Rachel Morello, writing for State Impact Indiana, has a story on the State’s report on school bullying. Consisting of about 9,400 reported incidents:
Data collected by the Indiana Department of Education shows 44 percent of cases reported during the 2013-14 academic year were verbal and 21 percent physical. The rest involved written or electronic threats, as well as social relational issues.
Eric Weddle, writing for the Indianapolis Star, also had a story on the subject.
The data collected is an initial step. It’s tough to make too much of it right now, but the report creates something of a baseline. Lack of any reported bullying might be a red flag that schools are not being observant or forthcoming. Bullying is not easily defined, but the State took a stab at it:
Overt, unwanted, repeated acts or gestures, including verbal or written communications, that create an objectively hostile school environment for targeted students that place them in reasonable fear or harm or affects their mental health or school performance.
I know I had some difficulties as a kid. Being a scrawny, academically oriented boy doesn’t exactly endear you to some of the bigger, less-academically oriented boys who (more often than not) had chaotic home lives to deal with. (Bringing to mind Warren Zevon’s line, “You know, the Sheriff’s got his problems too. He will surely take them out on you.”) And, I recall being on the giving end for at least one kid who became a target among the boys because he seemed to have a much greater affinity for the girls in the class than the boys. (Years later, I sought him out on Facebook and apologized — he didn’t seem to remember me, so there is a good chance my behaving poorly was more of a minor problem for him).
What I don’t get is the hue and cry from parents who apparently think maintaining civility in schools is going to soften up their kids. You want your kid to be tough? Let him treat you the way you’d apparently have him act in school. Maybe let his siblings beat him around if that’s what you’re into. Leave it at home though. Getting my books dumped, getting my arm punched repeatedly, and being harassed for using 5 syllable words didn’t make me a better person. It turned me into a vengeful trial attorney. I think we can all agree we don’t need any more of that.
5 syllable words? Slow down there, Nietzsche. And yes, I still clap to count syllables.
No question that a lot of people suffer with bullying, including the one who does the bullying, the one bullied and the ones who watch but do nothing. But it’s not a simply bad guys vs. good guys issue, either. Sometimes the kids being bullied really don’t belong in that setting, so they have to figure out how to get through it. Or maybe they intentionally set themselves up for it, wearing strange clothing, or engaging in behaviors that lead to the problem, and refuse to learn from the experience. Sometimes the bully is a confused kid or he/she is driven by a number of motivations. Bullying seems to be part of the beast. A friend once referred to junior high kids as “predatory”, which was a perfect description of that group, but it doesn’t go away and among many, the experience–being bullied, bullying and watching the bullying–is transformed into some social good. It’s important for people to learn that justice isn’t always served. Sometimes it’s good to have vengeful trial attorneys.