Kelly Oroza

Week 6 Assignment 2

I am looking to be certified in Childhood Education grades 1-6. I watched the video on

Rebecca’s Story. Part A:
What caused them being bullied? In Rebecca’s case what started the bullying was a teenage girl
was dating a boy that Rebecca used to date, and the teenage girl did not like that Rebecca and the
boy were still close. She then used a close friend of Rebecca to help her to bully Rebecca. The
two of them would cyber bully Rebecca using different social media platforms such as
Facebook, and KIK messenger. They would write her messages as far as “Drink bleach and die.”
Or “Can you just die please?” Rebecca responded with “No, I can live.” This was going on for
quite sometime and Rebecca’s mother asked the school to intervene, and it was reported they did
not. Rebecca’s mother then removed Rebecca from the school, changed her phone number and
then removed social media accounts from the phone. The bullying seemed to stop, and Rebecca
was doing better. However, weeks before her death Rebecca began cutting herself and ended up
in the hospital for three days. The girls started to bully again on the social media platform which
started to the depression and cutting. Rebecca then committed suicide by jumping off a tower.
The mother had no idea that the bullying started up again nor saw the signs that her daughter was
going to commit suicide. Cyberbullied to death: An analysis of victims taken from recent .
Retrieved March 7, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267623935_Cyberbullied_to_death_An_analysis_of_vi
ctims_taken_from_recent_events
Part B: What went wrong in the school system?
When the mother first went to the school and told them about the bullying and the school did not
intervene that was the failure on the school’s part. They should have addressed the mother’s
concerns and relayed the information to the teachers so they could be aware to look out for
warning signs or to see what was going on. Once Rebecca had switched schools it was not said
or mentioned so I can only assume the school or teachers were not aware of what was going on. I
think Rebecca’s mom should have mentioned why she was changing schools and then it would
have been on the school to act. Have a school counselor meet with Rebecca and talk about what
has been going on and let Rebecca know that they are there for her. Also, having Rebecca’s
teacher informed so they could watch out for warning signs. The bullying would not have been
going on in the school as we have learned it was cyber bullying, but they could have checked in
on Rebecca and also watched too see if there were any warning signs.
Part C: What intervention and prevention strategies would you take if you were the teacher
(when and how)?
I think as a teacher I would want to make sure I am aware of my students’ behavior. If I were
Rebecca’s teacher, I would like to think that I would have been able to see some warning signs
that she was being bullied. As seen in the video us as teachers need to know the importance of
awareness. Being more attentive in the non-structured environments in the school such as the
cafeteria, the hallways or recess. We need to be present in the hallways letting the students know
we are “there” and present. If the students, see that we are trying and are there for them they will
see that a trust is being built and will be more inclined to want to come and talk to us about what
is going on. Teachers and students need to work together and be on the same page as bullying.
There was a recent study in one of the articles I have read that, ”85 per cent of teachers reported
intervening ‘always’ or ‘often’ to stop bullying. However, only 35 per cent of students reported
that teachers intervened in bullying. This discrepancy leads to the important question of how
teachers perceive and respond to bullying incidents.” Yoon, J. S., & Kerber, K. (2003).
Bullying: Elementary Teachers’ Attitudes and Intervention Strategies. Research in Education,
69(1), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.7227/RIE.69.3
Moreover, as teachers we need to understand that bullying comes in many forms. One being
social exclusion. We as teachers sometimes will call out a child, punish them in front of the
class, make them feel like we are uncaring or want to help. If a teacher acts this way to a student
who is doing the bullying then the victim might feel like the teacher might not feel sympathetic
to their needs. If teachers show empathy and compassion to all of their students they are
modeling behavior they want for their students as well.
According to an article about bullying in the school environment it was said that the educators
felt that the families and home life were responsible for the bullying going on in the schools and
not so much the educator’s responsibilities. (Salgado FS, Oliveira WA, Silva JL, Pereira BO, Silva MAI,
Lourenço LM. Bullying in school environment: the educators’ understanding. J Hum Growth Dev. 2020;
30(1):58-64. DOI: http://doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.v30.9969).

If a child comes from a broken home or has domestic violence going on in the home, then that
child is more likely to bring those issues into the school. In the study the educators and the
parents were not seen as a team and therefore the school environment was not working in favor
of the children and bullying was not being controlled. When I become an educator, it is my belief
that I would want to work in a school environment where the school and the parents all work
together as team. Engaging parents in the school is important. If students are the “bad” kids and
the kids that come from a broken home those kids will tend to act out more because they already
feel excluded. If the parent is also teaching their kids it is ok to hit back if the kid was hit and
that does not go along with the policy of the school, then the school and the parents are not on
the same page. We need to let the parents know what the policy of the school is and work from
there. We cannot simply tell the parents how to parent, but we can let them know our policies
and what we expect from our students and work together.
It would also be my responsibility as a teacher to have the students know why bullying is wrong.
If they can understand the effects it has on them mentally, emotionally and socially not just that
bullying is not nice, then maybe they would not be so inclined to bully. If we teach our students
early on about empathy, being compassionate then also in turn maybe they will stick up for
someone they see that is being bullied. We as teachers can model the behavior, we want to our
students to have in and out of the classroom. If we set these behaviors up early enough, they will
have someone to learn from. If we as teachers act as the bullies to our students, then the students
will think this is acceptable behavior.
I would as a teacher have to follow my school policies on bullying and take my approach from
there. Most schools now have a DASA coordinator for the purpose of bullying. I would want my
students to know who the DASA coordinator is and that not only can they use them as a
resource, but they can also come to me. Moreover, on most school districts websites there is
forms for DASA such as the incident reporting form. It is important that the parents know that
this information is accessible to them as well as who the DASA coordinator is at their school.
Teachers should let the students know that there are policies in place and there is zero tolerance
for any kind of bullying. There should be class and school rules in place to reinforce that all
types of bullying are not going to be accepted.
If the school and the families work as a team, we can help to reduce the bullying in the schools.
We cannot simply get rid of bullying completely but there are strategies, policies, and efforts we
can out into place to make the school a positive place for our students.

Resources:
Rebecca’s Story from the Youtube Video
Vinmeo Video on Bullying

Cyberbullied to death: An analysis of victims taken from recent . Retrieved

March 7, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267623935_Cyberbullied_to_death_
An_analysis_of_victims_taken_from_recent_events
Salgado FS, Oliveira WA, Silva JL, Pereira BO, Silva MAI, Lourenço LM. Bullying in school environment:
the educators’ understanding. J Hum Growth Dev. 2020; 30(1):58-64. DOI:
http://doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.v30.9969

Bullying Among Young Children: Strategies for Prevention . Retrieved March

7, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-013-0600-y

Yoon, J. S., & Kerber, K. (2003). Bullying: Elementary Teachers’ Attitudes and Intervention
Strategies. Research in Education, 69(1), 27–35. https://doi.org/10.7227/RIE.69.3