Campus bullying prompts clubs to fight back
An assistant professor in the special education and rehabilitation department recently gave input on bullying — an issue some believe is growing out of control and others say is no worse than it’s always been. “The terminology around bullying is so loaded,” said assistant professor Scott Ross. “Kids who feel like they’re being bullied are less likely to report it than kids who (feel they) are being teased.”
An individual’s reaction to disrespect is just that — individual. When others make unwanted comments, some people manage to keep their cool by throwing back words of similar distaste and smiling at their own wit.
Others watch the clock with eyes narrowed and muscles tensed, using every ounce of self-control not to physically restrain the attacker. Others can’t contain their emotions, and tears overwhelm them.
Bullying defined
Ross said for an act to qualify as bullying it must meet certain criteria: The act must be a repeated offense, there must be some sort of power differential in which one person is for example taller, smarter, faster or stronger, and the offender must have an intent to harm.
These criteria can be confusing, Ross said, because it’s difficult to measure a power differentiation or determine whether someone intends to hurt or not.
Brooke Evans, ASUSU Diversity and Organizations vice president, said she feels that many times students who tease each other don’t think about the consequences of their actions.
“I think it’s more of an awareness issue,” Evans said. “If people are more aware of the power of their words and the effect it can have on others, they’d probably be more thoughtful.”
Ross said all behavior is maintained by reinforcement. Reinforcement can include praise from parents for getting good grades or it could include getting out of doing something perceived as unpleasant.
He said an example of this is misbehaving to get kicked out of class by a teacher in order to get out of doing math.
“The problem with bullying programs are they’re not developed by that thinking,” Ross said. “Almost all bullying is maintained by attention from peers. They like that pure attention, whether it’s the kid standing beside them laughing or a kid crying.”
Bullying in the realm of higher education
Ross spent several years analyzing anti-bullying programs for schools in Oregon. He said methods of bullying get “more and more sophisticated” as people get older. He said the peak of bullying comes about when people are in third grade.
At first, bullying is more physical, like the stereotypical big kid beating classmates up until they give him their lunch money. By about sixth grade, he said, it’s more common to bully via text messaging or Facebook, but it’s still obvious.
“By the time they’re in college, I think a lot of students are more sophisticated and comfortable with who they are, but they don’t need that pure attention,” Ross said.
He said a common type of bullying in college is talking about others or making fun of them behind their backs.
“In this case, the victim can’t intervene because they don’t know about it,” Ross said. “This puts the emphasis more on the friend. Friends of the perpetrator need to be willing to step in and do something about it.”
Senior Amilya Bennet, majoring in secondary education psychology, said she feels like bullying and disrespect still happen in college.
“You still hear people saying ‘That’s so gay,’ and you hear people calling other people ‘faggots’ and other derogatory words,” Bennet said. “In schools you just sort of ignore it, but that’s just encouraging it, even if you don’t say anything. So you need to stand up and say something.”
Steven Camicia, assistant professor in the school of teacher education and leadership, has worked with students in grades K-12. He said many times in these schools, administrators turn a blind eye when they suspect bullying.
“Or they don’t even notice until someone being bullied comes forward,” Camicia said. “I haven’t really studied that aspect (of bullying) in higher education, but we know that bullying can really change the course of someone’s life. It can have long-lasting effects, especially in the way they socialize.”
Camicia said he’s noticed LGBTQ students are targets for bullying more often than others.
He said the USU campus has multiple places where students can go to feel welcome and accepted if they feel victimized by bullying.
“LIFE is really strong on campus,” Camicia said about USU’s gay-straight alliance Love is for Everyone. “They have a lot of support, and they provide a good support for all the students.”
He also said the counseling center and the Ally group on campus are other places students can go for support.
Anti-bullying campaigns
Mel Austin, a sophomore majoring in English, said there are a number of reasons people get targeted for bullying and discrimination.
“People are targeted because of their ethnicity and race,” Austin said. “Religion is another big one.”
Bryce Sprosty, a senior majoring in marketing, agreed that people bully because of religion.
“I think gender is also a big target,” Sprosty said. “People are always saying, ‘Don’t be such a pansy. Don’t be such a girl.'”
Evans said she’s heard of “Words Can Hurt” campaigns against bullying at other colleges that can help people understand the weight of words that some may find offensive, such as “retarded,” “gay” or even “ghetto.”
She said she thinks the most common method of bullying in a college setting is verbal.
“I think probably more than anything sarcasm could be considered bullying, and a lot of people can’t take sarcasm very well,” Evans said.
She also said in college, people sometimes make excuses for themselves in certain settings where bullying might be perceived as acceptable, such as sporting events.
“There obviously is a culture of teasing or taunting or being mean with our words that I don’t necessarily support, but that doesn’t mean people can’t do it,” Evans said. “Our student section isn’t as bad as (other schools). It’s a part of the game and stuff, but it sets a bad example for outside-of-sporting events.”
Because it can be so confusing to distinguish betwe
en what is actually bullying and what is just teasing, Ross said he and some colleagues from Oregon developed a program that focuses on eliminating the peer attention that bullies find rewarding.
In this program, they never use the term “bully,” and they develop a stop signal for the person who’s being disrespected to use.
“When you use this hand signal, every person in the school knows they better cut it out or they know you’re going to go to the next step,” Ross said.
He also said this program could theoretically be adapted to a college setting. He said this could help with situations where students pick on each other or even when professors pick on students, and people could understand when they’ve gone too far and what behaviors to change.
“It’s just like driving your car too fast,” Ross said. “Sometimes you get caught, and might slow down for a while, but every time you get away with speeding, you’re actually being reinforced. It becomes much more frequent.”
He said sometimes people try to impress and out-do each other by saying something meaner than what’s just been said, but that is one more way students reinforce the thought that being unkind is OK.
“The key is not to think about bullies,” Ross said. “It’s to think about the disrespect.”
Just as bullying can change the course of someone’s life, a person can also be changed when someone stands up and sets a different example.
“If we really want to stop it,” Ross said, “we have to get the guy next to us to say that’s not OK.”
– m.noble@aggiemail.usu.edu