Bullying prevention month takes place in the month of October, and it focuses on spreading awareness and promoting kindness to prevent bullying. “ It’s always good to bring it up to make sure that students know that bullying is not ok,” says Mr.Hendrix, a civics and U.S history teacher at JMS. So many people get bullied every day, so if we all come together, we can make bullying history and create kindness for the future.
What is Bullying?
Bullying is when someone creates a pattern of aggressive behavior intended to harm someone else physically or emotionally. About 1 in 5 students get bullied each year, according to the National Bullying Prevention Center, and it is most common in grades 6-8, with 26.3% of students getting bullied, rather than grades 9-12, at 15.7% of students. People can get bullied in several ways, including cyber, physical, verbal, social, and prejudice-based bullying.
- Cyberbullying: Where someone gets bullied online. Usually through social media. A couple of ways that bullies could be communicating with people online are by texting through messages or texting on a game chat, sending mean or hurtful messages.
- Physical: Where a person physically harms another person or their property. Like kicking, hitting, punching, destroying someone’s belongings, or even just threatening physical violence.
- Verbal: When someone uses language to harm a person emotionally. This can be done through name-calling, teasing, mocking, threats, or using slurs to offend someone.
- Social: Social bullying can be done in a variety of ways, but it is usually intended to harm a person’s reputation or social standing by excluding someone or a group of people, spreading rumors, public humiliation, or manipulating relationships.
- Prejudice-Based Bullying: This is often where someone targets an individual or group based on their identity through race, sex, disability, religion, gender identity, or even physical appearance. In certain circumstances, this type of bullying can be illegal.
What can you do?
During bullying prevention month, there are many ways you can show your support for others who have been bullied or are being bullied.
- Be an upstander: If you see someone being bullied, stand up for them, even if you don’t know them. It is always important to stand up for others when they feel like they can’t stand up for themselves.
- “Look out for each other”(Mr.Hendrix): It is important to watch out for your peers, and if you see someone being bullied, go talk to them and make sure they are ok.
- Use social media: You can always post about bullying prevention month to spread awareness. You can post about an experience you’ve had, or even the fact that it is bullying prevention month, and be kind.
- Help a friend out: If you see someone being bullied, you can talk to them about their situation and have empathy for them. You could also stand up for them if you see them being bullied.
- Education: Mrs. Miller says, “One way we prevent bullying is education and talking about it”. It is important that students know that it is not ok to be cruel or mean to other students.
Bullying happens every year, whether you see it or not. You could have a friend or know someone who is being bullied right now, but they choose to keep it a secret. They might not want to tell anybody because they are worried their bully could bully them more than they already do, or they are scared to tell people. Signs that someone is being bullied are if they lose confidence, do not want to go to school (making up excuses so they don’t have to go), have random bruises, or have anxiety. Remember to always be there for people because you never know what they are going through.
During bullying prevention month, remember to do the right thing and not to bully, and instead help those who are being bullied. Bullying can be harmful to both people. The bully could get harmed by having to face consequences, and it harms the one being bullied by feeling less confident, scared, or even hurt. During October, remember to be the upstander and not the downstander.
