It was in 1999, in the wake of the Columbine massacre in Colorado in which 12 students and a teacher were killed, that the US Department of Justice selected the Olweus Bully Prevention Program as a model for their national violence prevention scheme. Since then the Olweus Program has been used in some 8000 US schools. It is also being used in Canada, the UK, Iceland, Germany and Ukraine.
In Norway the program has been shown to reduce bullying up to 50% and produce marked reductions in reports of vandalism, fighting, theft, and truancy.
Some of Olweus most notable success stories in the USA include three elementary schools in California that reported a 21% decrease in bullying after just one year. In Arizona several schools recorded a reduction of more than a quarter. The latest school to adopt Olweus is Great Neck Middle School in Virginia Beach, VA.
