Hello Lauderhill Family:

I would like this edition of Lauderhill Living to tie into my last message about committing threats of school violence.

Threats of violence primarily come from within the school environment itself. It is called “bullying.” Bullying today is much like bullying when we were growing up, but social media causes a lack of boundaries that our children face, and we did not experience.

We can often recognize it when we see it, but what exactly is “bullying?” It is “the use of one’s strength or status to intimidate, humiliate, or injure another person of perceived lesser strength or status.” Bullying is an intentional and repeated act. It is not playful or joking behavior because bullying will always involve an imbalance of power between the bully and their target. Bullying can be classified many ways, but often they will fall within three general categories: verbal, non-verbal, and cyber.

Verbal

Spoken words that are directed at or indirectly about someone with the intention of hurting the person mentally or emotionally are considered “verbal bullying.” These can be in the form of name-calling, consistent teasing, taunting, threats, racial slurs/insults, and rumors. It can also manifest into blackmail, extortion, or threatening telephone calls.

Non-Verbal

Non-verbal bullying is any form of communication without words used with the intention of harming or intimidating another. Some examples would be intentional exclusion or isolation, obscene gestures, dirty looks, manipulation, public humiliation, destruction of property, and physical violence.

Cyber

When there is an intent to do harm to a targeted individual(s) through technology as communications or posts on social platforms, it is defined as “cyberbullying.” Technology allows bullies to create fake accounts where they can post manipulated photos or memes of the victim on blogs or social networking sites. Anything from digital photos, memes, texts, emails, instant or direct messages, to chat rooms or discussion groups would qualify as settings for cyberbullying. It is probably the most intimidating form of bullying due to its rapid and widespread reach.

Bullying has risen to alarming proportions, leaving our children constantly bombarded with negative activity that can be so overwhelming, they have no outlet to vent. Unfortunately, this is where threats and acts of violence at our schools begin to form.

Stay vigilant your children’s online activities. Do your best to recognize bullying (whether received or sent) and address it right away. It is important to have open and frank discussions with your children and encourage them to rely on you.

Check out these websites to help you and your children recognize the three forms of bullying:

Antibullying.net

Bullying.org

StopBullying.gov

Until next time,