What is Bullying?
There are so many thoughts on what bullying is, and whether or not the word is thrown around so loosely that it has lost its impact. So, what is it exactly? Well, according to stopbullying.gov, bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. 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, lasting problems.
In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
- An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to 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.
What are the Types of Bullying?
- Verbal - This involves saying mean things, calling people names, making threats, and teasing.
- Social - This involves relationships and leaving someone out on purpose or spreading rumors about someone or embarrassing them.
- Physical - This involves hurting someone's body or possessions by hitting, kicking, spitting, pushing, making rude gestures, etc.
- Cyber - This involves using digital devices like cell phones and computers, and can often be done through social media, as well as emails, texts, and instant messages.
Strategies to Handle a Bully:
If You Are Being Bullied
Information from https://www.stompoutbullying.org/
- Walk away when the bully approaches you. Try and imagine you’re walking away from a stranger. Both you and your body language will show you don’t care.
- Concentrate on thinking about something else (maybe a concert you want to go to, or a new outfit you want to buy.)
- When the bully approaches you, count to 100 and keep walking. They’ll never see how upset you are.
- Yelling STOP and walk away. Keep walking and don’t turn around no matter what they say.
- When a bully calls you a name or tells you your sneakers are ugly -- look at them in the eyes and laugh hysterically and say, "I know my sneakers are ugly." Keep laughing hysterically and walk away without any additional conversation
- When the bully harasses you and calls you names, look them in the eyes, LAUGH and walk away without any additional conversation.
Information from www.Pacerkidsagainstbullying.org
If You Witness Bullying, What Can You Do?
If you see someone being bullied, speak up!
- When students are willing to say they think something is wrong, they can make a difference.
- Let others know that you don’t accept bullying at your school, and others will be more willing to speak up, too.
- If you see bullying, you can tell a grown-up. Telling is not tattling. It’s okay to tell. Reach out!
- Tell the kid who is being bullied that he or she doesn’t deserve to be treated that way. Nobody does.
- Ask friends to join you in being a kid against bullying.
Telling vs. Tattling
A lot of kids say that they don’t want to tell an adult about bullying because they don’t want to be called a tattle-tale. But there’s a big difference between “telling” and “tattling.”
- Telling: Done to protect yourself or another student from getting hurt.
- Tattling: Done to get someone in trouble.
