SEBRING Learning to break cycle of bullying

Use bullies' names, and refer to those they abuse as 'targets,' not victims, experts say.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SEBRING -- Breaking the cycle of school violence by recognizing behavior and characteristics of bullies and their victims was the message Sebring teachers heard from two Penn State University professors.
Sebring pupils had early dismissal Thursday afternoon while teachers had the 90-minute session with the Penn State professors, who have joined forces to study bullying and school violence and to present their findings.
Dr. JoLynn Carney and Dr. Richard Hazler said there was no information to study when they began looking into bullying and harassment in schools about a decade ago. The topic has come to the forefront within the last dozen years, they said.
Hazler told teachers that school violence is not new. What is new in the last decade is that the violence has been extreme and has occurred in white, suburban, middle-class school districts. That made the media and everyone else take notice, he said.
The professors have been affiliated with Penn State University for about five weeks, Carney going there after eight years at Youngstown State University and Hazler after 18 years at Ohio University.
Change the cycle
Carney said psychologists can study a clear pattern in the development of school violence. It doesn't start with drugs, gangs, murder or suicide, but more subtly with put-downs, trash talk, bullying and fighting.
They advised teachers that all adults in school as well as the pupils have to be involved in watching for bullying and abusive behavior. Situations of bullying that result in violence by the person who has been bullied are the product of debilitating abuse.
Change the situation to change the cycle of the abuse, and don't focus so much on the problems of the individuals, they said. The situations are ones in which harm is done to the victim; there is an unfair match either in size, strength or numbers of the abuser on the victim; and the abuse is repeated, they said.
The more often abuse is repeated, the more harm that is done, they said.
Part of changing attitudes is changing terminology, they said. There is a movement toward referring to the abused person as the target of abuse or bullying, rather than the victim.
Victim is a label that makes people feel like the circumstances are out of their control. Being considered a target gives them a sense that they can change that. Targets can move, they said.
Name-calling
For the cycle of bullying and abuse to change, the person who wants to facilitate the change must have empathy, they said.
To belittle someone and bully or abuse them, the person who wants to exert power and authority over the targeted person tries very hard not to see that person as a human, Carney said.
Soldiers are taught to kill, and the first thing they do is give the enemy group a nickname. Bullies working alone or in groups will use foul language and name-calling, never referring to their target by the person's name.
A quick way to start to diffuse any argument, the pair told teachers, is to speak to the person with whom you are arguing by their name rather than name-calling or swearing at them. The situation will begin to change immediately and dramatically, they said.
tullis@vindy.com