INDEPTH: BULLYING
Sticks, stones and bullies
CBC News Online | March 23, 2005
It happens again and again. A young person, usually a boy, usually a teenager, but not always – sometimes just a kid, sometimes a girl – is driven to suicide by schoolyard bullying.
Stan Vereb's children, Shawn (grey shirt) and Daniel (red shirt), were each forced to wear one of four hockey helmets that have phrases such as Loser," and "I tease people" after they were accused of bullying. (CP Photo/Winnipeg Free Press, Mike Deal)
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Or the bullies kill their victim. Or the victim tries to turn the tables and use violence against the tormentor. Incidents can be prevented by someone who realizes threats are serious and who tell teachers or police, but sometimes there is not enough warning and violence, perhaps a shooting, makes headlines.
But it is those high-profile incidents of either suicide or murder that have pushed teachers, parents, students and others to found a number of innovative anti-bullying programs.
A solid scientific base to study bullying is still in its beginning. After years of limited anecdotal studies around the world, in early March 2005, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada announced a $1-million grant to Hamilton's McMaster University to study how to tackle bullying and make it stop.
Even if someone takes measures against bullying, that, too, can be controversial.
Also in March 2005, in the small, rural town of Langruth, in Manitoba, a teacher at an elementary school ordered boys between eight and 10 to wear hockey helmets with phrases such as "Loser," "I tease people" and "I'm stupid because I am a bully," after another child said he was being picked on. Three of the boys were then made to sit through an exercise where other students criticized them for being bullies.
While the parents of one of three accused bullies objected, one saying it was an isolated incident, and another parent said the issue was misconduct by the teacher, not bullying, a large number of the townspeople in Langruth showed up to support the teacher.
 BULLYING
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A study on bullying by the University of British Columbia, based on 490 students (half female, half male) in Grades 8-10 in a B.C. city in the winter of 1999, showed:
»64 per cent of kids had been bullied at school.
»12 per cent were bullied regularly (once or more a week).
»13 per cent bullied other students regularly (once or more a week).
»72 per cent observed bullying at school at least once in a while.
»40 per cent tried to intervene.
»64 per cent considered bullying a normal part of school life.
»61-80 per cent said bullies are often popular and enjoy high status among their peers.
»25-33 per cent said bullying is sometimes OK and/or that it is OK to pick on losers.
»20-50 per cent said bullying can be a good thing (makes people tougher, is a good way to solve problems, etc.).
Source: Centre For Youth Social Development, UBC Faculty of Education
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That incident came just days after 16-year-old Gary Hansen, hanged himself in Roblin, Man., after persistent bullying at the local Goose Lake high school.
Pamela Hansen, the boy's mother said they had kept him out of school for two years because of earlier bullying. He had returned to school and his marks were up. Then Hansen was taunted by other students for the looks of a 20-year-old snowmobile that he had restored, and then a few days later he was swarmed by six other teenagers.
Some of the bullies taunted Hansen by saying he was gay, a common tactic among teenage bullies, and it doesn't matter whether or not the victim is actually gay.
In other incidents:
In 2004, two suicides shocked the small town of Canora, Sask., population 2,200, 300 kilometres east of Saskatoon. Travis Sleeve, 16, shot himself in December 2004 after what his mother, Carol Sleeve, called 2½ months of consistent harassment, which included assaults, "vulgar vandalism," and students throwing rocks at him and defacing his car.
She said there was no response from the local school board to her complaints about the bullying. The education director for the school would not comment on the Sleeve case, but did say that bullying went on in all communities and the board had a zero-tolerance policy on it.
A girl in Grade 9 in Canora killed herself in January 2004. There was speculation in the community that her death, too, was related to bullying, but the proof, if any, was not as apparent as in the Sleeve case.
Another victim was Dawn-Marie Wesley, 14, of Mission, B.C., just east of Vancouver. After constant bullying by three girls at school, she left a suicide note in November 2000 that said, "If I try to get help it will get worse. They are always looking for a new person to beat up and they are the toughest girls. If I ratted they would get suspended and there would be no stopping them. I love you all so much." Dawn-Marie's young brother found her in her bedroom where she had hanged herself with a dog leash.
Hamed Nastoh, 14, killed himself in March 2000 by jumping off the Pattullo Bridge between New Westminster and Surrey, B.C. He left a seven-page suicide note for his family, who had no idea of Hamed's troubles at school.
In February 1998, 10-year-old Myles Neuts was found hanging, unconscious, from a coat hook at an elementary school in Chatham, Ont. He died four days later. A coroner's inquest later revealed that Myles was hung on the hook by two older boys who had waited for him in a washroom, suspended him from the coat hook as he slowly strangled, and brought friends in to watch "the dummy" until one told a teacher.
Dawn-Marie Wesley of Mission, B.C. in a family photo. Dawn-Marie killed herself and left a suicide note saying she was afraid of girls who were threatening her. (CP Photo)
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On Nov. 14, 1997, in Victoria, B.C., six teenaged girls and a teenaged boy – schoolmates – attacked, brutalized and beat 14-year-old Reena Virk unconscious, leaving her to drown.
Yasmin Jiwani, executive co-ordinator of Vancouver's FREDA Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children, said in an essay on the tragedy that Virk desperately tried to fit in but she failed. "She was brown in a predominately white society," Dr. Jiwani writes. "She was supposedly overweight in a society which values slimness to the point of anorexia, and she was different in a society which values 'sameness' and uniformity."
On BullyOnline, a website of the U.K. National Workplace Bullying Advice Line, there is a "child guidance page" applicable for schools. BullyOnline says 10 to 12 children kill themselves every year in Great Britain because they are being bullied in school. Contrary to what Dr. Jiwani said of the reasons for the bullying of Reena Virk, BullyOnline advises:
"Reasons for being picked on include being fat, thin, tall, short, hair or skin colour, being quiet, wearing glasses, having big ears, small ears, sticky-out ears, crooked teeth, being from a different culture, having different likes or dislikes, the 'wrong' clothes, unwillingness to use strength to defend him or herself, or any perceived or fabricated 'excuse.' These excuses have one thing in common: They are all irrelevant.
"Each reason is a deceptive justification for the bully to indulge in a predictable pattern of violent (physical or psychological) behaviour against another child who is smaller, younger or less strong than the bully. The target is simply a useful object onto whom the bully can displace his or her aggression. In other words, if a child is picked on because they are allegedly 'fat,' then losing weight will make no difference; the bully simply invents another justification."
And while Jiwani says the reason for bullying is irrelevant, other experts say that kids who are perceived to be different, especially those with some form of disability, are most often the victims.
Experts now use a wide definition of bullying, everything from shoving a kid to the ground on the playground to web and text-message smear campaigns.
Some studies indicate that childhood bullying leads to workplace bullying, that children who are victims of bullies often become victims as adults.
Some studies show bullies tend to be aggressive, unimaginative, insecure, and controlling. Bullies themselves also often tend to be unpopular, both in schools and later in the workplace. They maintain relationships (if not friendships) by displays of strength, by inducing fear to gain respect. Sometimes kids who were once bullied start bullying others so they can fit in with what they think may be an "in group."
When some childhood bullies become adults they are more likely to have criminal records. A study by Shelley Hymel of the University of British Columbia says 60 per cent of children identified as bullies in Grades 6 to 9 have a criminal record by the time they are 24.
Studies show that kids who watch bullying often tend to identify with the bully not the victim, and cheer on the abuse. Debra Pepier of Toronto's York University says even if other kids in the schoolyard do not cheer on the bully, the fact that they just stand and watch sends a positive message to the bully that lets the abuse continue.
In a demonstration, Const. Glen Moores, of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary's Community Services Division, "intimidates" Hazelwood elementary school Grade 5 student Robyn Penney while giving a lecture on school bullying on Wednesday, March 28, 2001, in St. John's. (CP Photo/Joe Gibbons)
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The Canadian Safe Schools Network is creating a program to train students to intervene and stop bullying. Pepier says that if someone intervenes, that bullying usually stops within 10 seconds.
Cindi Seddon, principal of Seaview Community School in Port Moody, B.C. has written two books on bullying. She is an advocate of better communication, between parents and teachers, between teachers and students, between home and school. Seddon has written, "We say to parents that if you think there's something wrong with your child, you're dead right."
But Pepier warns that violence in the media is encouraging bullying, that the more violence a young person consumes on television, or in movies or video games, the more violent they can become.
Many school boards now have anti-bullying programs that include training for teachers and students. The programs usually include manuals with helpful advice and some form of mediation to resolve disputes.
Others take a different approach. One successful intervention program in British Columbia, Leave Out Violence (LOVE), uses photojournalism as way of diverting kids who are having trouble in school, including bullies, since the program both raises the self-esteem of kids who once did the bullying and helps them identify with others.
Some antiwar and peace groups are also getting involved in the movement to stop bullying. Calgary's Project Ploughshares sponsors a program called Puppets for Peace that visits schools to teach kids how to deal with bullies. For older children, it shows a film about the trauma faced by children in the former Yugoslavia, and how one woman helped children who had grown up without ever having had a peaceful life.
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