Members of a Wisconsin middle school basketball team are
being lauded as heroes, and rightfully so. When the boys noticed some bullies making fun of one of their cheerleaders—a
14-year-old girl named Desiree who has Down’s Syndrome—they took action, walking
over to them and telling the offenders to cut it out.
As one of the boys told
reporters, "They were pointing and laughing at her from the stands. It's
not funny to make fun of somebody by the way they look or act." Another
said, "This is not a one-time thing. You always have to stick up for kids
that are bullied. It’s the right thing to do."
Just how many
kids are being bullied, either online, in school or both? Recent studies report
some startling statistics:
§ 83 percent of girls and 79
percent of boys report being bullied either in school or online.
§ 75 percent of school shootings have been linked to harassment and bullying
against the shooter.
§ About 160,000 teens skip school every day
because they are bullied, and 1 in 10 teens drops out of school due to repeated
bullying.
§ Kids who are
bullies as young adults continue the trend of abuse and violence into
adulthood. By the age of 30, about 40
percent of boys identified as bullies in middle and high school had been
arrested three or more times.
The most frequent targets are kids seen as
“different”—gay or transgender youth, those with special needs or who are overweight—but
no kid is immune from being a victim.
While bullying isn’t a
new phenomenon, cyberspace obliterates any sense of sanctuary that children
once found when they were away from school and in their own homes.
One social media
app that’s particularly alarming is Yik Yak, which allows users to send out posts—known as “yaks”
— that can be seen by anyone within a 1.5-mile radius. What makes it worse than
most other social media forums kids are using is the fact that the posters are
anonymous. A user can “yak” out anything
they want without fear of being identified. Perfectly acceptable posts: “Jane
is an ugly cow,” “John is a fag,” and much more that would be unprintable in
this newspaper. It’s devastating to imagine the damage this type of abuse can
have on a child or teen.
Laws such as the Dignity for All Students Act , which took
effect in July 2012, seeks to provide students with a safe and supportive
environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment and
bullying on school property, buses or at a school function. It mandates that
schools implement codes of conduct, establish procedures for reporting incidents
and provide education and human relations training for students of all ages to
prevent discrimination and harassment.
The passage of the dignity act and similar laws provides an
opportunity for parents to talk to their children about how to protect themselves
from bullying and offers them a context to discuss how to be sensitive to
others who are different. It helps them learn how to stand up, speak out and
fight back in the face of abusive behavior.
But these laws aren’t enough to tackle what is a social
problem. No amount of legislation and no penalties for intimidating schoolyard
behavior can guarantee that children will be safe at all times whether inside
out outside of school. Contrary to popular belief, teens do want to spend
quality time with their parents.
These laws must be complemented by
support at home, pro-social bonds among neighbors and consistent community
standards against bullying, bias and harassment, including in cyberspace. Otherwise,
the legislation will be little more than a paper tiger, another layer of
bureaucracy with limited influence in the real world in which kids reside.
Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore
Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental
health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find
out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.
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