How do you define bullying?
A survey of FCTS students found a majority feel the definition is changing over time
Do you know what the definition of bullying is? A lot of people think they do, but in reality they may not.
According to dictionary. com, “Bullying is to use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants.”
However, most people see bullying as someone walking down the hall and calling someone a name or someone spreading a vicious rumor. Yes, these things are wrong, but they do not necessarily fit the definition of bullying.
There are three types of bullying. There is verbal bullying, which is teasing, name calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting, or threatening to cause harm. Then there is social bullying, which is leaving someone out on purpose, telling other children not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone, or embarrassing someone in public. Last, there is physical bullying, which is hitting/kicking/ pinching, spitting, tripping/ pushing, and taking or breaking someone’s things.
There was this girl, let’s call her Jean, who used to be overweight when she was younger. She was often teased by people, sometimes even her “friends,” who made mean comments to her about her weight. Her response to this abuse was to basically stop eating and become anorexic. She worked out and did whatever it took to lose all that weight and dropped fiftythree pounds in two months.
After she started getting that small, some of those who used to tease her told her she had a problem with not eating. They said they wanted to help her, the reason she had that problem was because of them!
Bullying is a big deal, and this is just one example how negatively it can affect people!
Bullying seems to happen everywhere. According to dosomething.org over 3.2 million students in the U.S. are victims of bullying each year!
There is no school out there that doesn’t suffer from bullying. To better understand how bullying may effect people here at FCTS, Under the Wing conducted a survey last month of students here. We passed out 496 surveys and received over 300 responses.
One of the questions asked was whether or not people felt like bullying is a “serious problem” in the world. 184 respondents said, “yes!” So if so many people know it is a serious problem in the world, what are doing about it.
Part of the problem may be that people sometimes don’t really understand what bullying is.
Does it have to occur repeatedly before it can be defined as bullying? Or could a single act of aggression or abuse qualify. I believe that if someone is picking on someone or being mean to someone, whether it was only once, or it is repeated, it is bullying and is wrong.
In the survey, 180 people said that they think the definition of bullying “has changed over time.” The definition may vary between people, for example, one respondent wrote, “ bullying is when someone is being mean or picking on someone,” while another said bullying is “a sequence of events causing drama within one person or a group to one person.” (Under the Wing Survey 2016)
The good news is that 122 of the respondents said that if they saw bullying or someone being mean to somebody that they would go and “do something about it.” While this is good, I think it could be even better. What if we lived in a community that had zero tolerance for bullying?
If you know someone who is a victim of bullying, ecourage them to seek help. Here at school you can talk to a teacher, guidance counselor, or administrator. Because no one deserves to live like that.