Bullying
What Is Bullying? Committee For Children
- Bullying happens when individuals or group of people continues to hurt, frighten, threaten, or exclude another person on purpose. It's often a repeated activity, with a particular child singled out over and over again.
- Bullying involves an imbalance of power, where the child who bullies has more power (due to factors like age, size, or higher social status) than the targeted child.
- There's not just one profile of a child who is bullied--any child can be singled out for any reason.
- Below are really good articles on the subject matter.
Article One:
Bullying Prevention in the Schools
An interview with Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander
One of the positive outgrowths of recent school violence is a greater recognition of the problem of bullying in schools. As a result, many schools have begun to draft anti-bullying policies. The question on many educators' minds is exactly what steps to take to begin to address the problem.
Educational consultant and best-selling author Barbara Coloroso spends most of her time on the road addressing parents' and educators' concerns about discipline and the school environment. Her newest book, The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander, was published by HarperCollins in 2003.
When asked for advice on how to deal with bullying, Coloroso often quotes an anonymous Holocaust survivor who said, "Pay attention, get involved, and never, ever look away." The lessons we must take from school tragedies over the past several years are the same. Pay attention--bullying occurs in all schools. Get involved--with the bully, the bullied, and the bystander; each has a role. And never look away--grown-ups tend to dismiss bullying, which according to Coloroso is a grave mistake.
To build a positive school climate, Coloroso recommends schools take the following seven steps.
Intervene with Discipline
Communicate clear discipline policies. Every student should know that unkind acts will result in immediate discipline. Create policies that give children who bully ownership of the problem and ways to solve it via restitution, resolution, and reconciliation. When dealing with children who bully, it is important to leave their dignity intact.
Create Opportunities for Students to "Do Good"
Promote activities that encourage students to extend themselves to others. Get children who bully involved in serving as crossing guards or reading to a group of younger students. To foster "do good" habits, leave sponges at the end of lunch tables to encourage children to clean up their area for the next person.
Nurture Empathy
Help children see the perspectives of others. Study historical events where people have stood up for values and against injustices. Read "Jack and the Beanstalk" and ask students to take an unconventional point of view--the Giant's. Lead them in some role-playing with questions like "How would you feel if somebody kept taking your belongings?"
Teach Friendship Skills
There are three antidotes to bullying: a strong sense of self, being a good friend, and having friends. Many who bully or are bullied lack friendship skills. Educators, parents, and other leaders can help break the bullying cycle by both teaching and modeling skills about how to be a friend and make friends.
Monitor Children's Exposure to Media
Schools can help raise parents' awareness of the importance of monitoring their children's exposure to violence through television, music, video games, and so on. Schools can also teach children to be media-wise and to discern between fact and fiction.
Engage Children in Constructive Activities
Provide cooperative, challenging games that promote civility while reducing the number of competitive activities that reinforce social cliques. For example, when a child scores for her team in a volleyball game, send her over to help the other side. Give children positive outlets for their energy. Have them "attack" a climbing wall and feel good about the challenge.
Teach Ways to "Will Good"
In the book Integrity, Stephen Carter defines "willing good" as "speaking and doing what is right even when the burden is heavy." Sticking up for a peer means taking a risk, and children must be inspired to do so. Reading stories such as "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry can help children understand what it means to "will good."
These seven steps help schools build a framework to provide alternatives and support to the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. Bullying prevention programs can be very useful as well, but Coloroso cautions against programs that focus on conflict resolution. "Bullying should not be dealt with as a conflict," Coloroso maintains. "It's not [conflict], it's a person having contempt, a basic disregard for the other person as a human being."
Empathy and Perspective-Taking
Since those who bully tend to have poor perspective-taking skills, developing their sense of empathy is critical to turning bullying around. "Empathy is the core virtue. [In some children] it may be covered by a lot of garbage, but it's there," Coloroso says.
Empathy and perspective taking help children do what Coloroso refers to as "meeting another human being as a human," a skill that prevention programs can help foster. Taking the time to research programs and their various components is important. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all quick fix.
Coloroso favors programs that, like Committee for Children's STEPS TO RESPECT: A Bullying Prevention Program, work on four levels: the individual, relationships, schoolwide implementation, and integration into the curriculum.
School as a Safe Harbor
Teachers often shrink back from the idea of adding one more curriculum to their list of initiatives, but according to Coloroso, the STEPS TO RESPECT program helps support some of the critical needs that schools already face: "We have to relate to one another--let's do it consciously. We have to read books--let's get kids reading conscience-raising books [that deal with] getting along with others and problem solving."
Today more than ever, educators, parents, and community members alike recognize the necessity of making school a safe harbor. Coloroso maintains that by teaching children the skills they need to navigate social interactions successfully, educators can help bring children up to "do good" and to make positive contributions to the school culture. "[It's] good if they get this from elsewhere," Coloroso says, "but it must happen in school."
Article: 2
by Committee For Children(Lisa Walls)
Keep Bullying off the Bus by Empowering Kids
One adult preoccupied by traffic, 20 kids--or more--bursting with energy. Most school buses are rife with the kinds of conditions that foment bullying. According to Committee for Children researcher Miriam Hirschstein, Ph.D., "Bullying incidents often intensify where there's less supervision--areas like bathrooms, hallways, lunchrooms, and on buses."
Bullying on the Bus
With around 24 million children riding school buses daily in the US, the problem of bullying on board has experts alarmed and scrambling for solutions. Even more so than ending bullying on campus, the effort to end it on the bus contains myriad complications. For starters, schools are reluctant to enlarge the boundary of their liability for student behavior. Also, multiple schools may transport children on the same buses, meaning several administrations need to come together. Overwhelmed bus drivers, some now already dealing with video cameras, legitimately fear yet another responsibility.
Video Is Not Enough
Joel Haber, a psychologist in New York State, is an expert on violence prevention. He has been quoted as saying that children need to feel safe on buses and everywhere else. Video cameras are easy for kids to outwit, Haber states, advocating for the use of adult monitors who can document and report the behavior.
Underestimating the Damage
Finally, many adults still fail to grasp the extent of damage bullying can cause. Research shows that in general, adults are poorly informed about bullying, and they tend to grossly underestimate the frequency of these events and their impact on students, says Hirschstein. "Most teachers agree that a child who arrives for school humiliated or injured isn't ready to take on challenging academic pursuits."
Whole-School Approaches That Work
The key to assuaging bus bullying isn't philosophically different from ending harassment elsewhere, Hirschstein says. "Those of us who work in the field of bullying prevention are convinced the whole school culture has to be involved, and the onus cannot just be on the victims to report unfair behavior. The group nature of bullying adds to the capacity for cruelty."
The Hermitage School District in Western Pennsylvania took bullying on the school bus to heart last year with a communitywide campaign. Parents, educators, and business leaders all pitched in to create posters, awards, and a heightened sense of concern about the dangers posed by bullying on buses.
Other regions have adopted similar tactics, including pledge cards: Kids agree to refrain from harming each other. Another district established a series of "Best Driver" awards. That kind of recognition creates a bond between the driver and the children, a connection often lacking in typical situations.
Such practices tap into the potential of bystanders to "turn the tide," according to Hirschstein. But the essential element here is that the adults involved are not only caring, but supported by training and procedures in how to intervene effectively. "Research shows that an intervention targeting staff training and children's attitudes and skills can increase students' sense of responsibility to stop bullying."
Article: 3
by: Committee For Children (Miriam Hirschstein, Ph.D.Research Scientist)
Why Don't Kids Report Bullying?
There is good evidence that young people often do not report bullying to adults. They are adept at hiding bullying-related behaviors and the unequal "shadow" power dynamics that can exist among children. Because of this secrecy, adults underestimate the seriousness and extent of bullying at their schools.
Schools cannot help if children do not entrust them with information. So why don't children report bullying?
Research Shows That Adults Rarely Intervene
This creates a catch-22: Students don't tell because they don't see adults helping, but adults can't help if students don't tell them what is going on in their peer groups.
The perception that adults don't act may lead students to conclude that adults don't care, or that there are different standards for adults' behavior than for young people's. In the workplace, shoving co-workers in the hallway would not be tolerated. Yet many adults believe that young people need to "work out" bullying problems like these on their own. This belief may promote a "code of silence" about abusive behavior. A logical consequence would be the failure of students to report other dangers, such as knowledge about a weapon at school.
Students Fear Retaliation and a Reputation as a "Rat"
This might be especially true about reporting popular students who bully. There is evidence that well-liked and successful children can be the most skilled at bullying and at escaping detection.
They Don't Want to Lose Power
Students may not report that they or their friends bully because they don't want to lose the power they gain through controlling others.
They Don't Recognize Subtle Bullying
Students may not report more subtle, indirect, and relational types of bullying (such as deliberately excluding peers or spreading rumors) because they don't realize that these are also unfair, unequal ways to treat others.
They Feel Ashamed, Afraid, or Powerless
Students may not report being victims of bullying because it makes them feel shamed, afraid, and powerless. Over time, they may come to feel they deserve it. This may be particularly true of children in fourth grade and up.
Because adults rarely intervene, young people may come to believe they can bully without any consequences. Many believe that "acting bad" pays off. In fact, it may win them status with others, as children do act more friendly and respectful toward those who bully.
What Can Adults Do?
If we want children to talk to us and ask for help, we need to invite them to report. And effective adult follow-through is critical. This means "walking the talk" of bullying prevention, and addressing the power imbalances that put children who bully, those who are bullied, and bystanders at risk of perpetuating abuse. Bringing children who bully and those they bully into the same room to talk is not advisable. Intervening, making plans for behavior change, and continuing to check in on an individual basis with the students involved is best.
Adults can also give young people tools to help them evaluate when and how to report. Teaching about the distinction between reporting (telling to keep someone safe) and tattling (telling to get someone in trouble), for example, can help them make responsible decisions. This, in turn, can empower everyone in schools to help prevent inequity and suffering.
Article 4 (by National Awareness Of Bullying Committee)
What Parents Should Know About Bullying
What Is Bullying?
Bullying includes behaviors such as hitting, teasing, taunting, spreading rumors and gossip, stealing, or excluding someone from a group. Bullying actions are carried out on purpose with the intent to harm someone.
Bullying is usually a repeated activity. However, it may also occur as a one-time event. It always involves a power imbalance. The person bullying has more power due to such factors as age, size, strength, support of friends, and access to resources such as toys.
Children and adults sometimes find it difficult to recognize bullying. For example, a fight between friends or rough play between children with equal power are not bullying situations. They become bullying, however, when one person has more power and uses it to hurt, frighten, or exclude the other person.
Who Bullies?
People sometimes assume that only boys bully, but that is not true. Girls also bully others. Boys tend to use methods such as hitting, fighting, and threatening. These face-to-face behaviors are easy to observe.
Girls do bully using physical and verbal attacks, but they often use behind-the-back methods that are harder to see. These more subtle behaviors include getting peers to exclude others and spreading rumors and gossip. It's important to remember, though, that girls and boys use both face-to-face and behind-the-back methods.
What Are the Consequences of Bullying?
Bullying jeopardizes children's safety and potentially creates both short- and long-term problems for all children involved.
Children who are bullied are more likely to develop future academic problems and psychological difficulties. Serious problems such as depression and low self-esteem can result, and they can continue into adulthood.
Children who bully and continue this behavior as adults have greater difficulty developing and maintaining positive relationships. Research shows that without effective intervention, children who regularly bully others may grow up to become perpetrators of domestic violence, child abuse, hate crimes, sexual abuse, and other illegal behavior. In fact, children with bullying problems at age 8 are six times more likely to be convicted of a crime by age 24 than children who do not bully.
How Many Children Does Bullying Really Affect?
Bullying affects virtually all children. Although it is true that some children will never be bullied, research shows that children witness 85 percent of school bullying incidents. Child witnesses, or bystanders, may feel powerless to stop bullying. They may fear being bullied next. And they may feel sad or guilty about the abuse others experience. Additionally, bystanders may see those who bully succeed at getting what they want. This may tempt bystanders to take part themselves.
Isn't Bullying Just a Normal Part of Growing Up?
The many myths about bullying include the notion that bullying is a harmless childhood activity and a normal part of growing up. Confusion about the difference between conflict and bullying can fuel this myth. Although occasional peer conflict is inevitable, bullying is not inevitable. In a conflict, both sides have equal power to resolve the problem. But bullying involves the intentional, one-sided use of power to control another. Its harmful consequences can affect people seriously for the rest of their lives.
What Can You Tell Me About Bullying Between Siblings?
Some degree of conflict among siblings is to be expected. In some situations, however, sibling rivalry can develop into bullying as children jockey for power.
Given the normal amount of teasing and bickering in any family, it can be difficult for parents to know where to draw the line. Ideally, we want our children to learn to work out disagreements among themselves. But when is adult intervention necessary?
Here's a good rule of thumb: Behavior that would be unacceptable between two unrelated children is unacceptable between two siblings. When one child intentionally and consistently hurts or frightens a smaller or less powerful sibling, that's bullying--and it needs to stop. Like all forms of bullying, bullying among siblings can have long-term effects. It can damage self-esteem and set the pattern for abusive relationships in the future.
