Bullying Among Mainstream Students in Turkish Schools: Models for Prevention

A growing body of literature has been focusing bullying and students with disabilities. The main idea of bullying is that students with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to bullying (Hergert, 2004; Hoover & Stenhjem, 2003; PACER Center, 2007). Even though there is a great awareness of bullying in Turkish schools, Turkish education system is in need of an urgent prevention model or models for both normally developing students and those with special needs. The author points out bullying prevention programs and interventions cited in the literature and discusses the concerns related to the credibility of utilizing current bullying prevention programs and interventions with students with disabilities. The author suggests that in order to benefit from any bullying prevention program or intervention for students with disabilities, accommodations or modifications to the programs are required. Otherwise, the efforts of school administrators, staff, and parents may be unsuccessful in attempting to reduce or eliminate the instances of bullying of students with disabilities in schools.