Bullying: Experts share advice for parents, students

Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an imbalance of social or physical power. Behaviors used to assert such domination can include verbal harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion, and such acts may be directed repeatedly towards particular targets. Rationalizations for such behavior sometimes include differences of social class, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, behavior, body language, personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size or ability. If bullying is done by a group, it is called mobbing. 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.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

Types of Bullying

There are three types of bullying:

• Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
  • Teasing
  • Name-calling
  • Inappropriate sexual comments
  • Taunting
  • Threatening to cause harm
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s 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 person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes:
  • Hitting/kicking/pinching
  • Spitting
  • Tripping/pushing
  • Taking or breaking someone’s things
  • Making mean or 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 youth’s neighborhood, or on the Internet.

Frequency of Bullying

There are two sources of federally collected data on youth bullying:

• The 2010–2011 School Crime Supplement (National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics) indicates that, nationwide, 28% of students in grades 6–12 experienced bullying.
• The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) indicates that, nationwide, 20% of students in grades 9–12 experienced bullying.Research on cyberbullying is growing. However, because kids’ technology use changes rapidly, it is difficult to design surveys that accurately capture trends.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that every seven minutes a child is bullied. Bullying became a household term in the 2000’s after the issue rose to national prominence in the wake of tragic stories of children and teenagers who had taken their lives because they were being picked on in school. Bullying is defined as repeated unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance, according to StopBullying.gov. Although countless nonprofit organizations and school programs have sprouted up to tackle the issue, it seems bullying is not going away. READ MORE HERE

MORE INFO ON BULLYING:

Revealed: Shocking Bullying Statistics 2014

Bullying Statistics, The Ultimate Guide

The BULLY Project

Bullying: The advice you got is wrong. Here’s what really works 

Helping Kids Deal With Bullies – KidsHealth

Anti-bullying advice

Dr. Phil.com – Advice – Dealing with Bullies

Bullying Advice – Bullystoppers.com

Expert Advice on Bullying – Parents.com

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STOP BULLYING NOW
http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp?area=main

STUDENT VIOLENCE IN AMERICA’S SCHOOLS – A NEW YORK TIMES ISSUE IN DEPTH
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/schoolviolence/index.html

VIOLENCE PREVENTION RESOURCES
http://www.air.org/cecp/school_violence.htm

WHAT’S WRONG WITH BULLYING?
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312169/intro.html

ANTI-BULLYING NETWORK
http://www.antibullying.net/

BULLYING MYTHS – TRUE/FALSE QUIZ
http://www.melissainstitute.org/documents/BullyingMythsQuiz.pdf

OPERATION RESPECT: DON’T LAUGH AT ME
http://www.dontlaugh.org/

OUT ON A LIMB – A GUIDE TO GETTING ALONG
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/conflict/index.html

SCHOOL VIOLENCE RESOURCE CENTER
http://www.svrc.net/

THE SCHOOL VIOLENCE WATCH NETWORK
http://www.cybersnitch.net/schoolviolencewatch.htm

VIOLENCE PREVENTION
http://www.rhlschool.com/violenceprev.htm

YOUTH VIOLENCE THEME PAGE
http://www.cln.org/themes/youth_violence.html

Petition For Removal Of Cyber-bullying

http://www.petitiononline.com/102102/

To report a website or blog you think may be harassing anyone, please use these:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en#last

FBI in connection to the Internet Crime Complaint Center

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

Officer.Com

http://www.officer.com/

Anti-Bullying music video by MEGAN LANDRY!!

BULLYING SONGS

RACHAEL LYNN — “Dare to Be Different”

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ABUSE BITES, INC. —STOP BULLYING CAMPAIGN

A 501 (c) 3 Corporation Offering *Awareness *Education *Training *Resources *Healing for Schools, Workplaces, & Communities

ABUSE BITES is a non-profit organization educates the public on bullying. They are the ABC’s to stopping Abuse, Bullying, Violence, and Poverty — The Abuse Bites Corporation, helping kids, teens, adults, families, and entire communities be a safer, healthier, and productive. Founded in 2005 by lifelong Abuse Survivor, Lisa Freeman–a middle school drop out, abused runaway, who suffered through two horrifically abusive marriages. Yet at 26, this single mother, went on to college and overcame every obstacle in her path to reclaim her life. Today she’s an Award Winning Author, Speaker, the Healing Projects Specialist for the Bully Police USA, and a Certified Pet Therapist & Dog Trainer.

Abuse Bites & A Time to Heal work to raise awareness and educate communities on abuse, bullying and violence prevention to bring equality and healing to all humanity through writing, speaking, teaching, and pet therapy. Our goal is to encourage others to be the CHANGE, so we can CHANGE HEARTS & SAVE LIVES. Abuse Bites & A Time To Heal came together in 2006 after Lisa Freeman saw the devastation and effects of bullying/abuse not only in her own family and pets, but in the entire USA & World. She began doing extensive research and put the Abuse Bites educational program together to offer healing and hope, had her curriculum approved, and began speaking in schools, libraries, churches and work places all over Michigan.

What Statistics Say

• 1 out of 10 kids are bullied on a regular basis
• 40 % of all teens/kids are Cyber Bullied
• In 85% of all Playground Bullying there is no intervention
• 160,000 kids miss school every day for fear of bullying
• 1 teen dies every 1/2 hour in the USA from bullying/bullycide
• Kids who are obese, gay, or have disabilities are 63% more likely to be bullied than others
• 86% of people in the workforce experience bullying, a whopping 71.5 million, & most of them fear speaking up

PLEASE VISIT THEIR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BULLYING: www.abusebites.com

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“UGLY-TED” ANTI-BULLYING CAMPAIGN