Audrie & Daisy: Bullying

Sergio and his mentee, Andre, write examples.

This past week in YESS we continued our discussion of healthy relationships by further discussing the issue of bullying. We did an exercise in which each mentee and mentor had to identify different bullying scenarios that they had either encountered personally, seen first hand, or heard about from a friend or on social media. At first, it was difficult for our scholars to be detailed-- this is a very personal exercise-- but after a few minutes and a little help, we had many different examples of bullying and harassment.

Zoe begins to sort the various examples of bullying.

I distributed four sticky notes to each scholar and asked them to fill these four notes with four different examples. Once each person was done, the table then worked as a group to try to identity and categorize the various types of bullying. Each table was given four different categories: cyber bullying, verbal bullying, psychical bullying, and relational bullying (the most difficult for all to grasp). Relational bullying, as we discussed it, is when an individual uses his or her relationship with you to exercise power over you. "Do this, or else..." is another way we defined it. It was surprising for so many to realize that this is a form of bullying. "Sit with me at lunch or else I will tell your crush that you like him/her in 6th hour today." This really hit home as I explained that these sorts of behaviors can escalate over time and can become increasingly more threatening and damaging.

Brisa and her mentee, Bethsy, did an excellent job!

3rd hour works to organize their various bullying experiences.

Once we had a general understanding of the different forms of bullying, we began a documentary called, "Audrie & Daisy." This film follows the lives of two young ladies who were bullied and assaulted in two different states: California and Missouri. We are watching this in twenty minute segments and we are learning new vocabulary such as deposition, allegation, alleged, district attorney, felony, and misdemeanor. While this is a difficult documentary to watch, it is certainly very poignant, and our scholars are really connecting with the message, which is-- BE AN UPSTANDER.

As we have discussed in YESS, an "upstander" is someone who speaks out against bullying and harassment, no matter who the victim may be. The opposite of this action is to be a bystander and to do nothing to help the situation.

Next week we will conclude the documentary and we will be moving on to discuss belief systems. Stay tuned!