TOUGH A Bully and Teasing Prevention Play for Students in Grades 1 - 4 The play has the following objectives: Decrease students' tolerance for bullying behaviors Decrease students' willingness to blame the person being hurt Increase the willingness of students to report bullying behavior Working assumptions for the play include: Creating a school environment that fosters a sense of safety depends on the coordinated efforts of students, teachers, administrators, and parents Bullying harms not only the bully and the victim, but also the bystanders Bullying behavior in elementary and middle school is correlated to criminal behavior in later years. Heightened awareness of the problem of bullying helps reduce the number of instances of bullying. Synopsis of the play: Austin is 11 years old. He's outgoing and generally kind. One of his friends, Tonisa, claims that Austin can, at times, cross the line between teasing that's fun and teasing that hurts. Austin has a hard time seeing Tonisa's point of view until he see's Valerie bully Keland. Keland is the type of kid that seems to attract bullies. He's small, extremely polite, and is new to the school. Valerie is bright, aggressive, and smolders with anger and a need to control. When Valerie pushes Keland around, Austin feels sick on the inside. He attempts to intervene, but Valerie claims she's only joking with Keland, no harm done. Austin and Keland attempt a strategy of "being tough." When Valerie bullies him at noon recess, Keland tries to implement his be tough strategy. It fails. Valerie not only escalates her bullying, she threatens Austin, too. When Keland threatens revenge on Valerie, Austin sees that Keland is now in danger of becoming a bigger bully than Valerie. Austin reports the problem to his teacher, Mrs. Mathews. Before the play ends, Mrs. Mathews and Austin have organized a school-wide bully prevention project. Austin discovers that being tough means taking a stand and treating people fairly.