Pushed Around: Students lead the way in trying to prevent bullying at their schools

12/19/2002

By Pamela Martineau Bee Staff Writer The Sacramento Bee

It can be a small gesture such as bumping into a child's desk and knocking school books to the floor. Or it can escalate into more overt aggression, like posting denigrating fliers about a student's sexuality or slamming someone into school lockers.

Many capital-area elementary, middle school and high school students say they have witnessed such actions by bullies, either as bystanders or as the unlucky targets.

"We see fights almost every week. We walk around and hear verbal harassment. ... Things like, 'Oh, you're so retarded,' or 'Quit being so gay,' " said Sandra Ramirez, a senior at Elk Grove High School. But Ramirez and a growing number of students in the Sacramento area and around the country increasingly are sending the message that campus bullying in any form will not be tolerated.

Counselors and teachers are helping kids identify the types of bullying, while principals are handing out firm punishment for student-on-student aggression, no matter the severity of the action.

The Davis Joint Unified School District recently hosted a series of forums to discuss school climate and ways to curb schoolyard bullying.

Davis Senior High School student Dwaimy Rosas-Romero has been active in the district's efforts and says she unfortunately knows the issue well.

As a Holmes Junior High School student, Rosas-Romero was bullied by the same girl for months. To this day, the reason she was targeted remains a mystery.

First, the bully spread rumors. Then the bully persuaded the people Rosas-Romero had befriended to shun her.

"I would walk around school and no one would talk to me," Rosas-Romero said. "At that age it hurt so much. I just had to go home and I would cry and be all sad about it. You feel so helpless."

Like many others, she kept the torment to herself, fearing that if she asked teachers or her parents for help, she'd be called a snitch.

Michelle Reardon, a Davis parent and president of the Emerson Junior High School Parent Teacher Association, said she hears of similar stories.

"Parents tell me their kids are harassed because of their weight or religion. There are cases, particularly against seventh-grade boys, where kids have their backpacks taken, or they are pushed against lockers," said Reardon.

Bullying has many forms, but among the most pervasive involves taunting kids who are gay or who are perceived to be gay.

A survey released Dec. 10 by the National Mental Health Association found that nine out of 10 teens who were surveyed reported hearing words such as "homo," "queer" or "gay" to describe other kids at least once in a while, with 51 percent reporting hearing them every day.

The toll of such taunting - whether tied to hostile views regarding gender, sexual orientation or even scholastic ability - can be lifelong, experts say, for the bystander, the victim and the bully.

More immediate consequences are apparent in the number of empty classroom seats. One 1998 study of eighth-graders found that 7 percent stayed home at least once a month because they feared being bullied, according to the Education Resources Information Center.

These victims often view school as a miserable place, the national study said, increasing student isolation because their peers do not want to lose status by associating with them or because they do not want to increase the risks of being bullied themselves.

Randy Hood, head of the Sacramento City Unified School District's school safety program, described such bullying as "a virus." If not stopped, it infects kid after kid who feels he or she can pick on others without repercussions, he said.

Hood is implementing a program that trains teachers and students to combat bullying. He believes that creating an environment in elementary schools that deems bullying as uncool will lessen the chance of kids continuing such corrosive behavior in middle school and high school.

The effort is modeled after The Caring Majority program, developed in Washington state, in which students are taught to swarm and protect the victim while ostracizing the bully.

In other programs, students take the lead to combat bullying on their campuses.

"Everybody knows it's not cool to bully, but the thing is, people are too scared to actually stand up and say it," said Rosas-Romero.

She and other Davis Senior High students have launched Friendship Days, monthly off-campus retreats where students from different ethnic and social groups talk about school life and its pressures. With help from school counselors, students get to know each other to move beyond any stereotypes they may hold.

In the Elk Grove Unified School District, high school students have formed Teens for Tolerance groups, which also work to reduce stereotyping and stifle harassment and bullying. The groups hold informal discussions that show students how to respect differences among their peers.

"Some people automatically think that if you're a rocker, you get bad grades, or if you're a cheerleader or football player, you're preppy," said Trang Vo, 14, a member of Teens for Tolerance at Elk Grove High School.

Members give monthly recognition awards to teachers and students who create a positive atmosphere on campus and who stress that bullying is hurtful.

Students at Elk Grove High also hold an annual Peace Week, where they pledge not to make mean comments or exclude others for a week. During that time, students can send anonymous apology notes, via student couriers, to people they have harassed.

Such anti-bullying efforts are essential because no one wants such behavior to breed the violence that occurred in 1983 when Davis Senior High student Thong Hyunh was stabbed to death by a group of boys who repeatedly bullied him.

Patti Fong, a Yolo County deputy district attorney and member of Davis Asians for Racial Equality (DARE), has been active in the Davis community's efforts to stem bullying since the group's formation following Hyunh's campus death.

Fong said she fears a tense environment at some local campuses could escalate into the type of violence that occurred in 1983 with Hyunh's slaying, or even trigger more campus shootings such as those that have occurred recently around the country.

DARE has asked Davis school district administrators to develop a standard reporting form so schools, and ultimately the district, can monitor how severe a problem bullying poses.

Schools don't have to quantify the range of bullying behaviors, though the state does require districts to track violence or physical threats on their campuses.

Davis schools Superintendent David Murphy said creating safer schools by reducing bullying is one of the district's top priorities this year.

In addition to tolerance groups, the district's schools hold assemblies and classroom discussions about the topic and ways to stop bullies.

Talking about bullying is key to eliminating it, many feel.

Davis Senior High student Babajide Olupona, 18, who serves as a student representative to the Davis Human Relations Commission, said he believes the community discussions about bullying that have been held by Davis residents are a good way to keep the issue in the public eye.

Olupona, who is of Nigerian descent, said he has experienced racially motivated bullying that he would never want younger members of his family to experience.

"There are some things that happened to me in first through ninth grade that just (horrifies) me to think about," said Olupona, who informally changed his first name to B.J. because of teasing by schoolmates.

"As a student who sees the racial lines being drawn and the separation with the cliques, I'm starting to get worried, knowing I have relatives who are going to go to the school," said Olupona. "I don't want to look back and say, 'Oh, I was there, but I did nothing.' "

* * *

The Bee's Pamela Martineau can be reached at (916) 321-1074 or pmartineau@sacbee.com.

Effects
Bullying's effects last into adulthood, increasing the risk of depresion, mental health problems and even suicidal tendencies. In some cases, kids who have been bullied erupt in violence, which is what experts believe happened in the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 and at Santana High School in Santee in 2001.

Reporting
Victims are often afraid to tell adults about being bullied for fear of retaliantion or being viewed as weak.

How to handle
In a specific incident, pay attention to witnesses to the bullying. Name the bullying behavior, talk about what could be done better next time. Don't scold the bully. Talk about the impact of his or her behavior. Allow the bully to make amends, then offer apropriate discipline. As prevention, hold classroom discussions on bullying. Reward positive behavior.

Researchers for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development surveyed 15,686 public and private school kids grades six through 10 in 2001 about bullying Frequency
Bullied sometimes or weekly: 17%
Bullied others sometime or weekly: 19%
Bullied others and had been Bullied When push comes to shove

Here are common characteristics and effects of bullying;
When: Bullying peaks in the middle school years and tapers off by high school
Who: Children tend to be bullied for nearly any reason, including their clothes, size, gender, ethnicity, language skills or personality Types:
  Physical - Hitting, spitting, pushing, taking personal belongings
  Verbal - Teasing, name-calling, making threats
  Psychological - Spreading rumors, isolating others
Why: Kids who bully tend to come from home environments that fail to nurture empathy or appreciate other people's points of view. Other children are simply predisposed to bullying by temperament.
Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; The Project on Teasing and Bullying at the Wellesley Centers for Women

GRAPHIC: Sacramento Bee / Jose Luis Villegas Danielle Shanabrook, a member of Teens for Tolerance at Elk Grove High School, finds one of the group's T-shirts that will be presented to three teachers for their work in promoting respect in the classroom. Sacramento Bee / Jose Luis Villegas Sandra Ramirez, face to camera, a member of Teens for Tolerance at Elk Grove High, hugs teacher Michelle Hamilton after giving her a group T-shirt for promoting tolerance. Sacramento Bee / Anne Chadwick Williams Dwaimy Rosas-Romero, a student at Davis Senior High, has been active in her school district's anti-bullying efforts. In junior high, she was bullied for months. Sacramento Bee / Olivia Nguyen Intimidation


Back to National Survey

Back to Press Center