Bully | Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools (RAHS)

On March 27th, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) members at Ypsilanti Community Middle School (YCMS) offered an inspiring and educational movie lunch-in on the topic of bullying to bring exposure to bullying and a concept called being an “upstander”. An upstander is someone who recognizes when something is wrong and acts to help make it right. A bystander on the other hand is someone who witnesses bullying or cyber-bullying but does nothing.

SADD students and their guests at YCMS engaged in discussion around the effects of bullying within their school. A social work intern shared her personal story, which propelled the students to reveal their own struggles with either being a bystander or a victim of bullying. Students also learned “bully-buster” techniques to use when faced with a bullying situation. SADD students also helped communicate the message that bullying hurts for a long time. Many adults can remember times when they were bullied as children. As part of the bullying prevention campaign, SADD reached out to teachers to share their 6-8 word story of how bullying affected them and what helped on our “Teacher Tell-It Wall” that was displayed in the school hallway.

At the end of the lunch event, students were given two glow bracelets (one to keep, one to share) with the challenge to share what they learned with someone else. The glow bracelet was a reminder to use their “light” or voice, to be an upstander and make a positive difference for themselves and others.

Statistics show that 1 in 6 students are regularly bullied in school, but that 1 in 3 students have been bullied. Bullying is tragically commonplace across the country. A survey conducted in 2010 by Clemson University found that while the number of kids being bullied decreased as kids got older, the ones who were bullied in high school were the ones who had been tormented for years, even as far back as elementary school. Bullying is a health problem…for everyone. The victim, the bully, the witnesses and the overall school community are negatively affected by bullying behavior.

Have you ever wondered what to do about bullying? Take action!

How? Be an Upstander! Witnesses taking action against bullying can decrease the health stress effects.

A survey of over 13,000 students (grade 5-12) asked what could a witness do that would be help some-one being bullied (Youth Voice Research Project 2010, S.Davis & C.Nixon). Here is a list of what they thought the Most Helpful and the Least Helpful:

Most Helpful:-spent time with me at school-talked to me at school to encourage me

-gave advice about what I should do

-called me at home to encourage me

-helped me tell an adult

-made a distraction

-told an adult

Least Helpful:-made fun of me-blamed me

-ignored the situation

At Ypsilanti Middle School, the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) created the slogan “Get Down with Being an Upstander” to show the difference between being a silent witness and someone who takes positive action.

Here are 10 ways for you to be an Upstander from BullyBust.
1) Help others who are being bullied.
2) Stop untrue or harmful messages from spreading.
3) Get friends involved – Sign the pledge!
4) Make friends outside of your circle.
5) Be aware of the bullying policy at your school and in your state. (If there isn’t a policy in place, talk to teachers and office staff about how to go about getting one.)
6) If someone is new at your school, make an effort to introduce them around.
7) Refuse to be a “bystander”.
8) Respect others’ difference and help others to respect differences.
9) Ask a teacher or principal to develop a program or project to reduce and eliminate bullying.
10) Learn more about bullying and help others to learn more about bullying.

Students themselves need to create the social norms where bullying is not cool. Creating an environment where student-witnesses to bullying can feel safe standing up to a bully is not an easy task, but with a little help from your friends and teachers, it is possible.