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Most teenagers know that returning to school means dealing with hundreds of other teens. The bad news is that teasing will also return when they come back to school. Teasing is the act of harassing someone playfully or maliciously, especially by ridicule. It is hurtful and potentially dangerous.

Judy S. Freedman's book "Easing the Teasing" is very helpful for dealing with children's teasing issues. It specifically helps parents learn strategies to help their children deal with teasing. Some of the suggested strategies can also be used successfully with teens so it's definitely a recommended title for parents and educators to peruse. Freedman describes her strategies well enough that this article does not need to elaborate on them. Instead, this article is meant to describe the way in which schools deal with the genuine difficulties that teasing can lead to. Once this understanding is clear, parents and teens should be able to cooperate with personnel from the teens' school to ensure that teasing difficulties don't get out of hand.

Elementary schools deal with teasing on a more personal level than secondary schools because their classes are generally smaller. That is certainly not to say that secondary schools are ignoring the problem. For example, secondary schools may have home room teachers discuss such topics with students; there may be the occasional guest speaker such as a police liaison who addresses the students on this or a similar topic and, faculty are surely expected to reinforce standards of appropriate behavior. Electronic systems are generally used to help schools keep track of severe misbehavior, and sometimes minor incidents as well. Grade-level meetings are also commonly scheduled to discuss student achievement, work habits and if relevant to the former, behavior. The most serious problem with trying to monitor teasing at secondary schools is the large number of students each teacher interacts with each day, making documenting and tracking all of those students' behavior almost impossible.

Teenagers' parents should communicate with their child's home room teacher or school counselor if their teenaged child's behavior worsens or grades decline. Consistently high grades, however, don't mean that the teenager doesn't face any problems at school. Parents need to talk with their child regularly to discern subtler signs of teasing problems. Teasing is hurtful and potentially dangerous. Bullying comes in many forms, including teasing. Suicides occasionally result from prolonged teasing; more frequently, low self-esteem and depression can occur. Experiencing harassment in this form - whether it is done 'playfully' or maliciously, is clearly a serious problem that must be dealt with.