Talking point: Bullying

What is a bully?
Describe a bully from your school days.
What are some different types of bullying?
Why do bullies behave this way?
When does bullying become criminal behavior?
What personality traits do bullies typically have?
Have you ever witnessed or taken part in bullying? What did you do? Do you wish you had acted differently?
What type of bullying is worse, online bullying or bullying that is face-to-face?

Do you agree or disagree with these statements?
Bullies are typically people who have more confidence than others.
Banning social media networks on school campuses will help prevent bullying in schools.
Students who are bullied need more help from teachers than their bullies do.
Gossiping is one of the worst forms of bullying in schools.
If a victim commits suicide, the bully should be charged with murder.

Today's conversation topic is about bullying. Get together with the members of your talking group and discuss the questions above.

In preparation for your talking session, you can read the article from The New York Times Behind Every Harassed Child? A Whole Lot of Clueless Adults, which reviews Bully, a documentary by Lee Hirsch released in the US in late March. Here's the trailer of the film.



Here's the transcript for the trailer.

The last couple days, we had heard that Tyler had his head shoved into a wall locker.
They said he's a geek.
My concern is that you are making someone feel so uncomfortable, that they didn't want to be in school.
I feel kinda nervous on school days. I like learning, but I have trouble with making friends.
They said he's a geek, and some kids told him that he's worthless, to go hang himself.
And I think he got to this point to where, enough was enough.
Tonight a tragic situation... A Perkins boy, just 11 years old, believed to have been desperate enough to take his own life.
This is an awfully complicated and difficult issue.
Kids will be kids, boys will be boys.
They're just cruel at this age.
Here, what we get, is "nothing's wrong"? We didn't do anything? Everything's fine.
They punch me, strangle me.
Take things from me. Sit on me.
Give it to him hard!
He's not safe on that bus.
I've been on that bus. They are just as good as gold.
My voice is not going to fall silent.
I will go to my grave, until a difference is made.
I reached out to parent's who've lost kids, parents of kids being bullied all over the world, and it took off like wildfire.
All it takes is for one person to stand up.
Be the difference. Go out and find that one child, that new kid, standing over there by himself. Be willing to stand up for him.
Everything starts with one, and builds up. Eventually, we have an army.
If we all do it together, we will change the world.