No one is immune from bullying

Recently UFC middleweight champion Bobby Razak spoke out about how he was severely bullied as a child. Razak did not even realize that he was bullied until he gave an anti-bullying speech as an adult. As more and more adults realize that their childhood memories depict bullying rather than “kids being kids,” it is also becoming clear that no one is immune to bullying.

There is no standard. Sure, there are signs that point to certain types of children who may become bullies or bullied, but there is no formula to show that if x child does y, he will become a victim. In fact, bullying is even common in the workplace long after graduating. As inspiring as It Gets Better videos are, they neglect to point out that sometimes, it gets worse. 53.5 million Americans report being bullied at their place of employment. Even though bullying is more commonly reported in the workplace than racial discrimination or sexual harassment, it remains perfectly legal to do.

As often as schools focus on preventing bullying and promoting peace in classrooms, they cannot make a dent without the rest of the country pitching in. Parents need to step in and stop insisting that “boys will be boys” or telling kids who are picked on to “buck up.” Employers and coworkers who bully need to be held accountable for mistreatment of workers. Bullying needs to be taken seriously, not considered to be a “normal” facet of life.

How laughable is it that schools face zero-tolerance policies, suspending young children who use chicken fingers as fake guns at lunchtime, while fighting and bullying are glamorized in the media? As long as reality shows depict how much fun it is to pick on people, magazines display ideal beauty standards as airbrushed fantasies, and video games and music lyrics romanticize murder and abuse, violence is going to look appealing—especially to impressionable youth.

We already know that bans are not realistic. Frequent, frank discussion to help youths comprehend the seriousness of bullying may be key, but with so many hours already crammed together to meet state standards in schools, where do you even begin?

Implementing lessons into the current curriculum is probably the most doable scenario for teachers. In early grades, you can work on developing empathy as an ongoing project. For middle schoolers and high school students, working literature that deals with bullying into your reading list is a good idea. Health classes can include the difference between an airbrushed model and a real celebrity’s photograph, while higher level social studies and English courses can do closed readings of pop music or criticism of violent video games as research projects. Not only does this engage students with relevant topics, but it also opens the door for discussion once the projects are submitted.

Violence spans so much more widely than classrooms. There is no way that teachers alone can tackle the entire issue. But knowing this fact and recognizing that bullying is an issue that most people are going to deal with at some point can help us pinpoint the ways we can help create a more peaceful society.

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