A SLOW NEWS DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA
I’ve no doubt that the bullying and teasing are real, but this ND TV news program builds the story up so much that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Alas, I’m still waiting.
LUNCHTIME FOR THE STUDENTS, A TIME TO UN-WIND WITH FRIENDS, AND GOSSIP ABOUT THE DAYS EVENTS. BUT NOT EVERYONE APPROACHES IT THAT WAY. FOR SOME STUDENTS, LUNCHTIME CAN BE MOSTLY ABOUT LONELINESS AND ALIENATION. ITS ONE OF THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF RELATIONAL AGGRESSION, A NEW FORM OF BULLYING THAT INVOLVES MOSTLY GIRLS. RESEARCH ON THE SUBJECT BEGAN JUST TEN YEARS, AND THE TOPIC IS SO NEW THAT MOST SCHOOLS HAVE NO IDEA IT EXISTS.
“It’s the look, the eye roll, the sigh. Just the little things that other people may not catch but is screaming to girls.”
RELATIONAL AGGRESSION IS STILL BULLYING…ALTHOUGH IT’S NOT PHYSICAL, BUT EMOTIONAL. IT STARTS WITH TEASING AND JOKING. EVENTUALLY THE VICTIM MAY LOSE FRIENDS BECAUSE OTHERS DON’T WANT TO BE A TARGET. REQUESTING HER IDENTITY BE HIDDEN, A PARENT SPOKE TO US ABOUT DAUGHTER’S ONGOING STRUGGLE.
“I would pick her up from school and she would be in the car, nobody likes me. And she didn’t want to do stuff. She wanted to do everything when she started junior high, and now she doesn’t want to do anything there.”
IT HAS BECOME SO BAD THAT SHE IS NOW IN COUNSELING AND HER PARENTS HAVE CONSIDERED MOVING HER TO ANOTHER SCHOOL OR POSSIBLY HOME SCHOOLING HER. BUT THE PROBLEMS SHE FACES ARE MOST LIKELY JUST BEGINNING.
“We don’t look at this as a short term maybe a academic school year problem. It can go on for years and years, the emotional scars.
3 Responses to “A SLOW NEWS DAY IN NORTH DAKOTA”
 Comment by MYSTIC December 17th, 2003 at 7:26 am |
Yup, alienation and isolation are big important parts of socialization! That post describes my early childhood perfectly; I originally went to public school to get friends, but came out hoping that I’ll never see another face again. |
 Comment by Ed Hurst December 17th, 2003 at 6:46 pm |
Do you suppose the whiners who wrote this will go away if they see this in repsonse to their story? “Halfway through the first paragraph, he sighs deeply, closes his eyes and rests his face in one hand.” |
 Comment by Laura December 17th, 2003 at 7:09 pm |
I remember this kind of thing, and my daughter sees it too. And here is what frustrated me then, and irritates her now: There are plenty of nice girls in that school who would be glad to be this girl’s friend. But they’re not COOL. They’re not POPULAR. So they don’t count. It’s better to eat worms because the nomenklatura of the high school set won’t give you the time of day, than to just find some decent folks you can get along with. The funny thing is that both kinds of people outgrow this stuff, as long as their parents aren’t reinforcing it at home. |