 | Bullying: an issue that needs to be addressed
Each morning during
the school week, Adam woke up with a knot of anxiety in the pit of his stomach.
He knew that he faced bullying at school by three boys in his class. Yesterday,
they told him they would beat him up if he showed up for school today. Adam was
so nervous he pretended to be sick so he could stay home. Adam has done this a
lot over the past three months and his grades are suffering because of it.Adam is not alone. Every day there are more school absences
due to bullying than any other issue or illness. Bullying affects not only
students’ well being and academic achievement, it can negatively affect a
school’s climate and culture and it can put a school at risk for liability
issues. What is Bullying?
Dr. Dan Olweus (pronounced Ol-vay-us), pioneering researcher
on bullying and the creator of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, defines
bullying this way: “Bullying is when someone
repeatedly and on purpose says or does mean or hurtful things to another person
who has a hard time defending himself or herself.”
According to Dr. Olweus, this definition includes three
important components.
- Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted,
negative actions.
- Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over
time.
- Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength.
This imbalance of power or strength could involve a larger or older student bullying smaller or younger students. It could involve a group of students bullying one student, or a student with more "social power" bullying a less popular student.
Types of Bullying
Bullying can happen in many ways. Most types of bullying
fall into two categories: direct bullying and indirect bullying.
Direct bullying involves physical confrontations such as
hitting, kicking, shoving, and spitting; and verbal harassment such as
taunting, teasing, racial slurs; and threats and obscene gestures. Indirect bullying is more subversive and can include getting
someone to bully for you, spreading rumors, deliberately excluding someone from
a group or activity, and cyber bullying. No matter the type of bullying used, all forms are equally
harmful and can have long-lasting consequences.
How Prevalent is
Bullying?
According to the 2007 Minnesota Student Survey, 29 percent
of students reported they had been bullied once a week or more often and 55
percent of sixth grade students reported having been teased or excluded by
others in the past month. These percentages are higher than the national
average, representing nearly one in three students in our schools. In the
2006-2007 school year, there were 857 incidents of bullying resulting in
out-of-school suspension or expulsion in Minnesota schools.
Not only is bullying prevalent, but children and youth
report being extremely concerned about it. In a 2003 Harris poll of more than 2,200 girls between the
ages of 8 and 17 commissioned by the Girl Scouts of America, bullying topped
the girls’ list of concerns. When asked what they worried about the most, the
most common response was being socially ostracized—being teased or made fun
of. In fact, among 8-13 year olds,
41 percent stated that this was a major worry. They worried about it:
- two times as often as fears about terrorist
attacks, war, or natural disasters;
- 15 times as often as dying or the death of a
loved one; and
- 30 times as often as they cited fears or worries
about school or grades.
When you
consider the many different forms it can take and how prevalent it has become,
educators can no longer consider bullying something that
children just need to learn to deal with. Bullying is a form of peer abuse and
every child has a fundamental right to feel safe at school.
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