Bullying – the new frontier
It’s been on the rise for the past couple of years now. And it’s really no different than any of the other troubles we’ve seen during our lifetimes. It’s always been there, it’s just that now we are more aware of it, whether you want to admit it or not. The increased attention to bullying reminds me of my criminology course with Dr. Richard Wright at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Dr. Wright asked this question (paraphrasing here, 20 years ago you know) – have crime rates increased, decreased or is the media’s attention on the issue the driving force behind the problem being bigger than it is?
Media, and people generally, want to blame TV, video games, rap music, single parents and any other slightly unsavory force in the child’s life for any deviant behavior or act. The music of Elvis was thought to be a bunch of hip shaking trash to the generations before him. But the reality of the situation is this, there was murder, drug use, domestic violence, teen pregnancy and yes – bullying, all prior to the introduction of TV. The issue is that technology has opened up new avenues to communicate and to do it more rapidly and in more locations than ever before. All you have to do is think of Twitter, Facebook, Google Alerts and you understand the communication network. In the past, you would have to wait days to receive a newspaper form Thailand – now as soon as the reporter hits the publish button, Google Alerts has delivered it to your inbox. So what does all this mean – nothing more than every bullying story is now at your doorstep and you have to choose – is the world coming to an end OR is this a story that every media outlet is following. It’s just like gravity – it was always there, but Sir Isaac Newton gave it a label and we have been talking about it ever since.
As I indicated above, the problem has always been there and it’s no different than any of the other types of problems that we’ve faced in the past, whether it’s drugs or domestic violence or sexual molestation or the outright disdain for authority. I was personally bullied in grade school, in middle school and in high school, we just did not label it bullying. We didn’t know how big of a problem it was, we didn’t know how to deal with it, we didn’t have resources dedicated to it and we certainly weren’t trained to deal with it. But all of that is changing in the State of California.
Gov. Jerry Brown, during the 2011 legislative session past three new bills aimed at the total annihilation of bullying in California public schools. The three assembly bills are 9, 746, and 1156. The basis of these three assembly bills are two define the term bullying and cyber bullying and electronic act. In addition the legislation seeks to require public schools to develop and implement written policies addressing bullying. The policies should cover the identification of bullying and the process for reporting bullying.
The other outgrowth of these three pieces of legislation is that it encourages public schools in the state of California to incorporate bullying policies and their comprehensive safe schools plans (CSSP). However, the legislation does not require this, but merely encourages it. I guess I have to ask, how serious is the state of California and their charge to prevent bullying in public schools?