How can we recognize bullying?
The following exercise will help you recognize bullying and avoid confusing it with peer conflict.
As mentioned in Steps 1 and 2 of Module 2, dealing with bullying situations through the use of conflict resolution strategies may result in harmful repercussions as well as perpetuating bullying in school.
Your assignment is as follows:
Read each of the following scenarios and decide whether it constitutes bullying or peer conflict.
SCENARIO 1
Students 1 and 2 are very are very competitive with each other. Recently, during the school science fair, one of them accuses the other, in front of witnesses, of copying her science project. The next day in class, during a class discussion about the fair, the student who was accused starts crying because she feels so humiliated.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 2
Students 1 and 2 are playing together when they both spot, at the same time, a very popular toy left behind by someone in the playground. This lost toy is announced in the school over a period of several days, and no child comes forward to claim it. Both students who found the toy want to keep it.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 3
Student 1, a very popular boy, initiates and organizes different games at noon every day in the playground. All the students play, if they wish, except student 2. This student is small for his age and very shy. Student 1 says he doesn’t want to play with student 2. He says since he organizes them, they are his games so he gets to choose the players. Student 2 sits all alone during the games and looks very sad and unhappy.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 4
A gang of boys harasses student 2 from their class. They call him a “fag” and often beat him up. Student 2 seems terrified of this group. He avoids them whenever he can – he doesn’t even look at them if he can avoid it.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 5
Student 1 does not return to class after lunch. School staff is sent out to look for him and he is discovered tied up to a tree in the schoolyard. He is angry and upset, but he refuses to divulge the names of the students who did this to him.
Witnesses inform school staff who did it. When staff members attempt to discuss the matter with student 1 who was bullied, he claims it was a joke and that the perpetrators are friends of his.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 6
A group of students spend a lot of time together, playing together at recess and having sleepovers on the weekend. During a recess conversation, student 2 becomes furious about a comment made by student 1, which she perceives to be an insult. The next day, the group refuses to speak with or look at student 1.
Over the course of the following week, this tactic continues. Student 1 becomes increasingly quiet and withdrawn.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?
SCENARIO 7
Students 1 and 2 are good friends. They hang out together on weekends and generally spend a lot of time together. One day the two boys have a verbal fight when student 1 borrows student 2’s leather jacket and does not return it. Student 2 decides he no longer wishes to be friends with student 1.
Seeing that student 2 has rejected him and will no longer talk to him or interact with him, student 1 becomes furious. He begins a campaign of revenge, vandalizing student 2’s locker, jumping on him on his way home from school, fighting with him, and writing all kinds of things about him. Student 2 retaliates and the level of aggression gradually escalates until school staff steps in.
- Is this conflict or bullying?
- How did you come to this conclusion?