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An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Kansas plan to bring a highly successful anti-bullying effort, the KiVa program, to American schools. Starting as early as the 2012-13 school year, a pilot program could kick off in selected classrooms in Lawrence, Kan. If shown to be successful there, soon afterward the model could expand nationally. KiVa, implemented in Finland in 2007, has impressed researchers with its proven reduction in bullying incidents.

The program takes a holistic approach to the bullying problem, including a rigorous classroom curriculum, videos, posters, a computer game and role-play exercises that are designed to make schools inhospitable to bullying.

“The KiVa program targets the peer environment, trying to create an ecology where bullying is no longer tolerated,” said Anne Williford, assistant professor of social welfare at KU. “Instead of targeting only a bully and victim for intervention, it targets the whole class, including kids who are uninvolved in bullying behavior.