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Case studies use real life examples or stories created from a mixture of real life examples. This is useful because it moves us from conceptual to more specific concepts. By giving us a chance to read about specific bullying and/or cyberbullying situations and the strategies we can use to diffuse or prevent these situations, we can hopefully feel more prepared when similar situations appear in our workplace.
What are the two case studies we are examining and providing strategies for:
Case Study for an elementary student who is experiencing bullying and cyberbullying
Our bullying case study involves a student we're going to name Ben who is in 2nd grade. Ben identifies as male, as much as a child can identify their gender, and has been at the school for several years. He's very intelligent, and Ben would be considered a high-achiever when looking at differentiated teaching strategies.
However ever since Ben joined the school, he has shown impulsive behavior. When he was younger, he would bite, hit, and fight with other students regularly. To compound the issue, many of the students he would have physical altercations with were friends of his.
Recently, Ben isn't physically violent as often, but he still struggles with behaving appropriately. He deliberately bothers and harasses others. His behaviors include:
Breaking toys in front of other children particularly block toys
Poking others in line
When playing or doing an activity with others, he will collect all of the materials like magnets and refuse to share them
He often rubs his hand or toys on other students' heads until they lash out
When others tell him to stop, he often bursts out crying or he becomes obstinate make a spitting noise with his lips
When we ask why he does something, he is unable to or refuse to tell us why
This has resulted in the class atmosphere becoming toxic both for Ben and the others. The following issues have developed because of these incidents:
Some of the students have begun avoiding playing with Ben.
When someone gets hurt, Ben is often blamed by the class regardless of whether he was involved or not.
Some of the parents have said their child is afraid of the student.
Some of their children have said they are afraid of the student.
Ben feels more and more frustrated about being excluded, so he is acting out more often.
This is not how a positive, safe, and inclusive classroom feels. In this situation, Ben is both the bully, and he's also being bullied. The other children are beginning to actively exclude him from activities (social exclusion is a form of bullying) and blame him for things he didn't do, and he responds by getting more aggressive with his harassment. The good news is there is still time to alter the dynamic. So, let's do it!
Cyber Bullying Stories: The Loss of Audrie
Audrie lived to the young age of 15 years before she committed suicide due to the cyberbullying she suffered at the hands of three teens she knew. The attack involved photographs of her posted to the Internet by the boys. The photos also involved Audrie’s rape.
The case happened in September 2012, when Audrie found herself in a situation of underage drinking. During the drinking she fell unconscious which is when the trouble began. During her passing out, Audrie was then raped by the teens she was with. All the teens knew each other, which was the more shocking matter; they all attended Saratoga High School. However, the teens involved then took photos of Audrie during the attack and posted them on the Internet. For eight days after the event Audrie lived in terror, shame and fear until she finally decided suicide was the way to escape the damage and harm being forced on her mentally. Her parents had no idea what had happened until Audrie was already dead.
Now, after the 15-year-old’s death, the teens involved are under arrest and being charged with causing her death, but it won’t bring Audrie back to her family. The damage is done.
From reading Audrie’s case, it may appear that her school administration, teachers, parents and friends were not aware of the situation until after her death and therefore, there was nothing they could do to prevent such a tragedy from happening. However, raising awareness of sexual harassment at school and having clear policies and guidelines in place can make a positive difference.
What should the teacher do in the classroom?
We can discuss and talk about bullying in an honest way in the classroom.
Bullying is difficult to recognize when it's not very violent. Many young children might not be sure about what bullying is. Having roleplaying activities in the classroom where bullying is highlighted as well as showing videos where bullying happens and what the solution is might create a more honest, insightful dialogue in the classroom.
In Audrie's case talking about what constitutes sexual harassment and assault would have been helpful both in helping her identify what sexual assault is as well as helping others realize when they were being abusive.
For instance, the class could have discussed what language is inappropriate to use. And why making comments about someone else's body can create a sense of fear and lack of agency within them.
We should also take on cyberbullying when starting out dialogue. Cyberbullying when children are younger is uncommon but knowledge is power. And because it's not violent cyberbullying is particularly difficult to recognize (Withers, 2013) (Alicia, 2011).
Cyberbullying often occurs without teachers, administrators, or even parents knowing. The best thing we can do is give our students the information before they need it like Audra did.
Here's a great video resources that's age appropriate. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find age appropriate resources (Malcom, 2011).
2. We can provide students with solutions for controlling theirimpulses.
For instance, every time we the teacher see Ben's frustration mount, we can let him go to a cool-off corner (Edutopia, 2010). Many classrooms have an area that students can sit for a second by themselves and/or play with something they can shake for a second.
As a teacher, we can devote a section while we're going over class rules to talking and modeling solutions for when we feel frustrated. We can also model proper group play and sharing of classroom materials.
Small roleplaying activities everyday while going over class rules can help all students better understand the rules, but it also lets Ben know about possible solutions without embarrassing him.
We can acknowledge that the student feels frustrated and not punish it (McGarry, et. al., 2012). Instead, we can guide him through coping strategies like breathing deeply for 3 breaths, calling for help from the teacher, or telling him he can go get a tissue or water to get away from a stressful situation.
As an alternative to administering discipline for his actions, we can talk with Ben about natural and logical consequences. (Matthews, 2017) In this case, this means explaining that when he acts out the way it does, it creates hurt feelings for his peers, and also causes them to have negative feelings for Ben. We want them to think of Ben positively. Ben must think about ways to express that to his peers.
3. Teachers should sustain a school climate conducive to learning.
All teachers, staff, and administrators have to use consistent discipline to model the boundaries for students.
Students notice when discipline is inconsistent due to time restraints or the teacher simply being tired. It's human nature to test the limits of the teacher's laxness. So, we have to stay sharp!
Teachers, staff, and administrators should take care to model the correct way to deal with bullying situations. Students often copy our behavior. If we have some biases about culture, gender, or other things then the students will pick up on our behavior and repeat our own problematic behavior.
What can we do involving school and community policies and legislation?
1. Gather other teachers to implement policy changes (McGarry, et. al., 2012).
We can be aware of any school policies and try to identify gaps in them that might lead to bullying going unpunished. However, one teacher saying a school should change it's policy would be weak. Instead, it's better to gather support from your fellow teachers and bring it to a curriculum meeting.
We can create a committee that just deals with bullying made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and students.
Getting students involved in the anti-bullying committee will also help make it a priority for the students.
2. We can reach out to community ally programs and try to get them implemented district wide in the curriculum. Rallying your community and bringing your information to the school boards is very effective- particularly if you have parents backing you.
In addition if you do your research and bring a successful pre-established ally program to the board of education, you might find they're more receptive to school policy changes. Standardized test scores may go up as much as 10% when ally programs are implemented (Edutopia, 2010).
An example of two potential programs which have been proven effective and that could be used in Audra's and Ben's cases are The Shifting Boundaries Program and The Start Strong Program (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2013).
Educate Youth (in and out of school): children spend most of their time in school and after school programs
Engage Influencers: Parents, older teen mentors, Health Professionals – teens learn behaviour from those they trust
Social Marketing: programs need messages that resonate with young teens, harness culture trends to share massage
Policy Change: policies change what’s viewed as normal and expected.
A better explanation is linked in the video below (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2013).
3. A cohesive understanding of bullying policy and practices surrounding bullying must be forged. (Scholarworks.gsu.edu, 2018).
Before school personnel can effectively address bullying, a common definition of the term and effects needs to be developed. (Scholarworks.gsu.edu, 2018).
What this means is that there should be adequate training for teachers, staff, and administrators about how to deal with bullying situations.
In addition, there should be specific language used when defining bullying as well as specific consequences that are set for the entire district. This way even if there's a large turnover in staff, the new staff have access to resources to define and appropriately set consequences for bullying behavior.
GLSEN. (2008). ThinkB4YouSpeak: Educator’s guide. [PDF for teaching strategies when bullied]. Retrieved March 3, 2018 from file:///Users/nichole/Downloads/M4U1A2%20Guide%20to%20ThinkB4YouSpeak.pdf
McGarry, R. A., Friedman, L., Bouley, T., Griffin, P. (2012) Ready, set, respect!: GLSEN’s elementary school toolkit. [PDF document on tools to combat bullying in elementary schools]. GLSEN. Retrieved March 3, 2018 from file:///Users/nichole/Downloads/M4U1A2%20Ready,%20Set,%20Respect!%20GLSEN's%20Elementary%20School%20Toolkit%20(1).pdf
Great work guys! Great idea about anti-bullying committee made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and students! I know an example of a students led anti-bullying club which seems functional to me. Sometimes, students are too shy and uncomfortable to complain about bullying. I think sharing with peers first is easier for students, then the club can take it higher and get parents, and teachers involved. In many cases, bullies threaten the victims that if they complain to parents bullying will get worse, which leaves victims no other choice but to keep silent.
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Comments (1)
aj265117@... said
at 9:53 am on Mar 11, 2018
Great work guys! Great idea about anti-bullying committee made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and students! I know an example of a students led anti-bullying club which seems functional to me. Sometimes, students are too shy and uncomfortable to complain about bullying. I think sharing with peers first is easier for students, then the club can take it higher and get parents, and teachers involved. In many cases, bullies threaten the victims that if they complain to parents bullying will get worse, which leaves victims no other choice but to keep silent.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.