“Bullying” means any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional trauma.
We often hear the term bullying used to explain different types of behavior including someone being rude or mean and even student conflict. When the term "bullying" is used to describe every situation in which someone says or does something that hurts another person's feelings, it minimizes the seriousness of real bullying. Overuse of this term tends to be damaging and jeopardizes the legitimacy of true bullying.
This chart is a great visual to show the differences between these terms. Our school counselors and our administrators, when talking with students about bullying, use this chart. Feel free to use this chart when having conversations with your student about different types of situations. We will always work to protect our students from bullying. It is our hope that the differences on this chart will help everyone in understanding bullying behavior.