BULLYING IN 2012

1. BULLYING IN 2012 -Dr. Erin Shannon

3. TYPES OF BULLYING • Verbal • Physical • Indirect • Cyber Bullying

4. CYBERBULLYING • 1. Text message bullying • 2. Picture/video clip bullying via mobile phone cameras • 3. Phone call bullying via mobile phone • 4. E-mail bullying • 5. Chat-room bullying • 6. Bullying through instant messaging (IM) • 7. Bullying via websites

5. STATS • It is estimated that 160,000children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. Source: National Education Association. • American schools harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million of their victims. National School Safety Center. • 1 in 7 Students in Grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying. • 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school. • 15% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school. • 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school. • 1 out of 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school.

6. 282,000students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month. • Those in the lower grades reported being in twice as many fights as those in the higher grades. • 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying • Among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied by peers. • Bullying statistics say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings. • 87% of students said shootings are motivated by a desire to “get back at those who have hurt them.” • 86% of students said, “other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them” causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools. • 61% of students said students shoot others because they have been victims of physical abuse at home. • 54% of students said witnessing physical abuse at home can lead to violence in school. • According to bullying statistics, 1 out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying. • Harassment and bullying have been linked to75%of school-shooting incidents.

7. TECHNOLOGICAL TRAGEDY • It can happen 24 hours a day, even at home, which is usually a refuge from bullying, so it can feel inescapable. • Text bullies are often much meaner because they don’t have to see their victims. • The victims may not know who is sending the messages, which can be frightening. • Teens may think text bullying is anonymous and that they can’t get caught. They also may use someone else’s phone to send the messages. Text bullying can often be traced, however, and the bully, as well as his or her parents, can face criminal penalties as a result. • Victims often respond by sending mean messages back to the bully, becoming bullies themselves. • Sexting is against the law and can result in child pornography charges for the sender or senders even if they are minors. • Text bullying doesn't necessarily go away. It may get passed around and it can end up where someone, like a potential boss, will see it in the future. This can harm the victim further, and can be even more damaging for the bully, who may miss out on job opportunities because of the text messages they sent.

8. REPERCUSSIONS • Depression (Both Bully and Target) • Anxiety (Both Bully and Target) • Social withdrawal (Both Bully and Target) • Violence (Both Bully and Target) • Legal Issues (Both Bully and Target) • Suicide/bullycide

9. BULLYCIDE: suicide caused from the results of bullying. • Children and teens who are bullied live in a constant state of fear and confusion in their lives. Many feel the only way to escape the rumors, insults, verbal abuse and terror is to take their own life. There are several different reasons that ultimately can lead to bullycide including: • Being constantly physically and emotionally bullied • Experiencing constant physical and emotional pain • Having to continually relive an embarrassing moment over and over that is regularly brought up peers as a method of torment • Being the victim of bullying by an authority figure like a parent, teacher, coach or other adult • When the victim of bullying has no other friends to rely on for support or encouragement while

10. NEUROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS Prefrontal cortex (PFC) • Is referred to as the "CEO" or executive of the brain • Responsible for such skills as setting priorities, organizing plans and ideas, forming strategies, controlling impulses, and allocating attention. • New research suggests that the PFC is one of the last areas of the brain to fully mature and is not completely developed in humans until mid to late 20’s.

11. Frontal Lobe Prefrontal Cortex

12. PERCEPTION IS REALITY • MRI studies indicate when identifying others emotions or motives, teens activate their amygdala — the brain area that experiences fear, threat and danger — whereas adults activated their prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain linked more to reason and judgment — and performed better on the task. • Behaviorally, the adult’s responses were more intellectual, the teens’ more irrational and emotional.

13. BIOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES • Abnormal Corpus Collosum • Abnormal Cortisol Regulation • Abnormal Neurogenesis • Abnormal Hippocampal Function • Exaggerated Stress Response Similar to Adult PTSD • Abnormal Hypothalamic-Adrenal-Pituitary Axis Function • Mylean Sheath Abnormalities • Glial Cell Damage

14. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? • These kids brains look like children who have been sexually or severely physically abused. • These kids respond to everyday stress like combat soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. • These kids have lifelong problems with cortisol and adrenals leading to chronic health problems. • These kids show signs of dysfunctional thought processing, chronic depression and anxiety into adulthood. • These kids run the risk of developing serious and debilitating serious chronic psychiatric conditions.

15. STRATEGIES FOR PARENTS • Make sure your child knows what is fair and acceptable behavior. • Make sure your child can recognize the sneakier types of bullying andintimidation. • Your child also needs some guidance on how to react when things go wrong. • Be a good example. • Build your child’s confidence and self esteem so that these attempts to undermine them have less impact. 6. Get things into the open.

16. STRATEGIES FOR PARENTS (CONTINUED) • Talk to other parents but avoid hostility. • Talk to your child and clarify what sparked the incident. • Increase your own child’s power by making them feel important. 10. Ensure that they know that people will listen 11. Notice and value their achievements. 12. Help develop a strong social network with peers. 13. If your child’s difficulties persist - don’t give up.

17. CELL PHONE STRATAGIES • Talk to your kids about text bullying and why it is wrong. Tell them if they ever are the victim that it’s not their fault and they won’t be punished. They should not respond to the bullying, but instead should save it to report to a parent. If the message is sexual or threatening in nature they can report it to the police. • Consider having a cell phone use contract with your teen that forbids text bullying, including forwarding mean messages, even if someone else starts it. Take away the cell phone for a set period of time if the teen text bullies anyone. • Require them to turn it off at night, and reserve the right to ask questions about whom the teen is texting and what they are texting about. • If your child does not yet have a cell phone, wait until they are in high school to allow it. • Encourage your child’s school to ban cell phones during school hours.

18. CELL PHONE STRATEGIES (CONTINUED) • Teach teens not to accept calls from someone they don’t know. • Encourage teens to think before sending messages, and not to send a message they wouldn't want everyone else to see since they don’t know if the person they send a message to may forward it to others, or if they are even texting the person they think they are. • Help teens block numbers that are sending mean text messages. • Tell teens not to let anyone else use their phone to send messages. • If the text bullying is serious, contact the cell phone company to get the teen a new phone number and have the teen be very careful about who they give it to. • If the teen knows who the bully is, let the bully’s parents know what they are doing. If the text bullying doesn’t stop, make the parents aware that they may face legal action if it doesn’t stop, and be prepared to consult an attorney if necessary. • It is important for teens who are the victims of text bullying to know that they should not blame themselves for it, and that you care about them and think they are worthwhile regardless of what the bully says.

19. EMPOWERMENT IS KEY Helplessness leads to hopelessness which leads to tragedy: • STOP - and take 20 minutes a day to have a real face to face connection with your child. • LOOK - for patterns and signs of a problem before it escalates to a crisis. • LISTEN - with an open heart and mind to your child’s feelings no matter how irrational or irrelevant they seem to you. Don’t give advice or chastise….just listen first.

20. SOURCES • American Journal of Psychiatry, July 2010, Teicher • Journal of Aggressive Behavior. 2008, Vaillancourt et al. • Journal of Neuroscience, 2007, Peterson et al. • Kathy Brock, ABC News, "Text Bullying” • Richard Webster, Hartford County Examiner, "From cyber bullying to sexting: What on your kids' cell?” • i-SAFE Inc., "Cyber Bullying: Statistics and Tips” • Cyberbullying Research Center, "Summary of our cyberbullying research from 2004-2010” • National Crime Prevention Council, "Cyberbullying” •  ocalschooldirectory.com/k-12-articles116, bullyaware.org/whatisbullycide.htm • OLWEUS Bullying Prevention Program • Committee for Children, Cyber Bullying and Media Safety, ” • Dealing with Text Message Bullying” • Stop Bullying Now, "Cyberbullying” • Make Beats Not Beat Downs 2009