"Bullybusters": Using drama to empower students to take a stand against bullying behavior.
2001; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 4; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2156-759X
Autores Tópico(s)Child Development and Digital Technology
ResumoDear Diary, Today was one of the worst days of my life. I give up. Why won't Gina just leave me alone? I've never done anything to her, but all she does is make fun of me! Today, on the bus, she and Sarah took my lunch and played keep-away with it. The bus driver had to get it back for me. That was so embarrassing. During lunch, she accidentally spilt her soda all over my lap and over my history notes. I just wanted to become invisible! And she is probably the one who hid my gym suit so I'd get in trouble in phys ed. How much more of this can I take? I just can't figure out what I've done to deserve it all. No one seems to care. 1 feel so all alone! No one's on my side. No one is even nice enough to stick up for me. Am I really that bad? I hate Gina so much my stomach hurts when I think about her! It's not fair! It's just not fair. I hate Gina. I hate myself!! I wish I was dead! -(Excerpted from Bullybusters) Bullying behavior is a school-wide problem. Foltz-Gray (1996) and Olweus (1993) reported that one child out of every seven is either a bully or a victim of bullying. Mulrine (1999) noted that 43% of the children surveyed in a nationwide study indicated they were afraid to go to the bathroom during school because they feared being harassed. The National School Safety Center considered bullying to be the most enduring and underrated problem in U.S. schools (Mulrine, 1999). Bullying What is bullying? Most students think of bullying as one person threatening or actually physically assaulting another person for no apparent reason. While these are examples of bullying behaviors, they are not exhaustive. Bullying also includes name-calling, teasing, writing hurtful statements, intentional exclusion, stealing, and defacing personal property. Banks (1999) categorized bullying as either direct behaviors (teasing, taunting, hitting, shoving, kicking) initiated against a victim or indirect behaviors (behaviors that cause a student to be socially isolated through willful exclusion). He noted that boys typically engage in direct bullying, while girls who bully are more apt to use indirect methods such as spreading rumors and lies, verbal teasing, and enforcing social isolation. No matter whether the bullying is direct or indirect, the key element of bullying is that physical or emotional intimidation occurs over and over again creating an ongoing pattern of fear, harassment, and abuse (Banks, 1999; Batsche & Knoff, 1994). The majority of bullying occurs in or close to school and frequently goes unreported (Banks, 1999; Charach, Peeler, & Ziegler, 1995). Since bullies do not want to get caught, most bullying occurs in secret. Bullying is most likely to occur in hallways, in the cafeteria, on the school grounds, and on school buses. While bullying episodes typically are brief, the emotional consequences from bullying can last a lifetime, often leaving victims with long-lasting emotional scars (Olweus, 1993). Direct bullying tends to increase through the elementary school years, peaks in middle school where one bullying incident occurs every 7 minutes, and declines during the high school years (Banks, 1999). Indirect bullying (verbal abuse) tends to remain constant. While school size, racial composition, socioeconomic status, and school setting (rural, suburban, or urban) do not seem to be significant factors in predicting bullying behavior, boys are more frequently bullies and the victims of bullies than are girls (Espelage, Bosworth, & Simon, 2000; Nolin, Davies, & Chandler, 1995; Whitney & Smith, 1993). According to Argenbright and Edgell (1999), many bullies come from dysfunctional families and tend to be angry and thrive on control. The main goal of bullying behavior is to gain control over another person through physical intimidation, verbal taunts, extortion, exclusion from the peer group, and name-calling. Bullies frequently lack a sense of empathy and experience no sense of remorse for hurting another child (Marano, 1995). …
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