E: Ethical Behaviour - Bullying

Ethics is a very difficult word to define adequately. In general it's related to issues about morality including concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice. (Wikipedia)

Endemic bullying is NOT ethical, and places which tolerate it could violating the need to provide a safe working environment and may be in breach of their Occupational Health and Safety obligations.

It has been estimated that up to 1/3 of secondary school students have experienced bullying. This often results in increased absenteeism, fear, the inability to learn and generally poor academic results. A teacher may notice grades dropping off unexpectedly and the child may become withdrawn and unwilling to participate.

When any person, child OR adult is in a bullying environment, they will be unable to perform to the best of their ability; their whole being is focused on survival from the torment. They may be fearful of violence, and equally afraid to defend themselves. The flight or fight response is on high alert waiting to kick in as needed and they will be exhausted from maintaining this hyper-vigilance.

The bully is most often a serial offender, it is rarely a one off experience for either them or their targets. The violence or abuse they mete out may not be overtly physical (although this can happen) but may be the sly punches, kicks or pinches as the target tries to walk past in a crowded corridor.

A child may be afraid of the boot.
An adult may be afraid of being booted out of
 the workplace if they complain

The bully in a child's life can unfortunately also be an adult, and some teachers have been known to get pleasure from the power they have over children. Rather than use of the strap which is now outlawed (in Australia at least) they may nit pic, use derogatory comments (particularly if the child has a learning difficulty or is different), keep the child in after class, mark work down or criticise constantly. This IS bullying and will not toughen the child up or encourage them to learn their spelling or times tables.

See yesterday's image of the brain, and read the layman's description of how the brain responds under constant stress and criticism.

Whether at school or work any of the above behaviours are unethical.

Here tomorrow: Friends


There are many outstanding resources on line. A couple I find useful are Bullying. No way! an Australian resource for teachers and students, and a UK site Bully On Line. This is in no way an exhaustive list, and each country will no doubt have equally good or more relevant websites. If you're being bullied please seek advice from a professional health care practitioner experienced in this area.

Over at jumpingaground I'm spending the month Drabbling using alliteration, mostly with a climate related theme.

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