The Issue of Bullying

Ritchiel wrote our third entry on chapter 11 -- happy reading!

            At the school I work at, I have a child with autism, who lacks in social skills. My responsibility is to follow him at recess and observe his actions, making sure he does not have any outbursts with his peers. I usually try to give him his space as he prances around the school yard casting spells and pretending to be a magical wizard. I noticed that as he tries to make friends with the children on the playground, the other kids  laugh at him, make funny faces, call him weird, freak, loser, and often isolate him. He is always picked last when it comes to picking teams. He has stated to me that all he wants is one friend who can be nice to him and share all his cool magical tricks, and he would do anything to have one.

            At some point in a child’s life, they receive some sort of bullying, either in school or outside school. Bullying is the repeated actions or threats of actions directed toward a person who seems to have lower status, to inflict fear, distress or harm. Bullying can include name-calling, obscene gesturing, vindictive teasing, rumors, cyber intimidation, social exclusion, damaging one’s belongings, threats and physical violence. Even the seemingly most minimal types of bullying can leave detrimental scars.

            I remember a point where bullying just seemed to be a normal childhood experience, nothing that needed to be addressed with more than a simple talking to and apology to the victim. As the years have passed, awareness has grown regarding the grave consequences of bullying. Results from studies have surprisingly shown the effects of bullying to carry over into adulthood. “Although adulthood provides the victims with greater choice over the environment in which they live and work, they still are more likely to suffer from depression and lack of self-confidence than individuals who have not been the victims of bullying” (p. 173). Gordon stated that bullies of physical violence are more likely to end up in jail for crimes and assaults; I’ve also read this in an article. It seems as if both parties, the bully and the victim, are prone to negative outcomes. As Gordon said, preventative programs for bullying would be the best way to address this issue.

            I am currently working with my school and the teachers in implementing a bullying prevention program. In just monitoring recess on the playground, I see numerous acts of bullying. I am looking into different programs such as

“Bully Free School” and the Anti-Defamation League’s prevention of bullying. I’m curious as to how the “Roots of Empathy” program works. The results shown in the text seem to point to significant reduction of bullying. I can still hardly believe that a bully himself admitted to being wrong in his actions. If any program can do this, then it is certainly worth looking into.