Bullying at the college and high school levels has been attributed as the cause of many teen suicides in recent years.
Anna Bucy, a Sinclair adjunct faculty member in the Humanities, Government, and Modern Languages department, works as a freelance education consultant educating schools, groups, and individuals about the importance of learning how to recognize and stop bullying.
Bucy feels that we have created a culture of bullying here in America where it is winner takes all and people feel they must do whatever it takes to get ahead.
“America is bullying nation. We bully the rest of the world and we like bullies in this country,” Bucy said. “We pretend we don’t. We pay a lot of lip service to ‘be nice to each other in school’ but we don’t really mean it culturally.”
People are targets of bullying for many reasons, such as ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and gender.
“Abusers find vulnerable people,” Bucy said.
According to stopbullying.gov, victims of bullying develop symptoms including depression, anxiety, feelings of sadness or loneliness, health issues and decreased academic achievement and many of these symptoms can last into adulthood.
“It’s hard to get schools to do a comprehensive training where I get to talk to everybody, working with everyone from the bus drivers to the principals and the board,” Bucy said. “They think they don’t need any training–they’re wrong.”
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 10-24 years in the United States and accounted for 5,178 deaths in this age group in 2012 according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 6.
State Senator Peggy Lehner, Republican of Kettering, is the Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. Lehner played a vital part in bringing together Republicans and Democrats to support House Bill 116 that was passed in 2012.
This legislation was aimed at strengthening anti-bullying policies in schools and extending them to include cyber bullying.
“Parents and educators alike play a valuable role in seeing that this sort of behavior among our children is not tolerated,” Lehner said in a press release the day the bill passed.
Bucy describes her work as “trying to find a pathway for people, and talking to people about coordinating policy, practice and law.”
“We have pathways, but there is no training on coordinating policy, practice and law. We have lots of great policy that no one ever looks at.” Bucy said. “…and there is not coordinated practice with faculty in a large sense because most of the faculty are adjunct.”
Adjunct faculty members are not required to attend frequent and ongoing training dealing with bullying. Bucy said that when laws change “an email is not enough.”
Ohio Revised Code section 3313.666 prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying in schools.
The law defines harassment, intimidation and bullying as any intentional written, verbal, electronic or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both causes mental or physical harm and is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive creating an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment for the other student.
Bullying isn’t always physical; it can sometimes come in the form of social emotional abuse, and it’s not always easy to place policies around something that can’t be proven.
“It’s hard to write a policy about a sound or gesture because it’s not overt or physical,” Bucy said. “It’s easy to write policy about keeping your hands to yourself.”
Emilie Olsen of Fairfield Township in southwest Ohio was tormented throughout school. The seventh-grader was adopted and bullied because of her Chinese descent.
Olsen took her own life last December.
“The middle school administration was advised of previous concerns regarding bullying. However, the district believed the issue had been resolved to complete satisfaction of the family,” spokeswoman of Fairfield Middle School, Gina Gentry-Fletcher, said in a New York Daily News report.
National data indicates that 17 percent of high school students reported seriously considering suicide and eight percent reported making one or more suicide attempts in the preceding 12 months according to the CDC.
Candice Hunt, a recent graduate of the Sinclair Fire Academy and EMT program, experienced bullying throughout her teen years.
“Growing up, I’d say third-grade throughout high school I was bullied quite often. I didn’t fit the mold as a black female in my community,” Hunt said. “I was too ‘white’ or talked ‘white’ or I didn’t act ‘black’ enough. I didn’t dress like the black kids. I didn’t talk like them.”
Isolation is a typical tactic used by bullies, and Hunt experienced this during her high school years.
“I never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was never invited to do things. They singled me out I guess,” Hunt said.
Hunt eventually switched schools during her sophomore year to avoid the bullying.
“I didn’t know a single person, so I was kind of able to re-invent myself, and get into the things that I wanted to do and find my own niche. That really helped me,” Hunt said.
It has been said by many that bullying is just a part of growing up.
“No one has to endure aggression. Unprovoked aggression is not a right-of-passage,” Bucy said.
Gaining a social support system is something Bucy sees as vital to overcoming bullying. She recommends anyone that is being bullied to speak up.
“Tell until it stops,” Bucy said.
As social media becomes an ever-present part of everyone’s life, bullies have taken notice. Bucy said that a part of overcoming being bullied is to take control with mass de-friendings or by removing social media from your life all together.
“Separating yourself from social media is how you take the power back,” Bucy said. “It’s very empowering to give yourself permission to let these people out of your life.”
Social media can also be an outlet for those who have been bullied to seek advice from others going through the same types of things.
“You can say things to total strangers that you feel uncomfortable saying to people you know,” Bucy said. “With social media if they bug you just block them.”
Standing up for others is vital part in ending bullying said Bucy.
“If you know that someone is abusing someone else, whether you know them or not, step in and say ‘You know, what’s your problem?’ Bullying will stop in six to eight seconds,” Bucy said.
Suicide remains among the leading causes of death of children under 14.
“All it takes is for one person to say ‘that’s enough’ and it stops,” Bucy said. “You just never know if that’s going to be the thing that keeps them from killing themselves.”
Matt Sells
Executive Editor