A Look at Bullying

Bullies and victims

What makes a person bully others? Find out more about what makes a bully tick at Bullies: Who's a bully? on the PBS It's My Life Website for school children. Watch the video in the Watch It section of this web site to hear what some school children have to say about bullies.

New studies on bullying find that bullies have often been victims of bullying themselves and that victims sometimes become bullies themselves. To learn more, read Vijai P. Sharma's article Profiles of Bullies and Victims in Mind Publications.

See a video: Effects of bullying.

Send your opinion.
Bullying is definitely bad for victims, but what about the bullies? Do you think bullying also has bad consequences for the bullies themselves?

TV host wants to end bullying

       
                                                                       Drawing by In Ji Seo

A well-known TV personality, Dr. Phil, hosts a TV program where he offers advice to people for solving problems in their daily lives. On his program, he talked about what motivates children to bully, how victims of bullying can fight back, and what students, parents, and teachers can do to stop bullying in their schools. He gave advice to a young girl Katie, who doesn't understand why she is being bullied in her school. On his online site, What can I do about school bullies?, he responds to a concerned mother who asks how to stop bullying in her daughter's school.

Send your thoughts.
What do you think of Dr. Phil's suggestions? What message would you send to the young girl Katie or the concerned mother? What ideas do you have for preventing bullying in schools?

Teens meet to tackle bullying

In class and online, we read a Lansing State Journal article, Teens Tackle Bullying at Diversity Conference. The article reports on a school anti-bullying conference held on March 21 in Lansing, Michigan.

The conference aimed to help middle and high school students facing hurtful bullying situations. We learned that about 12,000 students from 37 schools in mid-Michigan attended workshops such as "Bullying hurts all of us."

Last year in East Sussex, England, a whole community took steps to stop bullying. More than 100 community members—young people, teachers, education professionals, police, and health professionals—attended a conference to plan strategies for stamping out bullying in their community: County-wide bid to tackle bullying.

Send your thoughts.
Do you think this kind of conference can be successful? How can it help students who are picked on because of their race, a disability, or other difference? What do you think is the most effective way to stop bullying?

Meet 'the recovering bully!"

"My name is Andy Tomko and I am “The Recovering Bully”. For a long time in my life I was a bully! I was the guy you did your best to avoid so you wouldn’t get hurt, physically or emotionally. I was the guy your mother warned you about. I was the guy you would cross the street to avoid when you saw me coming."

Andy Tomko used to be a bully, but now he is a professional speaker who often goes to schools to talk about bullying. Be sure to visit his website at AKT Speaking and listen to his message.

Andy is joining us on our Weblog. Look for his comments to postings. He has agreed to answer questions about what he is doing to help young people deal with bullying.

Send your question.
What question do you have for Andy? Ask him here.

Putting yourself in others' shoes

Check out an online activity about bullying from Family Service Canada to get a feel for what it is like to be a bully, a victim, an intervener, or a bystander.

In this activity, you are on a simulated playground where there are different types of students, each of whom has a story to tell and is affected differently by bullying situations. By clicking on the faces of the different characters you can follow them through different scenes.

Send your comments.
Imagine you are one of the characters on this Website--bully, victim, intervener, or bystander. How did you feel about bullying from that character's point of view?