Names Can Really Hurt Us ––

A Host Of Social Problems Start With The Bully

By Jan Howard

Learning without fear is a right every child should have. Unfortunately, for the children who are the target of bullies, going to school is completely fraught with fear.

As many as seven percent of America’s eighth-graders stay home at least once a month because of being bullied.

Reports and studies have established that approximately 15 percent of students are either bullied regularly or are the initiators of bullying behavior. It is estimated that 30 percent of children regularly involved in bullying have decreased attendance and learning capacity. They may have self-esteem problems, according to Sandra Vonniessen-Applebee of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Ms Vonniessen-Applebee presented information about the problem of school bullying and the ADL’s program to combat it at a meeting of the Family Counseling Center June 24 at the C.H. Booth Library.

In opening remarks, Dr Michael Schwarzchild, a clinical psychologist and Family Counseling Center board member, said, “A person is being bullied when he or she is the target, repeatedly and over time, of negative actions by one or several other individuals who are more powerful than the target in some way.

 “Negative action can begin with name calling or social isolation and can build to actual attacks and/or attempts to injure or humiliate another person, include physical and verbal aggression, social alienation, intimidation, racial harassment, and sexual harassment.”

 As a member of the Governor’s Prevention Partnership Bullying Task Force, Dr Schwarzchild worked with educators and child advocates to define bullying and to advocate action from the local level on up to statewide programs. The Task Force, comprised of experts in child development, learning, health, and aggression, was established to recommend effective practices and public policy solutions to address bullying.

 Bullying is a serious problem that can dramatically affect the ability of students to progress academically and socially. Children who are often the target of bullies and even the bullies themselves can carry the scars into adulthood. Most adults have either been a victim, a bystander, or even the bully. Bullying usually entails cruel words and actions rather than fistfights.

“Adults can have their life destroyed by events in school involved with bullying,” he said. According to the National Resource Center for Safe Schools (NRCSS), children who bully are more likely to become violent adults, while victims of bullying often suffer from anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression well into adulthood.

Though not a new problem, many schools are taking steps to address the problem to avoid acts of school violence.

Dr Schwarzchild and Ms Vonniessen-Applebee advocated an intervention plan that involves four levels, children, parents, schools, and the community, so students can learn in a fear-free environment. “Initiatives are needed by all working together,” he said.

One of the major problems schools have is acknowledging they have a problem with bullying, Dr Schwarzchild said. “Nine out of ten elementary schools in Connecticut have a bullying problem, though I believe it’s ten out of ten.”

Many parents do not know their children are bullies or being bullied, he noted.

Bullying behavior is rarely detected by teachers, and is even less frequently taken seriously, according to the NRCSS.

Dr Schwarzchild said more than 60 percent of teachers devote fewer than ten classroom periods per year to teaching violence prevention. Most elementary schools have not studied the prevalence of aggression and bullying or effectiveness of programs to deal with the issue.

“By age 24, bullies identified after the age of seven are six times more likely than nonbullies to be convicted of a crime,” he said. “By age 30, they are four times more likely to have three criminal convictions.

“Twenty to 25 percent of school children are directly involved in bully-target problems,” he added. “Targets are more likely to bring weapons to school than bullies.”

Dr Schwarzchild said under recent legislation instances of bullying have to be reported.

Ms Vonniessen-Applebee discussed the ADL’s “Names Can Really Hurt Us” program, terming bullying “an underrated and enduring problem in schools.” The ADL program was developed in 1995 in response to educators’ requests.

It is a student-centered assembly program designed to provide a safe forum in which students examine difficult issues and effect change in their own behavior. The planning and training process involves administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders about two months in advance of the assembly.

She said if schools are not addressing the problem, they are condoning it. “Bullying begins in elementary school and peaks in middle school,” she said. Girls bully through talking and threatening while boys are more violent, she added.

Denial is one reason for the lack of action against bullying. “They either blame the victim or feel they will outgrow it and get over it,” she said.

She stressed the importance of consistency in bullying prevention. She said a program should counsel bullies, support the target, and have onlookers rally about the target. Having others support the target often will discourage the bullying, she said.

Most important, an antibullying program must be supported by parents, she said, noting the need for “a lot of education of parents in addition to teachers and administrators.”

She said parents who urge targets to fight back are only increasing the bullying problem.

Several steps can help decrease the bullying issue, Ms Vonniessen-Applebee said, including assessment of school needs, establishing an antibullying policy, involving parents, coordinating activities, training teachers, and increasing supervision during lunch and on the playground.

“They need to work with aggressive youth in addition to those being bullied, and motivate bystanders,” she said. “Don’t expect students to solve it themselves.”

The “Names” program may be presented to the whole school but is primarily done with a class, she said.

“We come in for two three-hour days and teach students how to work in small groups with their peers,” she said. “During the assembly we bring the kids to speak about their personal story. Others may respond.” The students then break into small groups to discuss how to change their school.

A follow-up visit is made to the school about a month following the assembly. “There is a whole range of things the school can do,” she said. There are safety nets, she added, by training school psychologists to be there for any follow-up because of effects from the assembly.

Ms Vonniessen-Applebee then presented a video that showed young people talking about the effects of bullying, such as name-calling, and slurs about race or sexuality, and how they have become aware of the results of their actions.

She said the program has been presented in the Ridgefield school system for four years.

 The “Names” program, Ms Vonniessen-Applebee noted, “is amazing. It is very powerful.”