As stated in “Suicide rate increases in teens as an effect of bullying” (CT, April 28), columnist Brooke Leonard wrote that “if school officials will not take responsibility for the safety of their students, someone must.” This someone must
be you.
So, how do you fit in “the Bullying Circle?” Dr. Dan Olweus defines the role of each individual in this circle: students who bully, followers, supporters, passive supporters, disengaged onlookers, possible defenders and defenders. Data collected from many schools participating in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program found that only 25 percent of fourth graders and 22 percent of fifth graders say they “often” or “almost always” stop bullying. Do you have the courage to tell someone to stop when you see or hear bullying? If you are like most elementary school students, then you don’t do anything either. For bullying to stop, we need a shift from watching to acting, from disengagement to engagement, from hurting to helping.
More laws will not solve this issue. Zero-tolerance policies have been shown to be ineffective, particularly among teens where negative consequences are not part of their decision-making processes. Punishment and reactive programs have shown to reduce the unacceptable behavior but not extinguish it.
Suicide caused by bullying has become so prevalent in recent years that the word “bullycide” has been coined. Suicide is not the only danger as health concerns, school violence and other disconcerting behaviors result as well. According to the “Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative” by the Department of Education, of the 41 individuals in 37 school-based attacks occurring between 1974 and 2000, “most attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured prior to their attack (on others).” Those who bully often are more likely than peers to get into frequent fights, be injured in a fight, vandalize or steal property, drink alcohol, smoke, be truant from school, drop out of school and carry a
weapon (Nansel et al., 2003; Olweus, 1993).
Given the drastic effects that bullying has on individuals and had on institutions such as our campus on April 16, 2007, undergraduate and graduate students have spent the last year in the Center for Applied Behavior Systems of the
Psychology Department developing an intervention to create a caring climate in schools. The “Actively Caring for Elementary Schools” intervention empowers fourth and fifth grade students to look out to their peers as models when they perform kind acts and then share their caring stories. The teacher reads three caring stories at the beginning of each day and selects one student to wear the green “Actively Caring” wristband as the Actively Caring Hero of the Day. At the end of the four-week program, everyone in the class receives a wristband if he performs an act of kindness. The concept of “Actively Caring,” or any discretionary behavior that goes above and beyond for someone else, was developed for the safety industry by professor Scott Geller. The center has applied his work in a new way to reduce a bullying epidemic.
On a collegiate level, Geller and the center, along with members of the Student Government Association, have passed out more than 7,000 green “Actively Caring For People” wristbands on this campus as a way of recognizing individuals, who perform acts of caring. Similar to the elementary school students, Hokies are looking for others to do kind acts. When someone is caught doing a good deed, he receives a green wristband as a token of appreciation. Then he is encouraged to pass it on to someone else that is seen doing a kind act. This wristband serves as a tangible object that represents caring and connectedness. Students have been posting their wristband interactions and stories on ActivelyCaringforPeople.org.
A 2004 study found similar brain responses to physical pain as to social isolation. It’s fair to say that the old adage of “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is just untrue. Human beings strive for social acceptance, so consider including a stranger when eating at D2 or asking how a classmate is doing if he looks down.
“For every thousand hacking at the branches of a tree, there is only one hacking at the roots,” said Henry David Thoreau. We need to hack at the roots of all problems and develop an actively caring culture, where individuals look out for one another, not because we have to do so, but because we are self-motivated to do it. At Virginia Tech, we have a special community. We have redefined the word “Hokie”: an individual who puts more into a relationship than he or she receives in return. Caring isn’t enough. We need to actively care and do something to demonstrate our attitudes and commitment. The effect is that then “every act of kindness has a ripple effect with no logical end.” Perform a kind act, watch it spread and allow the world to see Tech as an Actively Caring community. Is it possible that your act of kindness could change the world today?