MAED 406 – Laws on

Education
Bullying (How to Know if You’re Being Bullied)
Presenter: Leni M. Arevalo
How to Know if You're Being
Bullied
• Bullying is the most common form of school violence, with
approximately 3.2 million students bullied a year, and it is also a
common form of workplace violence. It can be difficult to identify
bullying behavior and address it, especially when you are the
victim. You can identify bullying behavior that is being directed at
you by noticing the physical signs of bullying and the verbal signs
of bullying. You can then get help with bullying at school or 
bullying in the workplace by reaching out to authority figures and
other support networks.
1. Recognizing the Physical Signs
Note if the person punches, hits, or strikes you
• Note if the person punches, hits, or strikes you. One of the most
obvious signs of bullying is physical assault in the form of punching, hitting,
or striking. The person may physically harm you with his own hands or an
object, or he may threaten to physically harm you. Often, a bully will
physically assault their victim continuously over a period of time, with each
assault becoming more violent and aggressive.
•Many bullies shove or push their victim. If you are being bullied, the bully may inflict minor or major
physical injuries on you in places that they know not very many people will see or notice. They may do
this to avoid suspicion from a parent or a supervisor. As teachers, we are responsible for the health and
welfare of our pupils in our schools so it is our job to pay close attention and be sensitive if someone
among our pupils have been already harmed. Checking for physical injuries is can help us determine if a
certain student is already being bullied.
Notice if the person invades your personal space

• Bullies can also inflict physical discomfort in more subtle ways, such as
invading your personal space on a continual and relentless basis. If you
work in a cubicle or an office, for example, the bully may come in and sit
right on your desk or stand in front of your cubicle or office door. If you are
trying to work in the library at school, the bully may come and sit right on
your school books or pull up a chair very close to you.

Invading personal space is often done by bullies who are trying to intimidate you or scare you,
without using actual physical assault. Bullies may also invade your personal space and then escalate
their bullying tactics to physical attacks.
 Consider ways they can cause pain without
hitting you
• Making loud noises, pointing bright lights at your eyes, and
shoving stinky things in your face can be bullying if the person
is doing it with the intent to cause you pain, or ignoring your
requests to stop it. They don't have to hit you in order to hurt
you.
•Causing sensory pain; this may be tailored to a disability such as flashing lights at a photosensitive
person or making loud noise in order to watch an autistic person jump and whimper
•Trying to irritate an injury, such as prodding a broken arm, or dropping things for you to pick up
when you have a painful knee injury
•Trying to trigger a medical condition, such as using flash photography to try to trigger a seizure in
an epileptic person, or showing graphic content to someone who has PTSD or a phobia
Check if you are physically uncomfortable in the
presence of the person
•  Often, your body will respond to bullying in psychosomatic ways, which is
a physical illness that occurs due to mental trauma or stress. This could be
an overwhelming feeling of nausea, anxiety, or stress when you are in the
presence of the bully, or more physical symptoms like throwing up, a rapid
heartbeat, headaches, and panic attacks.

•You may experience physical discomfort in the presence of the bully or during times when you are not
around the bully. The night before school, for example, you may feel physically ill at the thought of having
to see the bully. Or, you may become nauseated and sick on your drive to work because you know you will
need to see the bully in the office. These are all psychosomatic responses to bullying and often will only go
away if you deal with the bully.
2. Recognizing the Verbal Signs
Notice if the person screams, yells, or shouts at you
• Verbal attacks in the form of screaming, yelling, or shouting can
also be considered bullying. The bully may yell insults at you or
mock you loudly in the presence of others. They may also taunt
and yell at you when you are alone with them.

 Verbal abuse can be as damaging as physical abuse, as you can be mentally and emotionally hurt
by the bully’s words. Verbal abuse can often go undetected if it is done quietly and constantly, so it is
important to notice if the bully is causing you psychological pain through hurtful words.
 Discern the difference between constructive and
destructive criticism
• Constructive criticism is well-meaning, specific, and designed to help you
improve. You come away knowing exactly how to do better. While it can
hurt if done too bluntly, it isn't bullying. Destructive criticism contains no
useful advice, and is often personally insulting.

•An example of specific and helpful criticism is "This article could use some work. It's a stub at this point, and
could benefit from an expansion regarding how to ask the guy out."
•An example of destructive criticism is "This article is useless, unhelpful, and just plain stupid. Clearly the
writer has no idea what they are talking about."
•Occasionally, people give ill-meaning advice that appears constructive, but is meant to shut you up instead of
help you. This advice may make little sense, and they may flood you with nonsensical critiques intended to
frustrate you or erase your agency instead of help you.
 Note if the person speaks ill of you to others
• Bullies also tend to defame you to others by spreading mean-spirited lies
or rumors about you or by making fun of you to others. They may speak ill
of you a professional level, such as spreading lies that you continually
miss deadlines or that you cheat on every test. They may also speak badly
of you on a personal level by attacking your character through lies about
your relationships with friends, partners, and family.

•You may hear about the bully’s lies through your friends or coworkers and feel a sense of shame or guilt.
Remember that you are not responsible for the bully’s actions and you are not to blame for the bully’s bad
behavior.
Consider if they criticize you based on gender
or minority status
• A bully may draw on existing power dynamics, such as
discrimination against Muslims, to attack you. This can make
you feel isolated and unsafe, especially when they have the
power of general discrimination on their side.

•Minority status can include race, religion, disability (including disability symptoms), LGBTQIA status,
gender presentation, size, ethnicity, and more.
•Or, they may try to insult you by comparing you to a stigmatized group, such as saying that you look girly or
that you sound like you're disabled, even if you are not a member of that group.
 Pay attention to how the person treats you in
a group or in front of others
• The bully may act in a discriminatory manner to you by singling
you out in a group. They may then announce that they are
going to treat you differently than everyone else. This is another
way for them to exclude you from the group and humiliate you.
Recognize when the person seems to
set you up to fail
•  Bullies in the workplace tend to try to exercise their power over you in
overt ways. One way they may try to exercise power over you is to place
an unreasonable amount of workload on you so you are set up to fail. They
may also continually pressure you over your missed deadlines or upset
clients as a way to make you feel small and helpless.

•The bully may also do this in a school setting, where they get you in trouble with your teacher and
causes you to suffer academic setbacks or penalties. They are likely doing this as a way to limit your
progress or to prevent you from succeeding.
•This kind of bullying doesn't always involve work. Sometimes bullies will do things to deliberately get
you in trouble. For example, if someone tells you to break a rule and then tells your teacher or boss
about it, or if they know you're going to get caught doing it, that is bullying.
Ask your coworkers or friends if they
believe you are being bullied
• Sometimes it can help to get an outside perspective on the
situation. Ask your coworkers or close friends if they notice how
the person is acting towards you, both physically and verbally.
You may want to ensure there is always a coworker or a friend
in the room with you when you are near the bully so they can
observe the bully’s behavior towards you. They may then be
able to deduce if you are in fact being bullied.
References
• https://www.wikihow.com/Know-if-You%27re-Being-Bullied
• https://www.justoutcomesconsulting.com/bullying