Student weighs in on bullying: BE SMART, DON’T START!

By Sixtine Cabri Wiltzer (2EA)

Bullying is an intentional behavior that hurts and humiliates a person, either physically or emotionally. It can happen at school, in the community, or even online. One student, Charlotte Maizoue, describes bullying as when “someone makes you feel less about who you are as a person,” adding that it is an “unfair situation that can happen to everyone, but nobody deserves it.”

Bullying is a very serious problem which affects one in ten pupils in France. It can be very dangerous for the bullied victim and even for the bully, which is why it is very important to talk about it. A website has been set up to support pupils who are victims of bullying and also to advise others who see bullying taking place:  agircontreleharcelementalecole.gouv.fr

Not all bullies are the same. Each has a different style and uses different tactics to intimidate and control their victims.

Illustration by Hugo Lin, Verywell

As illustrated in and according to the graphic above, there are six specific types of bullying:

• Physical bullying which corresponds to the use of physical actions to gain power and control over the victims, it can be kicking, hitting, punching, slapping, and other physical attacks.
• Verbal bullying uses words and name-calling to gain power and control over a target. Bullies’ purpose is to belittle and hurt another person.
• Relational aggression corresponds to isolate others from a group, spread rumors on someone. The purpose of a relationally aggressive bully is to feel stronger and have a lot of friends, to assure that he is likely to tease, insult, ignore, exclude and intimidate another person.
• Cyberbullying is when someone uses internet or any technology to threat and embarrass another person. The bully can for examples, post hurtful images, make online threats and send hurtful texts. This type has become very common because people feel stronger through internetwhere they can be completely be anonymous and therefore think they won’t be caught.
• Sexual bullying is the humiliating actions that target a person sexually. It can be a sexual name-calling, mean comments, vulgar gestures, uninvited touching and, in extreme cases sexual assault. People who are sexually bullied feel disgusted, they feel bad about their bodies, leading to humiliation. If a naked photo of someone gets diffused after being sent, it also can be called sexual bullying.
• Prejudicial bullying is the action of discriminating someone because of his race, religion, or sexual orientation. Kids often target others who are different from them.

Bullying can affect everyone, and it has serious impacts on mental health, substance use and can even lead to suicide. The bullied victim can isolate themselves, lower their self-esteem, can make the victim feel physically sick, often in the form of stomach aches, can become depressed. The victim can also harm himself and/or have thoughts of suicide.

This image comes from https://mewtwo-reblogs-365.tumblr.com/.

Bullying is a very serious problem that happens a lot in everyday life. It can happen everywhere at any time to anyone. For people who suffer from bullying one students says that she “would say to them that they need to talk about it and that it will save them from this awful situation,” says Charlotte Maizoue. People who see bullying happening must talk about it and denounce the situation. They have the power to change a bullying situation and, by talking about it to someone, they might save the bullied as well as the bully.