BULLYING

DEFINITION
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school students .The behavior is
repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied
and who bully others may have serious problems. In order to be considered
bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
AN IMBALANCE OF POWER: Kids who bully use their powersuch as
physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularityto control
or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different
situations, even if they involve the same people.
REPETITION: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential
to happen more than once.
TYPES OF BULLYING
There are three types of bullying:
VERBAL BULLYING is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
Teasing
Name-calling
Taunting
Threatening to cause harm
SOCIAL BULLYING, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting
someones reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
Leaving someone out on purpose
Telling other children not to be friends with someone
Spreading rumors about someone
Embarrassing someone in public
PHYSICAL BULLYING involves hurting a persons body or possessions. Physical
bullying includes:
Hitting/kicking/pinching
Spitting
Tripping/pushing
Taking or breaking someones things
Making rude hand gestures.
WHERE AND WHEN BULLYING HAPPENS
Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying
happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places
like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school, in
the youths neighborhood.

Early intervention and effective discipline and boundaries truly is the best way to stop
bullying, but parents of the victims or therapists cannot change the bullys home
environment. Some things can be done at the school level, however.
1. Most school programs that address bullying use a multi-faceted
approach to the problem. This usually involves counseling of some
sort, either by peers, a school counselor, teachers, or the principal.
2. Hand out questionnaires to all students and teachers and discuss if
bullying is occurring. Define exactly what constitutes bullying at
school. The questionnaire is a wonderful tool that allows the school to
see how widespread bullying is and what forms it is taking. It is a
good way to start to address the problem.
3. Get the childrens parents involved in a bullying program. If parents of
the bullies and the victims are not aware of what is going on at
school, then the whole bullying program will not be effective.
Stopping bullying in school takes teamwork and concentrated effort
on everyones part. Bullying also should be discussed during parentteacher conferences and PTA meetings. Parental awareness is key.
4. In the classroom setting, all teachers should work with the students
on bullying. Oftentimes even the teacher is being bullied in the
classroom and a program should be set up that implements teaching
about bullying. Children understand modeling behaviors and role-play
and acting out bullying situations is a very effective tool. Have
students role-play a bullying situation.
Rules that involve bullying behaviors should be clearly posted.
Schools also could ask local mental health professionals to speak to
students about bullying behaviors and how it directly affects the
victims.
5. Schools need to make sure there is enough adult supervision at
school to lessen and prevent bullying.
A child who has to endure bullying usually suffers from low self-esteem and their ability
to learn and be successful at school is dramatically lessened. Schools and parents
must educate children about bullying behaviors; it will help all children feel safe and
secure at school. Children who bully need to be taught empathy for others feelings in

order to change their behaviors and the school must adopt a zero-tolerance policy
regarding bullying.