Ariel B. Fair

There are two types of bullying: - Physical and Cyberbullying - Bullying includes: spreading rumors, making threats, excluding someone from a group, and physically or verbally taunting someone. - Bullying can happen at school, in the neighborhood, on the playground or on the bus.

 We give children labels which makes them feel like their behavior is impossible to change.  We laugh at the teasing.  We occasionally join in.  We do nothing to stop it.  We defend the bully or the child being bullied.

 We often give the children labels that makes them feel as if change is inevitable. When we see people being bullied we give them the title “victim” to sympathize with them. It tells them that we understand what is happening, but it doesn’t provide a solution. We look at the people being bullied as being physically weak which puts them in a vulnerable state of mind.  Bully: We give the bullies names. When confronting the bully, as a society people tend to make excuses on why people are bullies. We point out things like family issues or low self esteem. This sends a sign that what they are doing is ok because they struggling with adaptation to their environments.  Worse of all we say things like, “children will be children”.

 We laugh at the teasing which encourages the bullying. Laughing at the bullying not only makes the victim feel weaker because they cannot control the situation, but it makes the bully feel as if he or she can dominate the smaller person.  When we laugh, we give the bully an audience.  The teasing won’t stop, it will only get worse until the bully finds someone else to torture.

 Sometimes when we see extremely funny things occur, we tend to make jokes.  Joking doesn’t always include the routine point and laugh, but saying things that hurts the feelings of others.  We often do not say anything because we don’t know how. We can’t always stop it because sometimes speaking up makes us targets.  Sometimes we want to tell but we can’t. Society makes people believe that it is against some type of rules to tell. “Stitches get stitches”, is an example of a phrase to intimidate people from doing the right thing.

 We don’t always stand up to the bully. We sometimes encourage the behavior by using excuses to defend actions.  We can point fingers and place the blame on the victim by making it seem like the situation was their fault.  We never encourage the child being bullied to stand up for themselves, until its to late.  When the bullying gets old, the adolescent being bullied reaches an emotional break that can cause them to hurt themselves, their peers, and others that may not be directly related to the incident.

10 years old from Chadbourn, NC. She was found hanging in her closet by her grandmother and mom. She was bullied for months because of her clothes and shoes; the school administration knew about it, but did nothing.

 Includes sending threatening messages via text, or some type of social network.  Rumors can reach a large group of people.  Threats are made public.  The person being threatened is embarrassed publicly.

Victim of cyber bullying. Her boyfriend sent nude pictures to everyone in her school after they broke up, She switched schools but was still known as the naked girl from the pictures. She attended the funeral of another classmate who was bullied to death. Two months after that funeral, her parents essentially had to plan hers because she hung herself.

 Model ways for adolescents to make friends positively.  Teach younger children the consequences of bad actions.  Teach younger children the power of apologies. -Older Adolescents-  Encourage young adults to talk to someone when they encounter a problem.  Report criminal acts to law enforcement and school officials.  Determine if the behavior is sexual harassment.  Report cyber bullies. “Report or hide story on Facebook.”

 We have all been bullied or bullies. To many people are being negatively affected by these threatening behaviors that was once seen as a source of children having fun. If you see someone getting bullied, don’t be afraid to say something because you can be saving someone else’s life.

   “Jessica Logan”