Suicide-Rage

[00:01.179]This is the VOA Special English Education Report. [00:03.145]An old problem is getting new attention in the United States: [00:08.762]bullying.Recent cases included the tragic case of a fifteen-year-old girl [00:16.892]whose family moved from Ireland. [00:21.329]Phoebe PrincePhoebe Prince hanged herself in Massachusetts in January following months of bullying.Her parents criticized her school for failing to protect her. [00:33.641]Officials have brought criminal charges against several teenagers. [00:40.455]Judy Kuczynski is president of an anti-bullying group called Bully Police USA. [00:47.140]Her daughter Tina was the victim of severe bullying starting in middle school in the state of Minnesota. [00:56.642]JUDY KUCZYNSKI:"Our daughter was a very outgoing child.She was a bubbly personality,very involved in all kinds of things,had lots of friends. [01:06.330]And over a period of time her grades fell completely. [01:09.705]She started having health issues.She couldn't sleep. [01:14.831]She wasn't eating.She had terrible stomach pains. [01:18.763]She started clenching her jaw and grinding her teeth at night.Didn't want to go to school." [01:23.897]Bullying is defined as negative behavior repeated over time against the same person. [01:29.266]It can involve physical violence.Or it can be verbal --for example,insults or threats. [01:38.580]Spreading lies about someone or excluding a person from a group is known as social or relational bullying. [01:47.203]And now there is cyberbullying,which uses the Internet,e-mail or text messages. [01:56.143]It has easy appeal for the bully because it does not involve face-to-face contact and it can be done at any time. [02:07.264]The first serious research studies into bullying were done in Norway in the late nineteen seventies. [02:14.768]The latest government study in the United States was released last year. [02:21.204]It found that about one-third of students age twelve to eighteen were bullied at school. [02:29.645]Examples included being made fun of,pushed,spit on,threatened or excluded from activities. [02:38.773]Some students had their property damaged. [02:43.206]About four percent reported being the victims of cyberbullying. [02:50.768]The study took place in two thousand seven. [02:57.455]Susan Swearer is a psychologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-director of the Bullying Research Network. [03:02.333]She says schools should treat bullying as a mental health problem to get bullies and victims the help they need.She says bullying is connected to depression, [03:17.271]anxiety and anti-social behavior,and bullies are often victims themselves. [03:24.22]What can be done to prevent bullying?That will be our subject next week. [03:30.770]And that's the VOA Special English Education Report,written by Nancy Steinbach.