Educators fail to recognize some signs of school bullying

University Park, Pa. -- From Columbine to Kentucky, Oregon to Arkansas, violence has erupted in the nation’s suburban schools with never-before-seen frequency and carnage in the past decade. While explanations for these crimes have focused more and more on bullying and peer abuse, Penn State researches say that bullying situations frequently go unrecognized by educators.

In a study published in the journal, Educational Research, "Adult Recognition of School Bullying Situations," Richard Hazler and JoLynn Carney, both associate professors in the College of Education, said teachers, administrators, counselors and other school personnel recognized physical signs of bullying -- even sometimes over-emphasizing them. However, they failed to adequately recognize two other clear signs of bullying.

According to Hazler and Carney, three signs indicate whether actual bullying is taking place. They are: 1) whether someone gets hurt; 2) whether the people involved are unfairly matched; and 3) whether the acts are happening repeatedly.

“The social/emotional damage is the most harmful,” said Carney. Indeed, many of the most prominent instances of school violence were carried out by students who had been picked on or bullied for years, often remaining under the radar of educators who were not aware of the potential threat or its signs.

“Educators over-identified the physical signs -- both whether it was bullying and how severe it was,” noted Hazler. “However, they under-identified the signs of social and emotional abuse, and they completely missed the repeat factor.”

Hazler and Carney note that situations leading to school violence like that seen at Columbine are not one-shot occurrences, but rather part of a developmental continuum that often stems from peer abuse. The evidence thus far is clear enough that at least 20 states (including Pennsylvania) now mandate that bullying prevention programs be in place to address peer abuse.

“The situation is pretty clear, and there are things you can do as educators to recognize harmful bullying so that it can be more effectively handled,” said Carney. The most obvious way educators can help is by recognizing the signs that bullying has happened. Recognizing the signs can lead educators to utilize the mandated bullying prevention programs and other forms of counseling and support to remediate the problem.

“This means we’re asking educators to pay more attention to the social and emotional forms of abuse,” Hazler noted, adding that he believes that recognizing such problems will help teachers rather than cost them additional time and effort. “The more tension and frustration students feel, the more difficult it is for teachers to control students and teach.”

Hazler and Carney are currently pursuing research on bystanders to school bullying, the physiological effects on bullies, victims and bystanders, and potential physiological clues that are present before a violent episode occurs.