Is There a Bully in Your School?
written by Rachel Hesse
In the classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin is sometimes approached by the bully, Moe. According to Calvin, Moe is the only six-year-old who shaves. Traditionally, Moe asks Calvin for money, threatens to pound him, and Calvin either gives in and Moe leaves, or Calvin resists and ends up with his face slammed into the ground.
Unfortunately, bullying in real life is not funny, nor is it entertaining. Bullying is defined as an instance when one person purposefully hurts or mistreats another with the aim to cause pain to that person. Obvious forms of bullying are physical violence such as kicking, hitting, shoving, or tripping. Verbal bullying includes name calling, threatening, severe teasing, and racial slurring. However, bullying can take on less direct forms such as spreading lies or rumors about a person, excluding someone from activities, and encouraging social stigmas.
One common bond between children who experience bullying is that many are targeted for their differences. Prominent facial features such as a nose or ears, or even wearing glasses, can be clear opportunities for bullies. Children with different sexual orientations, religious beliefs, or racial background also have a higher chance of becoming the target of bullying. However, few individuals are completely immune to bullying.
While bullying may not be an enormous issue in every student's life, it is a part of many students' school experiences. In May, the "American School Board Journal" reported the finds of a National School Boards Association's Council of Urban Boards of Educations survey of 32,000 students from 15 different urban schools. They discovered that while 60 percent of students feel safe at school, 50 percent reported witnessing bullying at least monthly.
Unfortunately, by merely standing by and not stepping in, observers unintentionally give their approval to bullies. When by-standers watch bullying without doing anything, it reinforces the bully's bad behavior and allows him or her to believe that it is acceptable and allowed to be repeated.
Because of this, many schools establish peer groups to work as anti-bullying teams. These peer groups through programs such as Anti-Bullying Alliance, Beat Bullying, and Kidscape, train peer advocates so that they are equipped to identify, address, and prevent bullying. According to the "Education Journal," schools that implemented such programs saw 60-80 percent fewer cases of bullying requiring teacher intervention.
The key to making these peer groups succeed is shifting the attitudes of students from looking to negative peer models to looking to positive peer models. The way to do this is to have peers and staff work closely together in this process so that students see that staff and teachers consider bullying to be a serious, important issue, and to see the same attitude mirrored in peers who then transfer that attitude to their friends and other students. The result is a top-down reform of schools and attitudes towards bullying.
In order to fully address bullying, schools, students, and victims must understand the bully. According to the "Paediatric Nursing" periodical, one study showed that there is a direct link between depression and bullying. Stressors such as unstable family life, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or a disability can cause a child to express his or her anger and frustration through aggression played out in bullying. At the same time, these stressors may induce the onset of depression. Thus, the same stressors that cause bullying may also cause depression. Bullies tend to experience more negative feelings towards themselves and have lower self-esteem than many of their victims.
On the other side, the periodical reported a conflicting study that showed there to be no direct link between depression and bullying. Many bullies seem to have plenty of friends, fit in at school, and are well-liked. This could lead to why bullies bully-their self-esteem may be maintained by their ability to make others feel inferior.
Regardless of the mental state of bullies, the outcome is the same. Whether a bully is depressed or not, he or she bullies out of the attempt to feel secure, well-liked, and less capable of being hurt. Thus, whether a bully suffers from low self-esteem or high self-esteem, the goal is to encourage bullies to find their security in positive ways rather than in hurting other people.
In dealing with these bullies, it is important that students be equipped with tools to protect themselves. Asking nurses for help and suggestions is a good idea. School nurses have experience addressing issues with bullies because they often come into contact with students who have been physically hurt as a result of bullying. Also, peer groups can help bully victims feel safer and protected while discouraging bullies from receiving reinforcement for their bad behavior.
While Calvin's advice about dealing with Moe is, "Never argue with a six-year-old who shaves," there are ways that students and administration can learn to address and change bullying. Seeing bullies as individuals in need of control and a sense of solidarity in their lives, whether as a results of low self-esteem or heightened self-esteem, can help administration understand how to address the issue of bullies. It can also help victims understand that bullying is a result of the perpetrator's failings, and not their own.
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