October is National Bullying Prevention Month

According to stopbullying.gov, bullying is "unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose."

 In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

• An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
• Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

There are three types of bullying:

• Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships
• Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions 

Visit their website (StopBullying.com) to learn more about how to prevent bullying. In the meantime, the most recent Teen Assessment Program survey data from Oneida County teens shows a leveling in the percent of kids reporting being bullied, and a decline in the percent that say that they have bullied others. Click the graphic to enlarge it. The full 2015 Oneida County TAP report is scheduled to be released sometime in November.

CLICK TO ENLARGE