Huntsville School District has installed a
no-bullying policy which prohibits the full gamut of bullying. That includes
verbal, physical as well as social bullying practices. When speaking of verbal
bullying, one has to understand that this includes name calling and teasing
which has long been considered typical childhood behavior. However, there is
more to it than that. The use of taunting, threats of bodily harm and sexual
comments are also considered to be verbal bullying.
It has always been the tendency of some larger children to
pick on smaller ones, or older children to abuse those that are younger than
them. A classroom setting is where most children from about 5 years old spend
the majority of their time until they are in their late teens. This makes it
necessary for school districts to create policies that spell out no tolerance
policies for bullying.
Here is a portion of the policy of the Huntsville School District
that spells out what they have determined to be bullying. “Bullying is an
unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real
or perceived power imbalance.” When translated into actions, the imbalance
typically involves one child with the physical or mental ability to do so will
pick on a child of lesser abilities. Here is another excerpt from the policy.
“The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.”
The statement “kids are just being kids” is no longer
acceptable when one child is being abused by another. Even though the practice
of bullying is something that has occurred for ages, there is much evidence to
indicate that each party, the child being bullied and the one doing the
bullying suffers the consequences of this behavior throughout their life.
