As a high school mathematics teacher I have regretfully witnessed many bullying situations. It is of particular concern to me, because it can have such a profound impact on classroom performance. I am reminded of a student, Renee (pseudonym), that I recently had in one of my classes. Renee's story reflects many of the points raised in Espelage's entry on bullying.
As Espelage defined bullying in this chapter, two ideas emerged that are reflected in Renee's story. One was the idea that bulling is repeated over time, and often is not just a one time occurrence. The second idea is that bullying is not always a physical act; it also occurs via social interactions and dialogs between students.
Both of these were apparent in the case of Renee. Renee was a student of mine in a freshman algebra class. She was in a unique situation because she was a sophomore. She had transferred from a different school and she was lacking her required algebra credit, so she was the only sophomore in the algebra class. Initially this did not seem to be a problem for Renee. She was a very happy and sociable student. She was friendly and would talk with everyone and she would laugh often. After several weeks it appeared she was developing some friendships. She was also an academically strong student; during class she was focused on the task at hand and she worked well with her classmates.
As the year progressed, there was a group of four boys that would commonly joke around with Renee. They would tease her by pretending that one of their group was dating her. They would say things like, “where are the two of you going tonight?” or “is your old boyfriend mad you left him for me?” These conversations usually occurred in the transition between classes and when I heard these comments, I quickly redirected the students to the tasks of the day.
Renee would usually laugh at the group of boys and always seemed to have a quick-witted response. From my vantage point it genuinely seemed like a group of friends having fun and enjoying each others' company.
My feelings about the situation changed when I noticed Renee missing several class sessions. She did not turn in her homework, and when she did attend class she did not perform as well as she had previously. I investigated her poor performance and why she had been missing class, and I found that the boys were the reason. Renee told me she had not been coming to class because she did not want deal with the groups of boys teasing her.
Sometimes bullying is difficult for an outsider to detect. It is difficult to determine if kids are having good natured fun, or if someone is being victimized. As a teacher the best way I have seen to deal with these hard to distinguish situations is to build strong relationships with the students. The better you know the student the easier it will be to determine if they are actually being victimized. In Renee's case I did not see her as a victim of bullying initially, but her missing class and turning in poor work were immediate red flags.
Renee's Story