USASF Professional Responsibility Code 2019-2020 9.0 | Página 38

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4. Address bullying behavior
a. Make sure the child knows what the problem behavior
is. Young people who bully must learn their behavior is
wrong and harms others.
b. Show kids that bullying is taken seriously. Calmly tell the
child that bullying will not be tolerated. Model respectful
behavior when addressing the problem.
c. Work with the child to understand some of the reasons he
or she bullied. For example:
i. Sometimes children bully to fit in or just to make
fun of someone is a little different from them.
In other words, there may be some insecurity
involved.
ii. Other times kids act out because something else—
issues at home, abuse, stress—is going on in their
lives. They also may have been bullied. These kids
may be in need of additional support.
d. Involve the kid who bullied in making amends or
repairing the situation. The goal is to help them see how
their actions affect others. For example, the child can:
i. Write a letter apologizing to the athlete who was
bullied.
ii. Do a good deed for the person who was bullied, for
the Program, or for others in your community.
iii. Clean up, repair, or pay for any property they
damaged.
e. Avoid strategies that don’t work or have negative
consequences:
i. Zero tolerance or “three strikes, you’re out”
strategies don’t work. Suspending or removing
from the team athletes who bully does not reduce
bullying behavior. Athletes may be less likely to
report and address bullying if suspension or getting
kicked off the team is the consequence.
ii. Conflict resolution and peer mediation don’t work
for bullying. Bullying is not a conflict between
people of equal power who share equal blame.
Facing those who have bullied may further upset
kids who have been bullied.
f. Follow-up. After the bullying issue is resolved, continue
finding ways to help the child who bullied to understand
how what they do affects other people. For example,
praise acts of kindness or talk about what it means to be a
good teammate.
5. Support bystanders who witness bullying. Every day,
kids witness bullying. They want to help, but don’t know how.
Fortunately, there are a few simple, safe ways that athletes can
help stop bullying when they see it happening.
a. Be a friend to the person being bullied.
b. Tell a trusted adult – your parent, coach, or Program
Owner.
c. Help the kid being bullied get away from the situation.
Create a distraction, focus the attention on something
else, or offer a way for the target to get out of the
situation. “Let’s go, practice is about to start.”
d. Set a good example by not bullying others.
e. Don’t give the bully an audience. Bullies are encouraged
by the attention they get from bystanders. If you do
nothing else, just walk away.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR COACHES & OWNERS
We recommend that Owners and Coaches download an become
familiar with:
• Safesport Handbook: Preventing Bullying: What Great Coaches
Need to Know
This document is located in the USASF Member Resources.