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A “Whole
System” Approach to
Dealing with Violence…
Band Aids Alleviate Pain, But Don’t Solve
the Problem
by Katy Allen
copyright © 2005 Impact Training, Inc.
School violence is systemic. That means that there are multiple,
interrelated factors contributing to the problem. Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors
at several levels… community, district, school, class, and individual, contribute to
a situation where safety can be uncertain and hurtful behaviors are common. All educators
know that when there is a culture of violence and aggression within a school, the classroom,
or an entire system, teaching and learning are difficult. Most educators don’t
like working in this type of system, but changing it, at first look, is an overwhelming
task.
The first “whole
system” approach to confronting aggression in schools took place in Norway under the direction of Dr. Dan Olweus. After researching
the problem of bullying in his nation’s schools, Olweus developed a multi-pronged
approach to dealing with bullying. Since bullying is a major factor in contributing
to aggression and violence in schools, his program improved school climate in general.
(See the footnote for an analysis of the main findings of his program.1)
Since his work over a decade ago, Olweus has formalized his program and brought it to the United States.
It is called the Bullying Prevention Program. It is one of the “Blueprints
for Violence Prevention Program’s” model programs and is recognized by the Federal
Government as a program that works.
The Respect and Protect 2
Program, patterned after Olweus’s work offers a template for organizing a violence prevention initiative. It follows
the “whole system” approach to dealing with the problem of violence, with some modifications
and additions. It can be viewed as a useful guide, not a lock-step recipe, for
planning, implementing and evaluating a whole-system effort to reduce violence and improve
school climate.
In August, 1998 the Department of Education published Early
Warning, Timely Response, A Guide to Safe Schools. It is clear from this
document that a “piecemeal” approach to dealing with violence in schools is not going to be
effective. There needs to be a thoughtful, well-planned, integrated and multi-faceted approach
to solving this problem. There are no easy, quick fixes.
A whole system approach to violence prevention begins by addressing
the problem of violence at the district (system) level, and then subsequently,
the school level, the classroom level and the individual level. It is important for
the problem of violence to be first addressed at the highest level so that all subsequent
efforts reflect a unified philosophy. Once district leadership has articulated its position
regarding what constitutes violence, schools need to develop their own response
to implementing the violence prevention policy.
Most systems/schools have an assortment of prevention and intervention
activities operating at various levels, but unless they are united under, and
coordinated with, the overall principles of the violence prevention initiative, their
effectiveness is likely to be limited. Such “piecemeal” attempts are not usually effective
at changing the overriding culture of aggression and violence. Many individual teachers are
successful at creating a caring classroom culture that prohibits violence and bullying, but
if classroom efforts are not supported by school measures, students often find that the positive
classroom climate does not extend to other areas of school life. Classroom initiatives
need to be planned and executed in conjunction with the school’s action plan for
violence prevention.
Change often begins and ends with the individual. Throughout the
process of implementing a violence prevention initiative, students, staff and
parents are challenged to examine their own beliefs and attitudes about violence, and to
adopt behaviors that are consistent with a “no violence” philosophy. Individual
change is accomplished through all of the prevention and intervention efforts that occur at the
district level, school level and classroom level.
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Being Ready
It is no small undertaking to embark on the journey that takes one
successfully through a whole-system violence prevention initiative. Many schools
find it difficult or impossible because of one or more of the following defenses:3
• Denial – We don’t have a problem with violence.
• Minimizing – We have a few problems, but they’re
nothing major.
• Rationalizing – Kids are exposed to so much aggression.
Boys will be boys; girls can be so cruel.
• Justifying – It helps prepare kids for the real world.
We aren’t trained… don’t
have enough staff… to change it.
• Blaming – It’s the parents’ fault. If they
would just do their jobs… We live in a violent community.
• Avoiding – It’s not my problem.
Before a system can successfully carry out a violence prevention
initiative, it must deal with the defenses that enable violence to exist and continue.
The leaders of the school and the leaders of the violence prevention initiative have
to recognize these defenses as the powerful inhibitors of progress that they are. When
leaders acknowledge that a problem with violence exists and are willing to take responsibility
for changing the situation, a “system” is ready to implement a whole-system
to approach to violence prevention and intervention.
The Components of a Whole-System Approach to Violence Prevention
Embarking on a violence prevention initiative is daunting in the
sense that getting started may be the most challenging aspect. The steps are not fixed
and rigid, although success is dependent on completing enough of them in a logical sequence
to achieve the needed changes in attitudes and behaviors.
Phase I
• Form a committee responsible for the violence prevention
initiative.
• Gain knowledge and expertise about the problem of violence
including the following topics: the continuum of violence; entitlement, tolerance
and enabling; bullying violence; normal conflict vs. bullying conflict; environmental
control (the adult centered prevention element); student-centered intervention
elements;
• Define violence and write a “No Violence” policy.
• Facilitate acceptance of the policy by the Board of Education.
• Disseminate the policy to key educational, parent and community
leaders and promote the acceptance of the policy.
Phase II
• The Board of Education directs each school (or directs the
superintendent) to create a plan of action that will work towards the elimination of
all forms of violence in its school.
• Form school level teams to be responsible for the Board of
Education’s (or the superintendent’s) charge.
• Do an assessment of bullying and violence. Include students,
staff and parents. Use this information to define and describe the problem of violence
within the school.
• Create an action plan to implement the violence prevention
policy.
• Disseminate the violence prevention policy to school staff.
• Provide staff training on violence. Seek to eliminate enabling
behaviors among staff members.
• Promote the understanding and acceptance of the violence
prevention policy.
• Develop a school-wide approach to responding to violence.
This articulates how adults will respond to violence and what students can expect to
experience when they act violently.
• Develop a mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of the
school violence prevention initiative.
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Action Plans
What happens at each school will be unique to that school. Successful
“whole school” approaches to violence prevention typically choose to employ a number
of coordinated activities that promote a caring school climate. These
elements often include many of the following:
• Data collection systems to provide information about who
is acting violently, where, and when.
• Curriculum measures that address the problem of bullying.
• A system for students for reporting bullying that protects
the “reporter.”
• Peer mediation.
• Social skills training for all students and staff that includes
empathy training, anger management, conflict resolution, and social problem solving.
• Training for educators and school staff that facilitates
relationship building with students. Schools that successfully change a culture that supports
aggression and violence are characterized by adults who exhibit warmth and positive
interest in all students.
• Specialized counseling programs for bullies and victims as
a component of the disciplinary plan to eliminate violent behaviors.
• Community education that informs parents of the district’s
violence prevention policy, the school’s plans for implementing that policy, a
description of what educators will do when students act violently and what students
can expect to experience when they act violently.
• Parent education on school and classroom programs that offers
parents the opportunity to learn the same skills as their children. (This will
include empathy training, anger management, conflict resolution and social problem
solving.)
• Classroom meetings where students and teachers discuss incidents
of bullying and violence and other issues and concerns.
Phase III
Phase III begins in stages as the various components of the action
plan are implemented. The main focus of this phase is assessment, monitoring
and revision. The questions that the Action Team needs to answer are:
• Are we seeing a reduction in reports of violence, aggression
and bullying, taking into account the fact that when students develop a higher awareness
of these problems, reporting is likely to rise initially?
• How is each component of our action plan contributing to
an improved school climate? How do I know this?
• How do staff, students and parents feel about school climate?
Is there a measurable change?
• Can we determine if improved school climate is contributing
to improved student achievement?
• What do we have to do to sustain the effective components
of the action plan? Where will we get the time and resources to accomplish this?
Changing a culture that supports aggression requires thoughtful
efforts that are coordinated and integrated across the entire school system. There
is no one “program” that will fix it in one grand stroke. There is no one strategy that
makes everything “right.” Creating a school system that is consistently
safe and nurturing requires that we examine multiple components of our system: policy and procedure,
rules and consequences, supervision of students, student-staff relationships,
curriculum, community involvement, and staff development. It is dependent both
on leadership and individuals at every level. It requires that people acquire knowledge,
realign their attitudes and learn new behaviors. It has to happen “across
the board,” because the only way to crack a system is with a system.
See bottom
for Footnotes.
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