Identifying Bullying with Dr. Alli Cipra

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bullying, school, bullied, repeated, kids, social media, adults, sipper, types, experienced, shoes, physical aggression, tolerance policy, intense,

SPEAKERS

Amy Vujaklija, Joi Patterson, Alli Cipra

Alli Cipra: 00:03

Most bullying is the result of inaction by the victim or by adults.

Amy Vujaklija: 00:10

Welcome to clipped content from Governor state universities, teaching and leading with Dr. Amy and Dr. Joi. In this pocket sized PD. Dr. Alli Cipra helps us understand what bullying is, and what it is not. So let's get into it.

Joi Patterson: 00:30

I can't recall any bullying, but I was talking about my son who went to seventh grade, he went to a new school, it was like his first or second day, he was beat up in the bathroom by some boys who were talking about his generic gym shoes. I think I was more hurt than he was. And my husband was a teacher at the school. So there could have been that to some jealousy. And of course, my husband went out and got him the best pair of gym shoes the next day, like I told you not to get him gym shoes. So all that's important and bullying, but I don't even know if that's considered bullying, because he's had some incidents, there's incidents, right? And there's bullying. Tell us what is bullying and the different types of bullying and maybe how this has changed over time because we hear different types of bullying now than when Amy and I were in middle school.

Alli Cipra: 01:24

Yes, absolutely. So I think what your child experienced was terrible physical aggression. But unless it was a repeated instance, unless it happened multiple times, it wasn't actually bullying. So that is one of the main defining features of bullying versus other types of aggression. Bullying has to be repeated your repeated target for bullying and it can be different types of aggression that you experienced, but from the same person or persons. And again, it's repeated over two to three instances minimum. A lot of these schools have the zero tolerance policy because they're trying to do anti bullying. And I'm not saying they shouldn't do these types of policies, just that it's not actually working on bullying, it's working on typically physical aggression and violence, which again, if it's not repeated, it doesn't fall into the category of bullying.

Joi Patterson: 02:16

So question, I was a helicopter parent Alec minute, could something like what he experienced potentially turned into bullying? If there's no action by adults, whether the parent or the administration or the teacher? Oh, yes,

Alli Cipra: 02:33

absolutely. Most bullying is the result of inaction by the victim or by adults in the area.

Joi Patterson: 02:42

Because Amy and I were talking about the kids, they don't want to tell each other but they don't want to be a snitch, because really, they want this person to be their friend. So telling just makes things worse. Back to the other question, how has bullying changed over time? What are some of the new things that we hear about bullying, like fiber bullying, and things like that?

Alli Cipra: 03:03

So bullying has actually increased quite a bit when we think about it. Because in previous generations, if you were bullied at school, people talked about you or spread rumors about you relational bullying, right? Or they physically picked on you. That's your physical bullying. But when you went home, that was it. But now with social media, that's not it. Kids have all sorts of devices, they're on social media, they have cell phones for texting, and kids are getting bullied at higher rates with electronic means. So cyber bullying is one of the primary methods unfortunately, of bullying. And it's even worse, you might think, well, it's worse to be hit. It's really not. If someone beats you up in the playground, it's over. If you're getting bullied online, you can't escape it. It's everywhere. It's happening at school, on the school forums, on the forums that the kids don't think the schools are monitoring. It's happening on their social media accounts, their Twitter and even Tik Tok, which I'm not sure how involved you guys are in that I really don't get super involved in more of the modern social media except to know what it is and how it impacts my children and my research. But there are even these challenges and trends on tick tock, which are really actually pretty intense and can fit into bullying behaviors for children. I think the main thing is because of the progression of technology and social media and all of that bullying has become more intense and it follows them everywhere. There's no escape.

Amy Vujaklija: 04:36

This was clipped content featuring Dr. Alli Cipra. From our podcast teaching and leading with Dr. Amy and Dr. Joi. Find the full length interview@www.go vst.edu/teaching and leading podcast. Stay tuned for more pocket sized PDS from Dr. Amy and Dr Joi