A consultant on bullying told parents and teachers in Weyburn last week that punishment, by itself, does not change the behavior of the small percentage of children who bully others and consistently misbehave.

Lisa Dixon-Wells said the majority of students will change their behavior with only the threat of a call to their parents, but the other three per cent or so who are satiated by punishment won't change that easily.

That's why schools need to turn their punishment-based discipline policies into responsibility-based policies, she said.

Schools need a "no-nonsense" approach that teaches children how to behave differently, rather than simply punishing them and making them more angry, she said. "There is no learning component in simple punishment."

Dixon-Wells is a school counselor and former teacher with the Alberta-based program called Dare to Care, Bully-Proofing Your School. She spoke to parents in an evening session in Weyburn on Thursday and to elementary school teachers on Friday.

The sessions were sponsored by EnCana, which sponsors similar events in many communities in which it operates.

Dixon-Wells said some schools hang on to their punishment-based discipline policies because it's expected in society and it produces temporary change in the children. But it does not lead to the mobilization of a caring majority, she said.

A "zero tolerance" approach doesn't work either because it really means "zero avoidance," she said. "If teachers won't deal with bullying, you can't convince kids to stand up to it."

The key is to make a connection between what the child has done and why it's not acceptable, she said.

She described how to identify different kinds of verbal and physical bullying and how to build a system so children can report it safely, with the assurance of backup from adults. It's a myth that bullying does no harm, she told parents.

She also said it takes about three years after a new policy is introduced for the new culture to evolve in any school.

Dixon-Wells left a copy of the manual Bully-Proofing Your School with local elementary schools, along with recommended books to help children.

She said after visiting over 250 schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, she's seeing the first change schools are making is with their discipline policies.

Schools recognize their existing policies are not clear enough to deal with bullying. "There's also too much paperwork, so the discipline gets lost in the shuffle."

Dixon-Wells said bullying does not occur only between students but can happen when parents bully teachers or teachers and coaches bully students or parents.

The goal is to mobilize the community to stand up to them, she said. "By remaining silent, we're doing nobody any favours."

An effective bullying policy has a lot of benefits, from improved order and discipline to increased job satisfaction, she said.