Saratoga News
Education
School bullies: It's shocking the damage they can inflict
By Joseph DiSalvo
If 25 percent of America's children were at risk of contracting West Nile virus, we would pour millions, if not billions, of dollars into strategies to eradicate the causal factors. In fact, in some areas of Santa Clara County we have had aerial spraying to eliminate the perpetrating mosquito.
Did you know we have a similar menace in schools across the country?
It's the school bully. Bullying behavior is similar to a mosquito quenching his thirst by sucking blood from an innocent victim. According to a summative finding of a 2002 California student survey, one out of four children are victims of bullying on school property because of their race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, religion or disability.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, victims of bullying are more likely to suffer flu-like symptoms than those students who are not bullied. An estimated 160,000 students in the United States per day are absent from school because of the fear of attack or intimidation from school bullies.
The negative effects from consistent verbal and/or physical attacks from a school bully or bullies can cause long-lasting physical and mental health problems leading to violence as a means of getting back.
In fact, in a groundbreaking study by the U.S. Secret Service, a common factor in school shootings indicated the shooter(s) had been a victim of harassment by peers.
Bullying is one of the most underrated problems in schools. Far too often educators and parents believe the bullies are not really causing serious harm--you know, "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me." Words do hurt, and sometimes the words are so egregious they are equal to being bitten by an infected mosquito carrying West Nile virus.
Principals do have a more heightened awareness of the problem today than in the past, yet many students stay the silent victim until they act out, drop out or become handicapped by lowered self-esteem. The perceived lack of attention to the victim's plight in some schools and classrooms gives the bully and others tacit approval to continue this destructive and debilitating behavior.
The best definition of bullying I found is in an article by Ron Banks in the education journal ERIC Digest:
"Bullying is comprised of direct behaviors such as teasing, taunting, threatening, hitting and stealing that are initiated by one or more students against a victim. In addition to direct attacks, bullying may also be more indirect by causing a student to be socially isolated through intentional exclusion."
Most public or private school students are neither the perpetrator or the victim, yet most students observe the bullying behavior daily either before school, break, lunch, after school or even during classroom instruction. Many studies indicate that incidents of bullying increases sharply in the middle school years.
The type of bullying that exists today is far different than what existed 30 years ago. One form of sexual harassment that is so insidious relative to bullying has to do with those students who have a perceived non-conformity to traditional gender roles.
On most middle school campuses a visitor can hear taunts like "that is so gay", "you faggot" many times a day. This type of teasing and taunting by students who perceive a student as gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual is enormously destructive.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates among teenagers have tripled in the last few decades.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study found teens dealing with issues of nonconforming gender roles are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than students who are perceived to have traditional gender roles.
Cyber-bullying on "My Space," through electronic mail, text messaging and instant messaging, is nearly epidemic in some circles. When a school administrator scratches the surface of cyber-bullying issues in the form of electronic postings, blogs, etc., a tidal wave of harassment issues is unleashed. Hurtful rumors are electronically spread about unsuspecting victims that can have very widespread coverage and be seriously damaging to the victim, much different than the old "slam" book attacks.
Administrators, teachers and parents must form a strong alliance to effectively address the issues of the menacing problem of bullying in our schools. Schools should administer their own surveys to assess the depth of the problem. The adults in school must be on the same page and not let the slightest racial, sexual or other hurtful phrases be uttered without consequence or minimally a discussion of the evils of consistent hurtful putdowns.
An education program for students, parents and staff is an essential component of an effective plan to reduce this epidemic. Parents should be vigilant about recognizing signs of depression, sadness, non-communication, lower grades, substance abuse, loss of friends, etc. Lines of communication with parents and child should be nurtured and kept open, even though in the middle school years parent and child communication about school drops precipitously, especially for boys.
Parents should inform the school principal if bullying issues are evident, and parent and child should expect improvement. If improvement does not occur and a child is continuing to experience the toxin of the mosquito-like bully, then the issues should be brought to the attention of the superintendent or designee. If issues persist then and only then should legal remedies be sought.
Joseph DiSalvo has been a teacher and principal in Santa Clara County for 32 years; he is also an adjunct professor of education at Santa Clara University. He can be reached at josephsds1@aol.com.
