Bullying

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

There are many roles that kids can play. Kids can bully others, they can be bullied, or they may witness bullying. When kids are involved in bullying, they often play more than one role. It is important to understand the multiple roles kids play in order to effectively prevent and respond to bullying. There are some specific types of bullying behaviour: verbal or written abuse (such as targeted name-calling or jokes, or displaying offensive posters); violence (including threats of violence); sexual harassment (unwelcome or unreciprocated conduct of a sexual nature, which could reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation); homophobia and other hostile behaviour towards students relating to gender and sexuality ; discrimination including racial discrimination (treating people differently because of their identity) ; cyberbullying - either online or via mobile phone.