The character of the nation's students is currently experiencing a moral crisis that has hit the community. The lack of strengthening religious character in students is due to problems that arise such as moral deterioration and moral degradation. An example of moral degradation experienced by students at school is inseparable from verbal bullying, in order to overcome and prevent verbal bullying behavior in school, it is necessary to apply the strengthening of religious character to students optimally. The purpose of this researcher is to find out how to strengthen the religious character of students to overcome verbal bullying at SMK Muhammadiyah Sampang.
This research approach uses a qualitative approach with a qualitative descriptive type of research. Data collection techniques through observation, interviews and documentation. Data analysis is carried out by the steps of data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawn.
The results of this study show that the forms of verbal bullying behavior that occur in students of SMK Muhammadiyah Sampang are mocking physically, mocking parents, and mocking works. The factors that cause verbal bullying that occur at SMK Muhammadiyah Sampang are family, peer factors and social media. Strengthening religious character at SMK Muhammadiyah Sampang does not only focus on academic learning activities in the classroom, but also through non-academic activities that are applied in the school environment such as tadarus Al-Quran, welcoming students, congregational zuhur prayers, and extracurricular activities. By strengthening the religious character, positive values will become habits and be embedded in students. When students already have a strong foundation of religious character, they will tend to be less involved in verbal bullying behavior, on the contrary, they will understand the negative impact of the act better and have the moral awareness not to do it. Thus, it can indirectly help prevent and overcome verbal bullying in students.