Bullying OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Lesson goal Subhead To improve students’understanding of bullying, the harm of bullying, and strategies for responding to bullying. Subhead OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Students will learn: • • • • What bullying is and crimes associated with bullying Harm that results from bullying What teens can do if they are being bullied What teens can do if they know someone being bullied Subhead OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead What is bullying? Bullying is commonly defined as intentional, repeated harmful acts, words, or other behavior, such as name calling, threatening, and/or shunning, committed by one or more children against another. • The harmful acts or words are intentional. • The acts or words are repeated. Subhead • The acts are harmful and they can include a range of acts, words, and other behaviors. • The acts are committed by one or more persons against another. • Bullying may be physical, verbal, or emotional in nature. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead What is bullying? cont. • Physical bullying includes punching, poking, strangling, hair pulling, beating, biting, and excessive tickling. • Verbal bullying includes such acts as hurtful name calling, teasing, and gossip. Subhead • Emotional bullying includes behaviors such as rejecting, extorting, humiliating, blackmailing, rating/ranking of personal characteristics, manipulating friendships, isolating, ostracizing, and peer pressure. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Cyberbullying Subhead Cyberbullying, sometimes referred to as electronic bullying, can involve: • sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images • posting sensitive, private information about another person • pretending to be someone else in order to make that Subhead person look bad • intentionally excluding someone from an online group Cyberbullying can be done using social media, e-mail, instant messaging, text or digital imaging messages sent on cell phones, web pages, blogs, and chat rooms. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Bullying and criminal behavior The definition of bullying in the Code of Virginia is “any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional Subhead trauma. ‘Bullying’ includes cyber bullying. ‘Bullying’ does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument, or peer conflict.” (Code of Virginia § 22.1-276.01) OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Bullying and criminal behavior, cont. Bullying is not considered a crime in the Code of Virginia. However, the acts that are most often associated with bullying are criminal offenses, including: Threat Harassment Extortion Assault Subhead and Battery Robbery Hazing OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Criminal acts associated with bullying These criminal acts are most often associated with bullying: • Threat: A communication that threatens to kill or do bodily injury to a person or any member of his or her family and places the person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury. • Harassment: To repeatedlySubhead annoy or attack a person or group in such a way as to cause anxiety or fear for safety. Several different types of harassment are against Virginia law. • Extortion: Obtaining property from another person by using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to a person, their reputation, or their property. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Criminal acts, cont. • Assault and battery: Physical, harmful contact. • Robbery: The taking, with intent to steal, of the personal property of another, from his or her person or in his or her presence, against his or her will, by violence or intimidation. Subhead • Hazing: To recklessly or intentionally endanger the health or safety of a student or to inflict bodily injury on a student in connection with admission into a group. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Harm from bullying Bullying has often been dismissed as a normal part of growing up. That isn’t the case. Bullying and the harm that it causes are seriously underestimated. Bullying is a big deal. Subhead OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Harm from bullying, cont. Effects on the victim: • Grades may suffer because attention is drawn away from learning. • Fear may lead to absenteeism, truancy, or dropping out. Subhead • If the problem persists, victims sometimes feel compelled to take drastic measures, such as vengeance in the form of fighting back, bringing a weapon to school, or even suicide. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Harm from bullying, cont. Effects on bystanders: • May be afraid to associate with the victim for fear of lowering their own status or for fear of retribution from the bully and becoming victims themselves. Subhead • May fear reporting bullying incidents because they do not want to be called a “snitch.” • May experience feelings of guilt or helplessness for not standing up to the bully on behalf of their classmate. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Harm from bullying, cont. Effects on the bullies themselves: • Studies have found that bullying in childhood may be an early sign of the development of violent tendencies, delinquency, and criminality. Subhead • One study found that boys identified as bullies in middle school were four times as likely as their non-bullying classmates to have three or more criminal convictions by age 24. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING School policies Subhead • How is bullying defined in the student conduct policy? • What penalties are imposed for bullying? • What rules or procedures students should follow if they are bullied or see bullying? Subhead OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Bullying survival tips • Review “Bullying Survival Tips” handout. Subhead OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA BULLYING Subhead Review and recap You have learned: • Although bullying itself is not considered a crime, it often involves criminal behavior. • Bullying is harmful to everyone involved – not just the person being bullied. Subhead • There are strategies you can use if either you or someone you know is being bullied. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL • COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA • WWW.AG.VIRGINIA.GOV For more information about Virginia laws that affect teens, visit www.virginiarules.org © Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia
