Bullying Facts/Prevention

BULLYING

What is Bullying?

At River City Science Academy Mandarin we believe that every student has the right to a learning environment where students are physically and emotionally safe.

There are often misconceptions regarding the definition of bullying. Some behaviors and/or actions that do not meet the definition of bullying are often times referred to as bullying. Three specific characteristics that identify bullying are as follows:

The behavior must be repeated. Bullying does not just happen once
The bullying is intentional and intended to harm
The bullying is directed to someone with less power

The Duval County Public School policy 10.2 defines bullying as systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students.

Teasing	Bullying
Innocent in motive	Purposeful – a choice to hurt someone
Equal power – teaser and person being teased swap roles	Imbalance of power
Is discontinued when person being teased objects	Continues (repeated) and includes fear of further taunting
Maintains basic dignity of everyone involved	Involves humiliating, cruel, demeaning comments