Using the Bully Pulpit: The Hidden Violence of Bullying in Our Schools

Abstract

In the aftermath of school shootings, there is little hesitancy about including religious communities in the work of counseling, memorializing, sharing assembly space, and so on. The author argues that this instinct reveals anthropological and sociological insights that could help the religious community to find a public voice in response not only to “manifest violence” but also to “hidden violence,” the paradigmatic case of which is bullying in the schools. The author challenges religious leaders to be more involved in antibullying efforts and makes suggestions for action as part of a whole-community response to the violence.

Notes

I make the distinction between manifest and hidden violence/tragedy to avoid presenting sensational acts of violence like school shootings as somehow more tragic than quotidian acts of violence such as bullying (not simply teasing—see the precise definition that follows) that are often normalized and thus even more painful because of the lack of acknowledgment that real harm is being done. In both cases, we are dealing with genuine human tragedy, the loss and/or painful diminishment of human life.

The involvement of the faith community in manifest tragedies is important; however, as a matter of social justice, the daily forms of hidden violence demand our attention as well. Critics have maintained that the focus on school shootings is disproportionate and that it distracts attention and resources away from the more common forms of violence that are less sensational, and that, unlike school shootings, tend to affect minority and inner-city communities more than suburban, predominantly White communities (see, for example, Newman et al. 2004, 48ff). I hope that by turning our attention to bullying as representative of a larger genre of daily school violence we will firmly stake our ground as faith communities against all forms of violence, whether manifest or hidden, and avoid inadvertently becoming part of the problem of normalizing any form of violence at all.

Student Craig Scott, who survived the massacre but whose sister, Rachel, was killed, said, “The number one thing that helped me get through was my faith in God” (unspecified date, 2002, interview with Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Productions, Inc., ABC. Available on YouTube, 03:42, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = DTEZ4iiWJWU [accessed September 10, 2013]).

See Fleming v. Jefferson County Sch. Dist. R-1, 298 F.3d 918, 934 (10th Cir. 2002), quoted in Richards and Calvert (2003, 1090 n. 3).

This is not an exhaustive list, but representative. The Prince suicide and a deadly September that included Clementi's suicide caught the media and public attention. Many others took place that year that did not become as well known. Clementi's death followed an incident of privacy invasion by his Rutgers University roommate and another student who secretly recorded Clementi's sexual activity with another man. While this incident does not meet the strict definition of bullying—specifically the lack of repetition over time—I include it here because the tragedy was highly publicized and, in the public mind, combined with the other suicides to bring national and presidential attention to the issue of bullying in 2010. My list of suicides for 2010 builds on the work of Christopher Burgess, who keeps a running list of “bullycides” on his website: http://www.burgessct.com/category/bully/. By his count, although he does not use the strict definition, there were thirty-four bullycides in 2010. It is extremely difficult to ascertain whether a suicide is directly related to bullying. For a level-headed approach that recommends caution in naming incidents as bullying and bullycide, see Bazelon (2013).

I have been able to locate the seventh printing of the document at National School Safety Center (NSCC), 1995, School Bullying and Victimization: NSSC Resource Paper, NSSC/Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, in which Garrett's statement appears to be a summary rather than a direct quote from the NSSC.

The ADL does not style itself a religious organization and may be better designated as quasi-religious. Its efforts include, but extend beyond, its historic mission of defending against anti-Semitism. For its exemplary work against bullying, see, for example, the resources available on their website: http://www.adl.org/education-outreach/bullying-cyberbullying/. For their own perception of the work they are doing, see the press release, “ADL Takes Lead in Nationwide Effort to Raise Awareness About School Bullying” at http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/education/adl-takes-lead-in-nationwide.html#.Uji7Oj9LiFA. This work is not without suspicion from the far right. One reason that antibullying efforts do not always make progress is that conservative critics see them as a façade for imposing a liberal moral agenda that includes such things as, in their mind, normalizing homosexuality. For a taste of this criticism in response to the ADL, see http://rense.com/general86/evan.htm

Patrick Ireland was known to many as “the boy in the window” from the live coverage of his escape through the high school's second-floor library window into the arms of SWAT team officials after having been shot in the head twice. The words are from his valedictory address at Columbine High School the year after the massacre: “The shooting made the country aware of the unexpected level of hate and rage that had been hidden in high schools. … When I fell out the window, I knew somebody would catch me. … That's what I need to tell you: that I knew the loving world was there all the time.”

See Patton (2011); Smokowski and Kopasz (2005); Whitted and Dupper (2005); Erickson, Lee, and Mattaini (2009). See remarks by Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in “ADL Takes Lead in Nationwide Effort to Raise Awareness About School Bullying” (n.d.-a). Emily Bazelon writes, “…schools can't solve the problem of bullying by themselves. It's neither fair nor wise for us, as parents, to demand this of them” (2013, 304, emphasis in the original).

I use the term “gay” expansively to include all those who fall under the LGBTQ umbrella. Sacco, Aaberg, Bitner, Bell, Walsh, Brown, Lucas, and Clementi were also all harassed for either being gay or being perceived as such. “A Harris poll in 2005 found that 90 percent of teens who self-identified as gay said they had been bullied in the past year” (quoted in Bullying, a deadly sin 2010, 5). See also James O’Higgins-Norman and colleagues (2009), 324. See also Klein (2006), 42ff. “Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72 percent) say religious messages about homosexuality contribute to ‘negative views’ of gays and lesbians…” (Neroulias 2010).

While she is looking at school shooters in particular, the same argument can be made for bullying.

In NRSV this is Psalm 127.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin M. Dowd

Kevin M. Dowd is a Ph.D. Student in Theology and Education at Boston College. E-mail: [email protected]