and communities, and students need to know can be pulled out and used as is. The guide concludes with a list of selected resources and references. (RT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document