What About Bullies?

Do you know someone who is a bully? What is a bully, anyway? It is someone who will purposely try to hurt you in a way that may make you feel uncomfortable and may hurt you mentally or physically. You cannot always tell who a bully is by their size.Video The main characteristic of a bully is that they want power or control over someone else and they will do almost anything to make sure they get it. Bullies enjoy placing other people in distress. Bullying can start as early as preschool. It can happen anywhere and it can happen at any age. Parents of bullies often support their child's behavior and may even be bullies themselves. There are usually two types of bullies, physical bullies and verbal bullies.

Video - "Help Us Stop Bullies"

A bully takes action when they

  • hit, kick, push, or threaten other people
  • steal things and hide them or ruin someone's things.
  • show cruelty to animals

Some bullies use words to hurt people when they

  • call people names
  • make people do things they don't want to do
  • tease and insult
  • exclude others from the group by spreading rumors
Read kids' comments about bullies

What can you do if you are bullied or you know someone who is being bullied?

Part of The United Nations Charter of Rights for Children says that every child has the right to an education and every child has the right to be safe. Bullying is often the reason for school violence, so it is an important issue. The victims of bullying are often different from others in some way. Some victims may tire of being bullied and seek revenge. Statistics show that people who are bullied may have feelings of

  • loneliness
  • trouble making friends
  • lack of success in school
  • behavior problems

Students usually know if another student is being bullied or has problems. It is important that students feel they can tell a grown up whenever they suspect that another student is troubled or a victim of a bully. This can often stop violence before it happens. Students who are bullied may be quiet, shy, and withdrawn. They are easy targets for the bully because they will not defend themselves. Sometimes adults do not know how to respond to bullies, so often nothing is done when bullying is reported. Most victims do not report bullying because they are embarrassed or afraid to tell. Our survey results suggests that students may not report bullying because they think nothing will be done about it.

It is important for students to feel they can report bullying to teachers. Schools must have a policy in place to deal with incidents of bullying so that students know something will be done about it. When students and teachers know that bullying is not tolerated in the school, everyone feels safer.

Unfortunately, sometimes bullying at school may spill over into bullying outside of school. Students may use websites, blogs, cell phones, text messaging, and emails to torment classmates. The cyberbully uses technology to invade what should be a safe place for kids - their homes. According to USA Today Online, the age most affected by cyberbullying is age 9-14. The word, cyberbully, is becoming well known. Victims do not want to tell parents because they do not want to be banned from the Internet. Cyberbullying can be even more damaging to the victim because it can involve more people who target one individual.

If you are a victim of cyberbullying

  • Don't react to threats or insults.
  • Block unwanted messages
  • Get teachers and parents involved.

    • Survey Results

Winning and Losing

menu1 Kindness in a Friendship Kindness in the Home Kindness in the School Friendship in the Community Kindness in a Culture The Kindness Kids Project Ideas Games & activities for kids Site Map Learn about the audience, goals, and team How the site was made by working together How this website will impact the world Lesson plan and other resources Credits and references Home Page

 

 

References

Take Action Against Bullying. Retrieve February 3, 2008, Web site: http://www.bullybeware.com/moreinfo.html

Marano, H Big Bad Bully. Psychology Today, Retrieved January 23, 2008, from http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19950901-000020.html

Bullies. Retrieved February 3, 2008, from Kid's Health Web site: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/no_bullying.html

Bullying: What Parents and Teachers Should Know. Retrieved February 3, 2008, Web site: http://www.focusas.com/Bullying.html

Swartz, J (2005, March, 7). Schoolyard bullies get nastier online. USA Today, Retrieved February 25, 2008, from http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-03-06-cover-cyberbullies_x.htm

Credits

Video edited in Windows Movie Maker.

Original song used in video by Bekah, 2008.

Writing by Amy, 2008.

Graphics by Bekah, 2008.

Content including images, songs, skits, games, poems, and videos are the original work of students and were created for the
2008 International ThinkQuest competition.