Physical bullying is actually fairly common in middle school and high school, and particularly among boys. And it comes in different forms. It could be hitting or kicking or pushing. It could also be tripping someone in the hallway or even throwing a piece of paper at them in class. When you know the bully is nearby, you don't want to draw a lot of attention to yourself, 'cause that's just gonna put you on their radar. You also want to avoid the bully. If you know the bully hangs out in a certain area of the lunch room, you don't want to go to that area of the lunch room. If you know they have a locker in a certain hallway, you don't walk down that hallway, if you can help it. You also don't want to try to make friends with the bully. This is a very common mistake that kids make, and it's not very effective.

Solutions to Stop Bullying

They usually just bully you more or take advantage of you. We also know that bullies like to pick on kids who are by themselves, so simply hanging out with other kids is a very effective strategy for avoiding bullying. And the other thing that we can do is if the bully is nearby, we could maybe stand near an adult or be near an adult while the bully is around, 'cause we know that they're probably now gonna bully us when the adult is there. And them finally, if we are in danger or this is a chronic bullying situation, then yes, absolutely we should get help from an adult, but that is not always the first sort of best strategy for our kids and we need to give them other tools to use.