Educators fight back against bullying

Kappa Delta Pi, UCF's international honor society in education, presented a lecture on bullying and preventative measures within the classroom, on Thursday in the Teaching Academy. The organization brought in two guest speakers from the UCF Counseling Center, David Tredinnick and Ivan Gonzalez, to discuss the growing problem in schools.

Offering an open-floor discussion for students in attendance, the lecture was designed to provide the tools necessary for those interested in going into the education field, in regards to dealing with bullying in and out of the classroom, while also gaining new perspectives from students' past experiences.

The presentation began with a video of celebrity Ellen DeGeneres' message on bullying during an episode of her talk show in Oct. 2010.

"This needs to be a wake-up call to everyone that teenage bullying and teasing is an epidemic in this country, and the death rate is climbing," DeGeneres said. "Being a teenager and figuring out who you are is hard enough without someone attacking you. We have to make it stop. We can't let intolerance and ignorance take another kid's life."

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as of March 2011, half of students report bullying at least once during their time in school, and 10 percent report being bullied on a regular basis .

Junior Darit Zweibel, an elementary education major and a KDP member, spoke on the importance of knowing who the victims of bullying may be.

"I think people would be surprised who's being bullied," Zweibel said. "It's not always the weaker student – it can be any student. It's scary [to think] what the effects of bullying could do."

The presentation defined bullying as any person who is repeatedly exposed over time to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending themselves. The actions of bullying entail unwanted aggressive behavior, a pattern of behavior over time and an imbalance of power or strength between individuals.

There are three main types of bullies: the aggressive bully, who is the most common and often intentionally provokes those who are weaker than themselves; the passive bully, who is more insecure, less popular and unhappy; and the bully victims, who have been bullied themselves and retaliate by bullying those who are weaker than them.

In contrast, there are two types of bully victims: the passive victim, who is socially withdrawn and doesn't directly provoke the actions of the bully; and the provocative victim, who arouses negative responses from those around them, such as anger, exasperation and annoyance.

KDP president Amanda Barnes spoke about her own experience with bullying in the classroom.

"I've seen so many different scenarios in schools that it's just sad to see, even as young as 6 years old, [children] are starting to bully," Barnes said. "If they're starting it that early, it's just going to continue as they get older. [KDP] tries to focus on things that can better our teachers that could help them become more aware of things around them. We try to base our meetings on things people would be interested in hearing."

Bullying now also includes intentional and recurring harm inflicted through technological use, also known as cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying can be enacted through harmful comments on Facebook walls, inappropriate text messages (also known as "sexting"), as well as any negative action through the use of other technology.

There have been many celebrity responses to bullying in schools, the most recent of which was Glee actor Chris Colfer during his Golden Globes acceptance speech in April. Colfer included a hopeful message to current students about a future decline in bullying .

"I think bullying has probably been one of the oldest issues ever," Colfer said in a Time interview about his speech. "I finally think now it's reached a point where we realize we can change it, and we can prevent it."

Also in response to bullying, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama called for a White House conference back in March on an anti-bullying movement.

"This isn't an issue that makes headlines every day, but it affects every single young person in this country," Obama said in a press release describing the event. "More and more we're seeing how harmful it can be for kids."

More than 30 students came out to the KDP meeting, the majority of which were not current KDP members, but education majors. However, junior Barbara Ungarten, an elementary education major, felt the discussion of anti-bullying measures could be applied to students outside the education field as well.

"Everybody has a little brother or sister or a niece or nephew that could be going through this," Ungarten said. "A lot of people don't realize what can happen. [Bullies] need to be talked to; they need teacher intervention because it's not [a matter of] them working it out. Things do happen, and people are committing suicide because of that."