bullying

The news about the teenage girls in FL assaulting another girl sickened me. As I follow the story, I keep wanting them to be held very accountable for their actions. It seems that they will be tried as adults. I totally agree with that. To have videotaped themselves attacking this gal…shows intent….intent to bully, harrass, hurt. I will be following the progress of this case. 

I know there have been cases of guys fighting and videotaping the fight and posting it on the internet.

As an adult, as a parent, as a teacher, I’ve got to be wondering big time about the common sense of teens today. This is way beyond bullying…This is assault and battery.  It’s a sorry example of what’s going on with some of our teens today. Are they bored? Are they filled with their own sense of lawlessness? Is it violence on tv shows and in their video games? Is it seeing violence reported every day on tv news? Has reality tv gotten to where the scripts need  to include violence?  Do we have no stops? No boundaries? No rules? Is anyone raising this generation of teens or are they taking life in their own hands, on their own terms, with no guidelines?

I lost a student today because of some boys who scared  this student. That’s not right. I know it’s Spring…I know the kids can smell the end of the school year…I see ‘big attitude-aren’t I something cool’ behavior in the halls…but this was where some guys were trying to intimidate a girl. And now, she’s switching schools. I would have summed up the year with a whole different perspective- that I felt I hadn’t see that much bullying going on this year. By the actions of a few guys…I’ve had to revise my opinion. Shame on the punks.

The Dear Abby column in the Paris News on 2.12.08 had the topic of bullying discussed. There were some websites listed that might help folks learn more about the impact of bullying on students.The Health Resource Services Administration has a website- www.stopbullyingnow.-hrsa.gov  Another website listed is www.safeschools.com So I thought I’d pass these along for help. The article said bullying is sometimes a reason for school absences. And we know that some of the disturbed students who who have brought guns to school and used them, have complained of being harrassed/bullied/isolated. I don’t think we are teaching kids how to counter comments…how to ignore them, report them, rebut them, or diffuse them by redirecting them. I  think we should be teaching anger management skills. What coping skills are being modeled by parents, coaches, teachers? On the news we see plenty of examples of people who chose violence as their first reaction to conflict. Not good.

I watched someone come back from AEP recently. This gal is one I’d had trouble with, bullying, slinging verbal remarks that were inappropriate. I had felt the adm. followed the discipline plan, in regard to her outbursts. So, here she was…first day back…and in the line for breakfast…to read her body language, she was at least bossing the other kids around. So, I’ll be listening/watching her, altho I no longer have her in class.

Last week, when we had time to work in the room, I ran across a couple of anti-bullying programs I’d copied and held onto (and passed on to adm.) for years. It’s still good stuff. But it reminded me that an all-school anti-bullying campaign really needs to be all-school. The kids need to buy into it, the parents, the teachers, the adm. - everyone has to buy into it, or else it won’t be effective. So far, we don’t have this in place in our school. Research says it makes a difference when a school does go this direction, re bullying.

I notice in the media any article/happening about bullying. I’ve wanted to be more in tune with bullying in our school, in the hallways, in my classroom. So, I’m listening and watching. I’m attempting to see what triggers the bullying…retaliation…physical appearance…gossip…etc. I’m hoping to be able to collect date on bullying in these major areas, and see what strategies to intervene or stop bullying I take, or the counselors or administration take, and whether this decreases the incidents of bullying.  Just this morning, on duty, I intercepted a crying young gal….who said….the B team guys are saying my dad is a rapist because he’s got a ponytail. Apparently, on the news, some rapist was caught and he was a guy with a  ponytail. I took the student to the guid. counselor. I will check back with her on how this incident was handled.   

Over the years of classroom teaching, I have observed too much bullying/put down comments. I have tried various interventions. I am curious about what buzz words really mess up/anger certain students.

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