What is Bullying?
Bullying is about control and occurs when someone deliberately and repeatedly exhibits hurtful behavior toward another person in an attempt to gain power over them. It is difficult for those being bullied to stop the cycle as it leads to alienation and isolation. feelings of powerlessness, low self-esteem, and hopelessness.
Bullying occurs in many forms and often takes place in secret, denying the person being bullied the opportunity to defend themselves or speak their own truth. Bystanders are afraid to speak out against false rumors, malicious gossip, and other forms of bullying out of fear of making themselves a target. When incidents of bullying are reported to school administrators or trusted teachers, kids are labeled as snitches or tattle-tales," However, standing up against bullying is an attempt to help someone who is being hurt.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are four distinct types of bullying:
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Teasing, name calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, and/or threatening to cause harm.
Social bullying, or relational bullying, involves hurting someone's reputation or relationships, leaving someone out on purpose, telling other children not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone, and/or embarrassing someone in public.
Physical bullying involves hurting a person's body or possessions, hitting, kicking, punching, spitting, tripping, pushing, taking or breaking someone's things, and/or making mean or rude hand gestures.
Cyber bullying takes place over digital devices like cellphones, computers, and tablets and can occur through text, apps, online social media, forums, or gaming sites. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation, and can sometimes cross the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.
Unfortunately, when children are being bullied, uninformed adults will often shrug it off as drama, gossip, or kids just being kids, and criticize the person being bullied for making a big deal out of nothing, not being able to handle it, or for being too sensitive. It is also not uncommon for trusted administrators and teachers to essentially join in by either allowing inappropriate conversations to take place openly in classrooms, or by injecting themselves into the dialogue.
Telling
Done to protect yourself or another from getting hurt.
Tattling
Done to get someone in trouble.
Let them work it out!
It's teenage girl "stuff"
It's a rite of passage
Drama
Bullying in Disguise
He's a crybaby
You're too
sensitive!
Gossip
They're just
teenagers
Boys will be boys
