'Bully' is springboard for hopeful discussion
The documentary film explores bullying in several small towns.
An estimated 3.7
million students engage in bullying in schools throughout the United States.
They target 3.2 million fellow students who are victims of moderate to serious
bullying.
"If we
could all follow the Golden Rule, we wouldn't need bullying prevention. But we
are not in that place. We are at a place where kids need help knowing how to
treat one another," says Dr. Deborah Kipps-Vaughan, assistant professor of
graduate psychology at James Madison University. The supervisor of
psychological services for Halifax County Public Schools before joining the JMU
faculty, she knows first hand the dangers of bullying.
"Kids are
much more resilient than we are as adults, but at the same time, because peer
acceptance is so, so important, things that we might as adults want them to
blow off, hurt," Kipps-Vaughan said. "Kids ruminate about it and
damage starts really being done to their self-esteem."
Such an
important and complex topic demands the serious attention several JMU faculty
members and organizations and community partners are focusing on bullying in
schools. Their message combines increasing awareness of the national problem
and offering solutions and hope.
What began as
one faculty member's desire to show the documentary film "Bully" to
one of her classes in the spring semester has emerged as an opportunity to
introduce more people to the film and to encourage local discussions about
bullying in schools.
As she was
arranging to show "Bully" at JMU, Dr. Katie Tricarico, assistant
professor of early, elementary and reading education, realized she would need
financial support to make the event happen. Before the end of fall semester,
she had a multitude of partners – JMU's College of Education, Department of Early,
Elementary and Reading Education, School Psychology Program, LGBT and Ally
Education Program, Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, Madison
Equality, Eastern Mennonite University's education department and Harrisonburg
City Public Schools.
"Bully"
will be shown Jan. 29 and 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Memorial Hall.
Admission is free and open to the public. Additional showings are scheduled
Jan. 29 for teachers and administrators in the Harrisonburg City Public Schools.
The film looks
at bullying in several small towns and mainly follows the story of one boy,
Tricarico explains. "The film is hard to watch. There are no solutions
offered. It's a really raw look at what's happening.
"After you
watch something like that, you need to be able to debrief and process and talk
about what we can do as a community. That's why we're having a panel discussion
among faculty and community representatives."
Kipps-Vaughan,
who will be on the panel at the Jan. 29 film showing, wants people to know they
can help with bullying prevention. As she teaches in graduate-level school
psychology classes, people can recognize bullying and react appropriately to
it.
"You don't
hear much about it, but a key element to understanding bullying is the
bully/victim," Kipps-Vaughan said. "That's the individual that has
had negative interpersonal experiences, which is always hard as a kid, has
usually a more acceptable attitude toward hostile behavior or aggression and
has less regard for conventional rules."
"This
understanding can help us recognize kids that need our attention, and then there
are ways to try and work with their thinking and attitudes. Cognitive
behavioral work through some counseling, for instance."
Once bullying
behavior is identified, Kipps-Vaughan stresses that a comprehensive,
on-the-spot response is necessary.
"Whenever
we see bullying happen, we should stop it right away, name the behavior – call
it 'bullying.' That's some of the problem is we don't call things bullying that
are bullying. So imbedded in this piece about naming is we have to be clear
about the definition of 'bullying.' It is an act with harmful intention, it is
a repeated act and there is some imbalance of power, such as size or social
status."
Further critical
parts to the comprehensive response are immediate consequences for the bullying
behavior and support for the victim. "You have to do all the parts,"
Kipps-Vaughan said.
To help prevent
bullying, the psychologist advocates that teachers in the elementary grades
hold weekly meetings within their classrooms to talk about
"pro-social" topics and to consider how the class members, as a group
of citizens, are treating one another.
Both
Kipps-Vaughan and Tricarico hope the showing and discussion of "Bully"
will generate ongoing consideration of remedies for the national problem.
"Teachers and administrators have a lot more power to help than I think we
realize," Tricarico said. "That's the message I want to show my
pre-service teachers."
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Jan. 23, 2013
