An+Introduction+to+BULLYING

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=     = **WHAT //__YOU__// NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BULLYING!** 

**What is bullying?** According to Merriam-Webster, bullying is defined as: "1. to treat abusively, 2. to affect by means of force or coercion". Bullying is any behavior that belittles, disempowers or harms another person. It includes, but not is limited to an imbalance of power, a malicious intent to cause harm (emotional or physical), and happens on a repeated basis. It is not something that is to be ignored or considered teasing or normal child-like behavior and can cause long lasting, negative consequences.

**Who are bullies? ** Bullies are children that are insecure and thrive off of belittling others as a way to make themselves feel "good". Some characteristics of bullies are a lack of concern/empathy, physically aggressive, defiant towards adults, classroom behavior issues, a strong need to dominate others, easily angered, becomes agressive (physically or verbally) when not provoked, uses threats and intimidation to get what they want. 

**Who gets b ****ullied? ** According to StopBullying.gov, children who are most susceptible to bullying are those who display a vulnerability that the bully can detect. These vulnerabilities can include a lack of or nonexistent social skills, lack of social awareness, few, or no, friends, shyness, a tendency to be non-confrontational, physically weak, or a disorder that would allow others to perceive them as detached, out of control or distant, such as ADD, ADHD, or Conduct Disordered. Any child that possesses a trait that may be perceived as "different" is can be a target.

**When and where does it occur?** Bullying can occur anywhere, anytime and under most any circumstances. One of the biggest problems that occurs with bullying is that often it goes undetected by the supervising. Bullies can carry tend to pick on others in a discrete, underhanded manner, which makes it difficult to identify and therefore, address. Bullying can occur face-to-face, over text messages and email, through social media sites such as FaceBook, on the playground, in the class room- anywhere a child may be.



**Statistics on Bullying ** **([|www.behavioradvisor.com])**

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*More than 1 in 3 middle and high school students sayh they don't fell safe at school, and generally, boys are more fearful in school than are girls

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*27% of middle school students and 31% of high school students said they "agree" or "strongly agree" that it is acceptable to hit or threaten someone who makes them angry.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*More than 16% of U.S. school kids say that they have been bullied by another youngster during the current school term.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*Bullying appears to occur most often in the 6th through 8th grades.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*There appear to be no differences in bullying rates between rural, suburban, town, and urban areas. Of students in grades 6-10: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;"> -62% reported being bullied through belittling one's looks or speech. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">-60% report being the subject of rumors <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;"> -56% report being hit, slapped or pushed <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;"> -52% report being the subject of sexual comments or gestures <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;"> -26% report being belittled about their religion or race

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*15% of absenteeism is believed to be due to avoidance of bullying

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16pt;">*60% of former bullies have at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">