Menstuff® has compiled the following information on the issue of Bullying.
Schoolyard bullying is far more serious than just name-calling and teasing. It's escalated to include harassment, beatings and even death threats. GLSEN released a study on harassment and bullying in 2005. In it, 65 percent of middle school and junior high students said they had been assaulted or harassed in the previous year. The study, “From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America,” resulted from the survey of more than 3,400 teenagers and more than 1,000 teachers.
Does your school have a program to combat bullying? Ask them!
If they don't, talk with them about setting one up. The No
Name Calling Week (1/22-26/07) web site has a lot of
information on how to do that. Also see the movie - Mean
Girls and
YouTube - Girls Gone Wild
Kathy Noll, co-author of Taking
the Bully by the Horns writes a monthly column for us called
Bullies and Youth
Violence.
Dealing With
Bullies
A Bully: Not
just guys
Bullying
for Girls
Why
do Young Women Bully?
Anti-Bullying
Pledge - Students
Bullies
and Popular Kids
Transforming School
Culture for A Bully Free School
Bully
Prevention
How can a School Culture
that ends Bullying be Created?
No
Name Calling Week - January 21-25, 2008
Report
Cites Harm To Bullies And
Victims
Character lessons at
Northgate awarded
Cyberbullying
Book
Resources
Related Issues: Bullying
for Girls, Hazing,
Fraternities,
Dealing With Bullies
Dr. Phil offers some advice to Katie, her mother, and to any parent or child dealing with bullying.
"What they're doing has nothing to do with you," he says. "It's not because you're not fun or you're not a good person." If the bullies weren't giving Katie a hard time, they'd be doing it to someone else. It has nothing to do specifically with Katie or her value as a person.
Perhaps they do it to her, Dr. Phil suggests, "because they know you're nice and you won't do anything mean to them." He doesn't want Katie to stop being nice. Instead, he tells Katie to speak to the girls individually. Call one of them on the phone at home, for example, telling her that it's painful to be picked on.
Bullies are nothing more than cowards. That's why they often group together to pick on someone. When they're separated, they're gutless. That's why dealing with people individually is crucial. When you look him/her straight in the eye, he/she will begin to shrink.
When explaining to a child why others are bullies, Dr. Phil says: "Some people just are real angry, so they take it out on other people."
Advice for parents: Empower your children. Be assertive. Call the bullies' parents. Be involved. Speak with your child's teachers to make sure there's an attitude that bullying will not be tolerated.
Advice for teachers: If one child is getting bullied, it needs to
be everybody's business. Instill a value system in the classroom and
on the playground that someone who sits silently and watches a bully
is as guilty as the bully themself. Keep a spirit of inclusion —
and enforce it.
Nineteen-year-old Tiffany admits to being a bully. She says her main goal is to "piss people off." Her bullying behavior ranges from name-calling to physical attacks. "I pick on weaker kids because I think it's funny," she says.
She's gotten into physical altercations with girls at school and with her boyfriend. Tiffany recalls the fight with her boyfriend: "He called me a name and then I grabbed a cordless phone and threw it at him and broke his nose."
Tiffany has also attacked her mother Judy. "After I grounded her for lying to me, she got really upset," Judy says. "When I refused to let her go out, she physically attacked me. She was screaming and cursing, and came at me and pulled my hair." (Editor: This girl belongs in prison. On several counts of felony assault againsts other kids and against her mother and physical domestic violence against her boyfried. She deserves it but I doubt that Dr. Phil would even pose such a solution, though that would be what would happen to her boyfriend or brother, if they acted in that manner.)
What motivates children to bully? How can the victims of bullying fight back? What can students, parents and teachers do to eliminate bullies in their schools? Dr. Phil offers insight and advice, including how to launch an anti-bullying campaign in your school.
Students - www.drphil./com/advice/bully/students.html
Parents
-www.drphil./com/advice/bully/parents.html
Teachers
and faculty - www.drphil./com/advice/bully/faculty.html
We believe that everybody should enjoy our school equally, and feel safe, secure and accepted regardless of color, race, gender, popularity, athletic ability, intelligence, religion and nationality.
Bullying can be pushing, shoving, hitting, and spitting, as well as name calling, picking on, making fun of, laughing at, and excluding someone. Bullying causes pain and stress to victims and is never justified or excusable as "kids being kids," "just teasing" or any other rationalization. The victim is never responsible for being a target of bullying.
By signing this pledge, we the students agree to:
Support students who have been or are subjected to bullying.
Talk to teachers and parents about concerns and issues regarding bullying.
Work with other students and faculty, to help the school deal with bullying effectively.
Encourage teachers to discuss bullying issues in the classroom.
Provide a good role model for younger students and support them if bullying occurs.
Participate fully and contribute to assemblies dealing with bullying.
I acknowledge that whether I am being a bully or see someone being bullied, if I don't report or stop the bullying, I am just as guilty.
Signed by: _______________________________________
Print name: _______________________________________
Date:__________________
Source: www.drphil.com/search/search_results.jhtml?_DARGS=%2FIncludes%2Finc_searchform_ad.jhtml.5
There are many organizations expert in dealing with troubled teens. Outlined below are three specific recommended resources:
KidsPeace National Center for Kids Overcoming Crisis,
www.kidspeace.org
,
teen web site at www.teencentral.net
,
crisis hotline 800.334.4543
National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.SUICIDE (784-2433) The blue pages of your local phone book is probably one of the most comprehensive resources available. It lists regional and national crisis hotlines, as well as self-help organizations and support groups in your local area.
Bullying Online. This web site, out of the U.K., features
extensive information on the subject, including advice for parents,
students, and teachers; legal advice; helpful links and tips; and
ideas for school projects to stop bullying. www.bullying.co.uk
Report
Cites Harm To Bullies And Victims
Cruelty ever proceeds from a vile mind, and often from a cowardly heart. - Ludovico Ariosto
|
|
 |
