Bullying: : 1. to treat abusively 2: to affect by means of force or
Teasing: 1 : to disturb or annoy by persistent irritating or provoking especially in a petty or mischievous way 2 : to annoy with petty persistent requests : 3 : to make fun of :
Hazing: : 1. the action of hazing; especially : an initiation process involving harassment
Harrassing: 1. to annoy persistently 2. to create an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially by uninvited and unwelcome verbal or physical conduct
So, not sure if that helps, but at least now we have the official definitions. Through life skills, we talk about these words often and even started talking about "hazing" with the 8th grade students in light of the recent news. The first thing we talk about is the difference between bullying and teasing. Teasing is pretty typical and is either usually between friends or between people having fun. Even if it is towards someone a student does not like, it is usually stopped when the other person gets angry or it stops naturally after a short term. Bullying on the other hand usually does not stop and many times gets worse when the student gets angry or shows emotion. That is why ignoring a bully or bullying behavior directed towards you tends to work in many cases because the bully gets bored due to not getting any reaction. Hazing is a version of teasing and bullying, most often found in group initiation to something such as a sport. Hazing many times takes place between friends or teammates, but crosses the line pretty quickly to bullying and harrassment (even assault) even among friends and teammates. And harrassment is another term for bullying, but more of a legal or law term, but if a person is bullying another student, they are basically harrassing them. You can see how students, teachers, and adults can get confused with all these terms and situations. I even struggle with these terms depending on which hat I wear: counseling, coach, or parent of 2 school-age kids....I am all 3 and struggle to look objectively at each situation.
So what are our counselors doing to continue to try to help our students learn in a safe and non-threatening environment? Well, we try to remain vigilant and keep our eyes open for teasing, bullying, and harrassment situations and help educate those involved when they happen. We help students understand the difference between teasing and bullying. We review data from state-wide surveys that contained questions on bullying and are currently creating a survey to give to students later this month to get more current bullying and harrassment data. We then share this data with staff and community in order to educate others and have them join us in our efforts to create a safe and supportive learning environment. And a few of the counselors are even taking a graduate level course at Drake this Spring titled "Anti-Bullying". This will help us increase our efforts in this area as we learn research-based strategies, as well as network with other central Iowa (and possibly even more since the course is on-line) counselors in order to see what they are doing in their schools. We are excited about this opportunity to learn more as bullying and student harrassment is high on our list of priorities this year even though our data continues to show that our school and students feel safer, less bullied, and more connected than other schools our size across the state. We may never be able to put a stop to bullying, but we can continue to educate ourselves and work to reduce the bullying issues that we do hear about. Stay tuned for more information as we go through our Drake class and collect data. We are all in this together!
Bullying resources and tips:
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