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Bullying and its consequences: In search of solutions

On October 26th, 2012, there was yet another story reported by the New York Times of bullying and again with dire consequences. This time it was a 15-year-old, Felicia Garcia who after being taunted at her school because “she had piercings and lived in foster care” decided to throw herself in front of an oncoming train (Yee, 2012, p. A27). We were still reeling from another incident not long before of Rutgers student, Tyler Clementi who had been secretly videotaped having a gay sexual relation by his roommate Dharun Ravi. Ravi streamed the encounter over the Internet, and soon after Clementi became aware that his private encounter became public, he ended his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Bullying in all its forms is certainly creating havoc in many parts of our society as seen in these examples. It is alarming to hear the horrific stories of children and adolescents being bullied, abused, defamed, persecuted with innuendoes, gossips, and all kinds of false stories intended to cause harm to the reputations of those being targeted. The movie “The Social Network” provides us with a very poignant example of how far personal attacks posted in Facebook and Twitter may go in inflicting harm. This type of personal attack became quite familiar to a former Green Bay Packer Cheerleader, Kaitlyn Collins, who was taunted by Chicago Bears fans on Facebook. Derogatory comments such as, ‘doesn’t get any uglier, truly an eyesore’ and some much more vulgar comments were posted under her picture. She responded by fighting back, demanding the page to be taken down, and becoming a spokes-woman against cyberbullying. This type of bullying is only one of the most recent forms occurring among adolescents and young adults, adding to the more traditional forms we are already familiar with, such as child abuse, abuse perpetuated among siblings, domestic abuse, abuse against women, abuse against immigrants, the bullying inherent in racism and discrimination, and so on. Unfortunately, in other more drastic incidents such as the case of the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, media reports widely acknowledged that the shooters had a history of being bullied. While we know that it is a combination of factors that will ultimately contribute to incidents of school shootings, it may be especially journal of social distress and the homeless, Vol. 22 No. 1, May, 2013, 1–6