Bullying in America’s
Schools: Epic Sensitivity or Ethical Epidemic?
By: Elizabeth Dehn
Minnesota School of
Business
December 7, 2014
Abstract
Although most
can agree that bullying exists in all schools in America, the consensus about
eradication and education past this behavior is a bit more split. Some feel
that bullying is a regular course of behavior for kids and immature humans.
They feel that there is a natural tendency of childhood to tease and poke fun
at what is different. Others believe that these behaviors are life and death
and can be destructive cultural patterns with deep roots. Is there a way to
eliminate any blind-spot on school grounds or is it more productive to focus on
teaching children how to navigate them? Through
interviewing an elementary school principal and nurse and a 5th
grade girl, I explore the underworks and perceptions by the parties who are
most affected by these behaviors, the students and their leaders (the teachers,
administration & supportive staff). I conclude that this is not an issue of
epic sensitivity and rather is an ethical epidemic that will only be changed
effectively by those who are modeling the behaviors and educating the
offenders. Support must be
given to all parties involved in a way that does not judge, condemn or punish.
Instead it must hold the strong peer groups and the students accountable for
their actions and have a planned strategy for restitution and rehabilitation
for repeat offenders while empowering students to take reasonable actions that
will diffuse the situation or at least separate the parties involved.
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Bullying in America’s
Schools: Epic Sensitivity or Ethical Epidemic?
Bullying
and other abusive behaviors to peers are likely as old as civilization and man
himself. Bully the verb means to “treat abusively, or affect by means of force
or coercion.” (Merriam-Webster) This is a social
issue that knows no bounds and has devastating effects on individuals. From www.stopbullying.gov the research
supports that bullying effects not only the individual who has been bullied but
also the individual who is bullying and others, including bystanders and even
family members of the parties effected.
This behavior clearly affects the
parties involved and any witnesses and therefore is a social issue and problem
to address. Per that site, “Bullying can affect everyone—those who are bullied,
those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many
negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and
suicide.” (U.S. Department of Health &
Human Services)
This social problem must be addressed in a way that allows for the curiosity
associated with those who are different, the strategy involved must embrace the
diversity and prove its benefits to the evolution of the community.
The way to stop this behavior is to
educate and support behavior that transcends this child-like reaction of name
calling and witty yet abusive remarks. Instead our culture needs to cultivate
better ethics and a higher sense of accountability and support from peer groups
to ensure the support is there for growth.
The Interviews: Principal, School Nurse, and
Fifth Grader
When I interviewed the principal
and school nurse at the same school that I interviewed the fifth-grade girl. I
asked similar questions in hopes of finding where the inconsistencies in
perception were most obvious.
For one, the administration thinks
it is way more ‘under control’ than the student body, who thinks the policies
are just in place to make parents think good things are happening at school.
The principal when asked, felt that the policies for talking to the students
and supporting better choices were effective in deterring repeat offenses when
it came to bullying. In addition, the principal was keen to make sure and say
that he felt it was a result of the policies being re-iterated by the teachers
and other staff of the schools.
When the principal asked if he felt
he was doing everything he could to deter and deal with bullying incidents, he
was quick to say yes he did feel he was. On my other interview, I learned about
effective group overlap and repeat offenders. The school nurse seemed to think
that there were more repeat offenders than rookies-of-the-day so to speak. When
I persisted about the possibly repetitive nature of the victims and offenders
lists and asked about cross-over, she had no choice but to admit that there are
trends that cannot be ignored. She went on to say that in her years at the
school in question some who tended towards bullying behavior as kindergarteners
still behave in that way as pre-teen fifth graders.
Whether you have heard about new
initiatives and laws regarding bullying in schools or not, I caution you to
consider your own childhood. Did you know the blind spots and/or open
opportunities that existed in your educational environment? If you were so
inclined to act inappropriately then of course you would choose this window.
This is a prevailing theme in much of my research as well. Many articles state
that although there are initiatives and community activities to raise
awareness, these behaviors are still pervasive and the bullies just speak under
their breath instead.
Many Solutions Offered
So although in black and white and
according to the teaching staff, the issue is addressed and diminishing, I
suggest another end-route has been created so that the bullies can strike where
they lack consequences. Blind spots are a good example but the internet is a
better one. Cyber-bullying exists even for grade-school kids that share
comments on an online game. Is the lack of accountability at the heart of this
epidemic? Could a good dose of accountability and support for peer-modeling of
ethics be what this social issue really needs? How do you hold children
accountable in a way that does not judge or condemn their behavior and instead
supports their growth past the ignorance?
A local organization has formed to
be advocates of bullied children with the goal of stopping the cycle of
violence. www.youthfrontiers.org is
run by the Pacer center and has an amazing list of initiatives, resources, and
links for parents who want to get help or find ways to get involved in this
social issue. One of the most amazing concepts I have found on this issue, as
expressed to me by the fifth grader I interviewed, is the ICI method.
This method is described on a pdf I
found by Youth Frontiers and taught via Kindness Retreats for local
schoolchildren. Per the article, “ICI: Three Steps to Being a Hero: ICI stands
for ‘Interrupt-Compliment-Invite Away.’
This is a technique for students to
safely disrupt bullying situations without putting themselves in harm’s way.
First the student interrupts the situation by calling the victim’s name
(students should not engage the bully at any time); next, the student
compliments the victim; finally, the student invites the victim away from the
bullying situation to a safe place.” (Youth Frontiers Inc., 2011) .
This is genius-level diffusion
strategy in my opinion. I feel that the implementation and support of this
strategy by peer groups would go a long way to disrupt the cycle of verbal and
physical abuse in our American schools. This is the strategy that the fifth
grader I interviewed believes would also be effective, if as she put it, “kids
really did that when someone is bullying.”
The Roles Involved
The nerdy, dorky or ‘different’
students were those who were bullied when I was growing up yet I now think it
is a bit different today. The fifth-grader that I interviewed said that if you
considered yourself a nerd or did exceptionally well in school that made you
popular, not a target. She also explained to me that the majority of the
children she sees bullied are different in appearance, culture, behavior or any
combination of the three. I asked her a list of questions regarding the
incidents, whose responsibility it is to ensure the educational environment,
and what she thought should be done by whom. Her answers were a bit different
than I anticipated. She felt that bullying would be around as long as students
who were different were present. When asked about responsibility and authority
over the issue, she stated that it was the teachers and ultimately the
principal that should be responsible for working on a resolution.
Whether you think that kids are over-sensitive
these days or that bullying is as old as man, you must consider that there is a
more productive way for our youth to socialize and interact.
I think that starting with
Generation X & Y it was more about status and materials for peer relationships
and that trend has snowballed into this digital age our Millennials will
eventually lead. I feel we could do so much more adding accountability and
support systems that focused on breaking the cycle through peer-support and
education. There is another organization called www.bystanderrevolution.org which
is adding an opportunity and a tone of accountability to those who are standing
by when this behavior happens. ByStanderRevolution focuses on “Simple acts of
kindness, courage, and inclusion anyone can use to take the power out of
bullying.” (ByStander Revolution)
My unique approach to this problem
involves this diffusion by bystanders and supportive behavior modeling from peer-groups
but it goes one step further to make it easy for the victim to be heard. I feel
that anonymous tip lines and a way to submit a complaint anonymously regarding
bullying would go a long way in protecting the victim yet making sure there was
a way to hold the perpetrator accountable without exposing the victim to
further hassle from the bully.
The fifth grade student I interviewed was the
most open-minded about my idea and thought it would go far in giving students
the push they needed to come forward. The administrators, the principal and
school nurse, claimed that anonymity already exists for the victim involved,
making it clear to me that this was one area of major discrepancy in perception
from the children to the adults.
Whether we can end bullying in our
schools once-and-for-all or not, we must do more to cultivate accountability
and support anonymity so that victims can feel comfortable coming forward. We
must also cultivate practices in peer-groups that are similar to the ICI method
described in this paper and intend to diffuse and stop these situations before
they escalate. I feel that much more should be done to hold the children
accountable.
Implementation Plan
·
Step 1: Announce New Strategy and call on
suggestions from students, teachers & parents.
·
Step 2: Compile suggestions and the objectives
described here (accountability, peer support, diffusion, education)
·
Step 3: Announce Anonymous tip line and email
address and new policy for dealing with accusations of bullying. This process
should be known by all at school and include meeting with both parents and an
authority figure with the school where the student is asked about peer
relationships and given the opportunity to get appropriate support for the
situation. It should also include a process for false accusations.
·
Step 4: Implement new policy and test-run for a
set period of time (3-6 months to one school year.)
·
Step 5: Compile data relating to invested
resources, incidents that occurred, and suggestions from the school staff and
students as to how they felt the newly implemented process worked toward
providing the most comfortable educational environment for all students.
·
Step 6: Re-design plan if needed and re-launch
with new initiatives, plans and timeline for evaluation.
There is a reason to re-evaluate the plan and success of any
plan to support decreasing a social issue and concern that is affecting the
community. The most startling statistics that I found were from 2007 and the Stanford Medicine website, “Nine out of
10 elementary students have been bullied by their peers, according to a simple
questionnaire developed by researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
and the Stanford University School of Medicine. What's more, nearly six in 10
children surveyed in the preliminary study reported participating in some type
of bullying themselves in the past year.” (Conger, 2007) The one thing that I
know for sure is that a child that feels safe at school learns much more than
one that is scared to go there.
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| http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tennie-mccarty/bullying-and-body-image_b_2812718.html |
References
ByStander Revolution. (n.d.). About Us. Retrieved
Dec 1, 2014, from http://www.bystanderrevolution.org/about
Conger, K. (2007, Apr). School Bullying Affects
Majority of Elementary Students Stanford/Packard Researchers Find. Stanford
Medical: News Center. Retrieved Dec 1, 2014, from
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2007/04/school-bullying-affects-majority-of-elementary-students-stanfordpackard-researchers-find.html
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Definition of Bully. Retrieved
Dec 2, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bully
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
(n.d.). Effects of Bullying. stopbullying.gov. Retrieved Dec 1, 204,
from http://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/effects/index.html
Youth Frontiers Inc. (2011). Youth Frontiers
Kindness Retreat Primer. Retrieved Dec 1, 2014, from
http://www.youthfrontiers.org/downloads/KindnessRetreatPrimer.pdf
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