Bullying at the college and high school levels has been attributed as the cause of many teen suicides in recent years.
\nAnna Bucy, a Sinclair adjunct faculty member in the Humanities, Government, and Modern Languages department, works as a freelance education consultant educating schools, groups, and individuals about the importance of learning how to recognize and stop bullying.
\nBucy feels that we have created a culture of bullying here in America where it is winner takes all and people feel they must do whatever it takes to get ahead.
\n
\n\u201cAmerica is bullying nation. We bully the rest of the world and we like bullies in this country,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cWe pretend we don\u2019t. We pay a lot of lip service to \u2018be nice to each other in school\u2019 but we don\u2019t really mean it culturally.\u201d
\nPeople are targets of bullying for many reasons, such as ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and gender.
\n\u201cAbusers find vulnerable people,\u201d Bucy said.
\nAccording to stopbullying.gov, victims of bullying develop symptoms including depression, anxiety, feelings of sadness or loneliness, health issues and decreased academic achievement and many of these symptoms can last into adulthood.
\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get schools to do a comprehensive training where I get to talk to everybody, working with everyone from the bus drivers to the principals and the board,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cThey think they don\u2019t need any training\u2013they\u2019re wrong.\u201d
\nSuicide is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 10-24 years in the United States and accounted for 5,178 deaths in this age group in 2012 according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 6.
\nState Senator Peggy Lehner, Republican of Kettering, is the Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. Lehner played a vital part in bringing together Republicans and Democrats to support House Bill 116 that was passed in 2012.
\nThis legislation was aimed at strengthening anti-bullying policies in schools and extending them to include cyber bullying.
\n\u201cParents and educators alike play a valuable role in seeing that this sort of behavior among our children is not tolerated,\u201d Lehner said in a press release the day the bill passed.
\nBucy describes her work as \u201ctrying to find a pathway for people, and talking to people about coordinating policy, practice and law.\u201d
\n\u201cWe have pathways, but there is no training on coordinating policy, practice and law. We have lots of great policy that no one ever looks at.\u201d Bucy said. \u201c\u2026and there is not coordinated practice with faculty in a large sense because most of the faculty are adjunct.\u201d
\nAdjunct faculty members are not required to attend frequent and ongoing training dealing with bullying. Bucy said that when laws change \u201can email is not enough.\u201d
\nOhio Revised Code section 3313.666 prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying in schools.
\nThe law defines harassment, intimidation and bullying as any intentional written, verbal, electronic or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both causes mental or physical harm and is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive creating an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment for the other student.
\nBullying isn\u2019t always physical; it can sometimes come in the form of social emotional abuse, and it\u2019s not always easy to place policies around something that can\u2019t be proven.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to write a policy about a sound or gesture because it\u2019s not overt or physical,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to write policy about keeping your hands to yourself.\u201d
\nEmilie Olsen of Fairfield Township in southwest Ohio was tormented throughout school. The seventh-grader was adopted and bullied because of her Chinese descent.
\nOlsen took her own life last December.
\n\u201cThe middle school administration was advised of previous concerns regarding bullying. However, the district believed the issue had been resolved to complete satisfaction of the family,\u201d spokeswoman of Fairfield Middle School, Gina Gentry-Fletcher, said in a New York Daily News report.
\nNational data indicates that 17 percent of high school students reported seriously considering suicide and eight percent reported making one or more suicide attempts in the preceding 12 months according to the CDC.
\nCandice Hunt, a recent graduate of the Sinclair Fire Academy and EMT program, experienced bullying throughout her teen years.
\n\u201cGrowing up, I\u2019d say third-grade throughout high school I was bullied quite often. I didn\u2019t fit the mold as a black female in my community,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cI was too \u2018white\u2019 or talked \u2018white\u2019 or I didn\u2019t act \u2018black\u2019 enough. I didn\u2019t dress like the black kids. I didn\u2019t talk like them.\u201d
\nIsolation is a typical tactic used by bullies, and Hunt experienced this during her high school years.
\n\u201cI never had anyone to sit with at lunch. I was never invited to do things. They singled me out I guess,\u201d Hunt said.
\nHunt eventually switched schools during her sophomore year to avoid the bullying.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t know a single person, so I was kind of able to re-invent myself, and get into the things that I wanted to do and find my own niche. That really helped me,\u201d Hunt said.
\nIt has been said by many that bullying is just a part of growing up.
\n\u201cNo one has to endure aggression. Unprovoked aggression is not a right-of-passage,\u201d Bucy said.
\nGaining a social support system is something Bucy sees as vital to overcoming bullying. She recommends anyone that is being bullied to speak up.
\n\u201cTell until it stops,\u201d Bucy said.
\nAs social media becomes an ever-present part of everyone\u2019s life, bullies have taken notice. Bucy said that a part of overcoming being bullied is to take control with mass de-friendings or by removing social media from your life all together.
\n\u201cSeparating yourself from social media is how you take the power back,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cIt\u2019s very empowering to give yourself permission to let these people out of your life.\u201d
\nSocial media can also be an outlet for those who have been bullied to seek advice from others going through the same types of things.
\n\u201cYou can say things to total strangers that you feel uncomfortable saying to people you know,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cWith social media if they bug you just block them.\u201d
\nStanding up for others is vital part in ending bullying said Bucy.
\n\u201cIf you know that someone is abusing someone else, whether you know them or not, step in and say \u2018You know, what\u2019s your problem?\u2019 Bullying will stop in six to eight seconds,\u201d Bucy said.
\nSuicide remains among the leading causes of death of children under 14.
\n\u201cAll it takes is for one person to say \u2018that\u2019s enough\u2019 and it stops,\u201d Bucy said. \u201cYou just never know if that\u2019s going to be the thing that keeps them from killing themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Sells
\nExecutive Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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