Incidents between students can happen and when they do, you want to make sure that you are doing your part.
1. Awareness: Your first step is to become aware of the situation. If a student is coming to you about an issue, listen intently and ask questions without an accusatory tone. Remain unbiased. As of this point, you only know one side of the story. Wait until you have more information before you make any decisions. If you are observing an incident, some immediate action needs to be taken. However, further investigation may need to be done to determine if what happened was a one-time occurrence or a bullying incident.
2. Investigate: If you have a good rapport with both students involved, the good news is that you can do some investigation of your own. If you only know one of the students well, you can only gather what you can from that student. Gather what you can, and ask other teachers about their observations.
3. Draw Conclusions: After gathering information, analyze what is happening. Conclude whether you believe the incident to be a one-time occurrence or part of a string of bullying incidents.
4. Take Action: If you conclude that it was a one-time occurrence. Keep a record of it and report it in case a similar incident happens in the future. If you conclude that it is part of a larger string of bullying incidents, record what you found and report to someone who can do more for the students involved.