The new school year can be an exciting time, but it can also be a scary one for those who are being bullied.
According to recent studies, in Canada, 1 in 3 adolescent students reported being bullied. But there is help if kids are willing to use it, said Karen MacCarville of PARTNERS Family Services,
“Often times, what I’m hearing is students are afraid to ask for help. They’re scared they might get in trouble, they have fears of asking (for help),” said MacCarville.
Tracey Shewciw of Safe Communities Humboldt and Area sees the same thing when she goes into Grade 7 and 8 classrooms to teach the Red Cross’s Beyond the Hurt program.
Bullying is something kids do not want to admit happens.
“They know that it is happening but don’t want to talk about, don’t want to deal with it, may not know how to deal with it,” said Shewciw.
Both males and females experience bullying but in different ways. According to Ourkids.net, boys are more likely to engage in and be victims of physical bullying where girls experience more sexual and emotional bullying.
With no intervention, kids who are bullied have a higher risk of having mental health issues, including high rates of suicide. Kids who do bully are more likely to continue on bullying into adulthood without some form of intervention.
“If someone was a bullier at the high school level and there was no intervention put in place...that person just goes on doing what they’re doing,” said MacCarville.
MacCarville said reporting when someone is being bullied is so important so intervention can be put in place for both victims of bullying and the bully themselves.
So why do people bully?
“I think one of the main reasons is healthy relationships is something that may not have been modeled to them,” said MacCarville. “I think as a society we need to remember kindness and compassion at all levels, at all ages.”
When bullying happens, it goes deeper than just the individual, said Shewciw. It is the whole community that is affected by bullying.
“Communities are affected by bullying on a daily basis and it doesn’t matter where those communities are, they are all impacted,” she said.
It’s a tumbling affect, said Shewciw. When people are bullied, they tend to turn in on themselves, affecting both relationships within their families and outside their families.
MacCarville said understanding bullying is the first step in prevention.
“For someone who is being bullied…they need to have themselves educated on what bullying is, what it looks like, that bullying behaviour is not appropriate, it is not okay for someone to be bullying you,” she said.
When kids know what bullying is, will that help them admit that bullying happens?
After the Red Cross presentations kids told Shewciw that now they know what to do when they see bullying happening.
MacCarville said that knowing who to safely report bullying to also helps the problem. When kids are being bullied, they have many options to report it. These include school counsellors, who play a vital role in stopping bullying, as well as PARTNERS, Kids Help Phone, and even the RCMP.
“If it’s been reported to the school and nothing’s changed, call the RCMP and report that this is happening,” said MacCarville.
