October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month

October is Bullying Prevention Awareness Month

The End of Bullying Begins with me is the message during National Bullying Prevention Month.  Students and adults are encouraged to take an active role in bullying prevention to inspire, educate and involve others to prevent bullying. 

What is bullying?

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. There are four broad forms of bullying, including, Physical Bullying, Verbal Bullying, Cyber Bullying, and Social Bullying.  Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions.  Physical bullying includes:  hitting, kicking, pinching, spitting, tripping, pushing, taking or breaking someone’s things, and making mean or rude hand gestures. Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things.  Verbal bullying includes teasing, name-calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, and threatening to cause harm. Cyber bullying is defined as bullying using electronic devices, such as cell phones, computers, and tablets, or other communication tools, including social media sites, text messages, chat rooms, and websites.  Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes: leaving someone out on purpose, telling other children not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone, and embarrassing someone in public.

Research states the following characteristics to be the reasons most students are bullied:

• Appearance or body size
• Perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender
• Degree of masculinity or femininity
• Performance in school
• Race/ethnicity/national origin and/or religion
• Low-income household
• Youth with disabilities and other special health needs

The following are common myths about students who bully:

* Students who bully are loners.

* Students who bully have low self-esteem and are insecure.

* Bully occurs because students want attention.

* Bullying behavior is a normal part of children being children.

* Only boys bully others.

The following are possible indicators of students who are bullied:

* Physical signs like torn, damaged, or soiled clothing; unexplained cuts, bruises, and     scratches; missing or damaged personal items like books or homework without a credible explanation.

* Students who are socially isolated.

* Students who become truant or have frequent claims of physical ailments in order to be allowed to go home.

* Students who begin doing poorly in school and receive declining grades.

Source:

http://www.stopbullying.gov