Bullying

When a teacher accompanies her students to see the film Bully, she asks important questions about how adults in the school building handle the issue.  

My colleagues thought my teaching Lord of the Flies was “perfect.” My seventh-grade class is two-thirds male. The group contains several strong personalities and many “followers,” who often mimic bad behavior. Last year, teachers struggled with this group, several instances of bullying, and a developing culture of negativity. I saw the power struggles on the first day of school and knew I had to address them early.

Middle school teachers struggle to find ways to respond to bullying, teasing, name-calling and exclusionary practices among students. We tread lightly sometimes, afraid of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time thus making conditions worse for a bullied student. Being heavy-handed almost never works. Students also know how to say the right thing to adults and then act in a completely contrary way towards peers.

Today, thousands of people will stand against bullying and wear a blue T-shirt in a worldwide event to raise awareness about bullying. It is known as Blue Shirt Day or World Day of Bullying Prevention.

After teaching a particularly grueling class, I looked forward to the solace of my 55-minute planning period. I started to organize the black hole that is my desk and found a folded piece of notebook paper with my name, Ms. Samsa, hastily scrawled onto it.

Last week’s Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit in Washington, D.C., shone light on an often overlooked group—immigrant students.

Many of us imagine a typical bully. This child is usually a boy. It’s likely that he is bullied at home—at the hands of a parent or guardian. Not only is this idea a stereotype, but it’s often false; anyone can be a bully.

When I announced the annual personal narrative assignment, my students groaned. Every year I get the same response. Most of my students would rather write fantasy or even research papers than compose a story about something real, but the state standard in Oregon requires the narrative.

When you hear about a school bully, you might automatically picture that big-for-his-age fifth grade boy or a teen girl whose manner of dress and speech makes her look and sound a bit rough and tough. All too often, however, school bullies are actually the grown-ups in charge.

We are ending this school year mid-sentence in an ongoing conversation about what it means to live together in a learning community and treat each other with basic respect and human decency.