Bullying:
An old problem gets new attention

In April 1999, two boys showed up at Columbine High School carrying a full arsenal of weapons under their trenchcoats. After several terrifying hours, a teacher and a dozen students lay dead. It was later determined that the boys had been ceaselessly bullied by classmates, and this was a motivating factor in their quest for revenge.

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The severity of the Columbine tragedy focused attention on bullying in America’s schools. Subsequent studies have revealed the incredible danger lurking behind actions and confrontations that generations have dismissed as a “rite of passage” or a way to “toughen a kid up.” We’ve now learned that many of tomorrow’s criminals are students who are either bullying other children or are themselves the target of bully behaviors.

In a study on criminal behavior, researchers considered an untold number of variables. The only common denominator they could identify was that 80 percent of the criminals studied had been victims of bullies.
A 2003 study shows that by age 24, nearly 60 percent of boys who researchers classified as bullies in grades 6-9 were convicted of at least one crime, and 40 percent of those had three or more convictions.
A U.S. Secret Service study of school shootings found that almost three-quarters of the attackers felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others prior to the school shootings.

The staggering statistics and evidence of long-term consequences continue. Many young women who are the victims of date violence had been bullied; loneliness, depression and suicidal tendencies often are at least partially rooted in bullying; and good students who suffer a decline in academic achievement, start skipping school and even drop out frequently cite bullying as a primary problem. Students age 8-15 cite teasing and bullying as “big problems,” above drugs, alcohol, racism, AIDS or pressure to have sex.

Bullying vs. teasing

“It’s hard many times to tell the difference between bullying and teasing,” says Crystal Heinz, coordinator of school-based training with SafePlace, an Austin-based nonprofit agency that has developed the nationally recognized Expect Respect program and works with schools to prevent bullying, dating violence and sexual harassment. With teasing, the students have equal physical or psychological power and usually they are friends who remain friends, Heinz says. Although specific definitions vary, most researchers agree that bullying includes the following elements:

harm and humiliation are intended;
there is an imbalance of physical or psychological power between bully and victim; and
the bullying action is repetitive, occurring over a period of time. Although single acts of aggression must be addressed, most students who experience an occasional unpleasant or even aggressive act in school are able to handle such incidents.

Child behaviors range from play to criminal activity, and understanding the differences is critical to properly addressing bullying problems. “Play” typically involves calling one another names, horseplay and similar activities generally handled by classroom discipline. Although many teaching professionals ignore such behaviors, experts agree that small acts of aggression and misbehavior that are left unchecked frequently escalate and, therefore, must be addressed in a school or district’s overall bullying prevention strategy. The other end of the spectrum, “delinquent or criminal behavior,” involves the use of weapons, physical harm, serious threats or property damage, and is best handled by administrators, police, courts or other authorities. Behaviors classified as “bullying” are between these two extremes, and can be divided into four categories:

Physical (hitting, pushing, punching, kicking)
Emotional (verbal, using words intended to humiliate or hurt, such as teasing, racial slurs or insults)
Relational (peer exclusion and rejection through rumors, lies, embarrassment and manipulation; most frequent among girls)
Bystander victimization (those who witness bullying but feel they do not have the power to intervene or fear being the bully’s next target)

Bullying is not restricted to boys, although they experience higher rates of both bullying and being bullied than do their female classmates. A study released in summer 2003, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, found that 26 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls said they bullied others on a moderate-to-frequent basis, while 21 percent of boys and another 14 percent of girls said they were bully victims on a moderate-to-frequent basis.

“Our surveys show that 30 percent of students have been bullied and 70 percent have been bystanders, meaning they witnessed the victimization,” says Heinz. “This makes bullying everyone’s issue.”

Physical bullying peaks in grades 4 through 7, while verbal bullying appears to remain constant throughout all grade levels. When children transition to middle school, there is an increase in controlling/manipulative behavior and more covert bullying tactics, such as verbal teasing and social exclusion. In high school, aggression often takes the form of sexual harassment.

“It never goes away…bullies just change their methods as they get older” Heinz says. “We all know adults who are bullies.”

“Not in my school”

Most bullying happens during school hours in areas where there is limited or no adult supervision, including at lunchtime, between periods and during recess, says Dr. Dorothy Espelage, associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a national expert on bullying prevention. Despite the popular notion of “not in my school,” bullying happens in schools large and small, urban and rural.

“I’ve been in schools across the country and I’ve never seen a school with no bullying,” Espelage says. “I was in one classroom where a teacher said there wasn’t a problem, but as soon as her back was turned I saw lots of problems.” Espelage also has witnessed bullying in hallways, “taking place right under the eyes of teachers standing outside their rooms.”

“Teachers have to do more than stand there and watch the behavior,” she says, “but they’re exhausted, it’s between classes and many consider the classroom their territory and that’s it.” Espelage also hears concerns that bully prevention programs will add to a teacher’s already overloaded work schedule.

“I’ve had teachers tell me, ‘if I intervened every time, that’s all I’d do,’ and that may be true if you don’t establish guidelines and have clear consequences,” she says. “Intervention might create more work at first, but it will get better.” Teachers often feel powerless and unskilled to handle bullying situations and, therefore, fail to appropriately intervene; simply telling the students to “work it out themselves” is not appropriate intervention, Espelage points out.

The best approach to combating the problem is to involve students, parents, faculty and staff, she says. A districtwide program is ideal; a schoolwide program is the next-best thing. But even one teacher making an effort to address the problem can make a difference.

“There has to be someone in the school who will take the lead,” Espelage says. “Usually it’s a teacher who maybe goes to a seminar and gets inspired, goes back to school and becomes the ‘bully guru.’ That person enlists the support of others…” and the movement gathers momentum.

Many schools are installing video cameras thinking this will help deter violence, but often no one watches recorded material and it doesn’t take long before the camera’s effectiveness is lost, Espelage says. Every school is different, and to properly assess what is happening at any given school that campus must be analyzed. The best resource for knowledge is the students: they know the “hot spots” where bullying occurs and will tell a great deal if they believe the adults are listening. Besides a climate survey, a schoolwide bully prevention program should include a leadership team to guide efforts and to organize staff training, incorporate material into the existing curriculum, establish policies that will be understood by all and uniformly enforced, and develop parent education programs. With a districtwide program, the leadership team can help ensure consistency on all campuses.

What NOT to do

One common mistake is to put bully and victim together to discuss the problem, but typically this further humiliates the victim and makes the bully feel even more powerful, says Heinz of SafePlace. The victim and other students should see the bully being stopped and know that the student will be reprimanded for bully behaviors. Conversations with bully and victim, however, should be held separately and in private.

Another mistake is placing the bully in a detention program with, yes, other bullies, Espelage says. “Don’t put bullies together. They’ll learn from each other.” Peer mediation programs also have low success rates for bullying problems, she says. For these programs to be successful, students must share the same capacity for mediation, and in 99 percent of bullying situations this is not the case.

Helping the victim

A student may tell a teacher when bullying begins, but the child is unlikely to mention subsequent problems if that initial report is not taken seriously or if nothing is done to help, Espelage says. When talking with a child about being bullied, experts recommend the following:

Listen, and don’t makes excuses for the bully.
Avoid blaming the victim. This may be difficult with a child who cries easily, but is very important.
Find out what the bullied child needs to feel safe.
Keep a written record.
Don’t encourage fighting back. In most situations, a victim’s use of force will fuel the conflict instead of discouraging the bully.

Gently question the child to understand what happened, where it occurred and what led to the incident. The victim may express concern that the situation will be worse if the bully learns an adult was consulted. Offer as much support as possible, work with others to help the child feel secure, and stress that concealing the problem only protects the bully and in all likelihood ensures a future encounter. The student’s parents, school counselors, peers and older children can help support the victim and make him/her feel empowered to face the situation. Methods to help might include the following:

suggest a buddy system for walking to/from school, while waiting for the bus or during lunch periods;
encourage the student’s involvement in activities that will put him/her into social situations with other children, perhaps helping to craft friendships and reduce the victim’s feelings of isolation; and
discuss behaviors that might make the bully uncomfortable and more likely to leave the victim alone during confrontations, such as grinning and walking rather than bursting into tears (at least in front of the bully); altering body language so the student stands up straight rather than slouching; making eye contact rather than looking away; and doing the unexpected, such as being loud rather than timid when the bully is approaching.

Follow-through with the victim also is important, Espelage notes. The teacher or other adult the child initially trusted should check with the victim on a regular basis to be certain the bullying is not continuing. If problems persist, the bully should face additional, more serious consequences.

Dealing with the bully

Experts agree that bullies have their own set of problems that must be addressed. It is not enough to stop individual acts of aggression. One situation might be stopped, but in all probability the bully will find another victim to terrorize.

Bullies should be invited to explain their perceptions of what happened, and teachers must be prepared for reactions that the student is being “singled out” or treated unfairly. Bullying behaviors such as teasing, pushing or hitting should be included in the school and district discipline policies and punishment must be uniformly administered. The same rules apply to all students; stressing this might help dispel the bully’s feelings of being targeted.

The traditional view of overly aggressive children is that they suffer from low self-esteem and crave attention. In these cases, it often helps for a teacher to stress the student’s good qualities and encourage activities at which the student might excel. Experts suggest using praise and tangible rewards in the classroom to reinforce the absence of negative behaviors and, especially, cooperative work with other students.

New research is changing the bully profile, Espelage says. Rather than being lonely and depressed, more and more studies indicate that bullies are psychologically strong, popular and thought of as “cool” by their peers. The victims, however, receive little sympathy. Given these new findings, researchers are starting to focus on the bully’s peer group and the larger student population. The importance of having the entire student body involved in bully prevention is becoming more and more apparent.

Turning other students into “courageous bystanders”

Often, students who witness bullying do not help because they are fearful of becoming the next target. This leaves the victim feeling isolated while giving the bully additional feelings of power and authority.

It is important to create a climate of respect and inclusion, Heinz notes. This includes teaching and encouraging students to work together to become “courageous bystanders” who will help. Explaining to all students that “we don’t do that here” also says, “and you have permission to help make sure it doesn’t happen.”

“It is better to be a swim teacher than a lifeguard,” Espelage says. Classroom discussions accomplish this by helping student bystanders understand the need to prevent bullying and by helping them know how to intervene so they themselves don’t get hurt. These lessons can be reinforced with role-playing activities, which help bystanders and even bullies have more compassion for the victim. During class activities, experts note, it is important to use hypothetical situations and never to focus attention on either a particular bully or a victim.

Like the victim, bystanders need to feel empowered to deal with bullying situations. Class activities should teach students the following:

Intervene as a group. The bully typically will leave the victim alone and not turn on another student if there are several standing together saying “quit it.”
Do not reinforce the bully with laughter, verbal encouragement or by repeating rumors.
Do not quietly watch bullying take place. Either intervene in a group or go seek adult help.
Invite the victim to be part of a group activity.
Reduce the social rewards for bullying by making it unpopular and uncool to mistreat or exclude others.

“Students must be willing to intervene, and if we have more environmental safety we can expect kids to be courageous bystanders,” Heinz says. “Bullying is not a new problem, but we’re taking a new look at it.”

Dr. Dorothy Espelage, associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a national expert on bullying prevention, presented two continuing professional education seminars at TCTA’s 2004 Convention. These two seminars on bully behaviors in the school/classroom will be offered later this year as online seminars available through the TCTA Web site.

RESOURCES

SafePlace (512) 267-SAFE www.austin-safeplace.org	Bully Busters: A Teacher’s Manual Research Press (800) 519-2707 rp@researchpress.com
Blueprints for Violence Prevention (303) 492-1032 www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints	Quit it! A Teacher’s Guide on Teasing and Bullying (grades K-3) Educational Equity Concepts (212) 243-1110 www.edequity.org/quitit.php
Operation Respect: Don’t Laugh at Me Founded by Peter Yarrow (212) 904-5243 www.operationrespect.org	Wellesley Centers for Women (781) 283-2500 www.wcwonline.org/bullying/index.html
Bullying Behavior: Current issues, research and interventions Edited by R.A. Geffner, M.T. Loring and C. Young The Haworth Press (800) 429-6784 www.HaworthPress.com	And Words Can Hurt Forever: How to Protect Adolescents from Bullying, Harassment and Emotional Violence By James Garbarino and Ellen deLara www.simonandschuster.com