Tuesday, April 8, 2014

What is Bullying?


Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological aggressive behavior by a person or group directed towards a less powerful person or group that is intended to cause harm, distress or fear.

student artwork

Types of bullying behavior

There are some specific types of bullying behavior:
  • verbal or written abuse - such as targeted name-calling or jokes, or displaying offensive posters
  • violence - including threats of violence
  • sexual harassment - unwelcome or un reciprocated conduct of a sexual nature, which could reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation
  • homophobia and other hostile behavior towards students relating to gender and sexuality
  • discrimination including racial discrimination - treating people differently because of their identity
  • cyber bullying - either online or via mobile phone.

What is not bullying?

There are also some behavior, which, although they might be unpleasant or distressing, are not bullying:
  • mutual conflict - which involves a disagreement, but not an imbalance of power. Unresolved mutual conflict can develop into bullying if one of the parties targets the other repeatedly in retaliation.
  • single-episode acts of nastiness or physical aggression, or aggression directed towards many different people, is not bullying
  • social rejection or dislike is not bullying unless it involves deliberate and repeated attempts to cause distress, exclude or create dislike by others.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/bullystoppers/Pages/what.aspx


No comments:

Post a Comment