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CNN Live Today
Bully Pulpit
Aired August 27, 2002 - 10:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Each year, many kids are returning to school with more than just the usual dread. It's not the rigor of studies, but this time around, we're talking about the very real threat of bullies that will greet their new school year.
Our next guest says it's a problem that's all too often dismissed. James Garbarino is the author, along with Ellen Delara, of "And Words Can Hurt Forever: How to Protect Adolescents From Bullying, Harassment, and Emotional Violence."
Garbarino is a professor of human development at Cornell University, and he joins us from New York.
Hello, how are you?
JAMES GARBARINO, AUTHOR, "AND WORDS CAN HURT FOREVER": Good. Good to be with you.
HARRIS: I find it very interesting you chose the title words can hurt forever, because, you know, it seems like the stories that we've been covering where bullying has actually been the factor, it's not the words that we've been seeing. For instance, the case you actually talked quite a bit about, a case about that kid Andy Williams in Southern California, who reacted to serious bullying, which wasn't words in his case, where he was pushed physically into doing an act that may have him in jail for the rest of his life?
GARBARINO: That's true, Andy Williams is an extreme case of something that is happening all over the country every day the schools doors are opened. He was subjected to a wide range of severe bullying, but mostly, what the research tells us is kids can handle a lot of the physical stuff; it's the emotional stuff that drives them crazy.
HARRIS: No kidding? That's worse than the physical stuff.
GARBARINO: Well, for most people, and that's been true in the field of child abuse for a long time. I mean, you can break your leg playing on the football field, and that can be a badge of honor. But when somebody breaks your leg and sends a message, we don't even respect your body, that's the message that really does most of the damage.
HARRIS: I understand too, your studies have shown most parents do not know what is going on. You say 50 percent of the kids that go through this stuff don't even talk to their parents about it? GARBARINO: That's true, we find that over and over again, because kids feel their parents will be ashamed of them. The kids are ashamed that they've been victimized. They don't think there is anything they can do about it, and so they suffer in silence, or they bring it inside. For an extreme case like Andy Williams, they take it back to the school.
HARRIS: All right, let's talk about some of the myths that you list in your book, myths of the bullying at school here. We will put these up here on the screen. One on the myths is that our schools our safe, and that kids won't tell on other kids, and just kids will be kids, boys will be boys, that sort of thing, and that there will always be bullying and there's nothing you can do about it.
What do you say about those myths?
GARBARINO: Well, I think you can find pretty reliable research, and my colleague Ellen Delara has produced some of that research, to show that kids are feeling endangered emotionally in school. A recent survey found that about half of the kids say that emotional violence -- whispering, gossiping, teasing, humiliating is something they face on a regular basis.
So the schools may be physically safe. We aren't carrying bodies out of them, but kids are staying home because they are afraid. Kids are hurting themselves. They're taking drugs because they feel ashamed. So a lot of these things that people take for granted really are myths and the research is making that can very clear.
HARRIS: But you also said that it's just not enough to stop the bullies and not enough to make the victims feel more assertive, those two things alone aren't the answers here?
GARBARINO: That's true. The buck really starts and stops with the adults, the parents, and the principals and the teachers. Look to them for the clues of what is permissible and what isn't. That's one reason why the whole school system as a social system is the place to start. That is one reason why programs that focus on bystanders, the witness to bullying, can be effective to changing the school climate, because kids see it, they fear they will be next, or they feel they will get retaliated against if they say something, and they feel ashamed and they feel afraid. So changing the whole school system is the way to put a stop to it.
HARRIS: So that will only work if what you find here is right, that kids, you know, do tell on other kids. But we can't talk about that now. We have to more on. We have some more developing news to get to. Thank you very much for your time this morning. James Garbarino, good luck with your book, and good luck with your products in the future.
GARBARINO: Thank you.
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