Keynote address given to law enforcement and mental health professional for the MILES institute.

1. Bullying:
Foundational Research to
Successful Programs
Dr Vince Carbino

2. • Dr Vince Carbino
• Principal- City of Angels Independent Study and Virtual Academy-
2,400 students, 23 school sites
• Doctorate in education- urban school district leadership
• Doctorate and post doctorate study of urban school safety.
• Dissertation findings are the foundation of Harvard national study on
school safety occurring now.
• Also post doc research in home-school-community collaboration.
• Credentialed counselor with child welfare and attendance certification.
• Former police officer with Intermediate POST certifications.

3. What is bullying?
• Use of superior strength to influence or
intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her
to do what one want. (Miriam dictionary)
• Use of force, threat or coercion to abuse,
intimidate or aggressively dominate others.
Behavior is often repeated and habitual.
(Wikipedia)

4. What is school bullying?
• A type of bullying that occurs in educational settings.
Bullying can be physical, sexual, verbal or emotional in
nature.
• In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be
aggressive and must include a difference in power, and
repetition.
• “Bullying gets so much more sophisticated and subtle in
high school. It is more relational. It becomes difficult for
teens to know when to intervene; whereas with younger
children, bullying is more physical and clear cut.” ( Kuther,
2012)

5. Cyber Bullying
• Cyber-bullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented ,
threatened , harassed, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by
another child, preteen or teen using Internet, interactive and
digital technologies or mobile phones.( cyberbullying.org)
• 95% of teen making use of social media reported having
witnessed malicious behavior on social media from 2009 to 2013.
(Boschert, 2013)
• “The rapid growth of social media is aiding the spread of cyber-
bullying and prevention policies are struggling to keep up”
(Wojcik, 2013)
•

6. Foundational Research
• Turnbull, 1961; Wang et al, 2009: “No matter where you look in the world, from the
Mbuti of Central Africa to suburban children in the United States there are individuals
and groups that target others with tactics designed to intimidate, coerce or harm
them.”
• Fawcett & Muhumza, 2000: “Behavior is found in every major group of primates.
This includes male chimpanzees “ganging up” on a victim.”
• Boehm,2000: “Bulllying is wide spread, and not restricted to American society, but
instead found around the globe from hunter/gather groups to postindustrial Japan,
bullying is ubiquitous across human cultures.”
• Smith et al, 2002: “Bullying is widespread across different cultures and not just
restricted to American society”
• Due et al., 2005: “28 country multinational study across North America and Europe
revealed that the amount of bullying experienced by children varied greatly, with the
least severe happening in Sweden and Lithuania.

7. Causes
• “Individuals that chose to bully are not typically born with
the characteristic. It is a result of treatment they get from
authority figures including parents. Bullies often come from
families that use physical forms of discipline.” ( Nelson,
2001)
• Bullies come in all shapes and sizes. Girls and boys are
bullies. Girls are more like social butterflies and spread
rumors, breaking up friendships. Boys are more physical
bullies , hitting , punching and slapping.” (Chanof, Cohen &
Stilley, 2003)
• Complex social constructs

8. Complex social constructs
• Bullying cultures have a web of dynamics more complex that just
bullying among students:
• Some students bully other students, some of these bullies are
bullied by other bullies, some of these bullies bully teachers
• Some teachers bully students, some teacher bullies bully other
teachers, some teacher bullies bully parents.
• Some office staff bully teachers, office staff, students and parents.
• Some principals bully teachers, office staff, students and parents.
• Some parents bully teachers, office staff, principals, and their own
children. ( Parsons, 2005)

9. Use of word “bully” over time

10. Effects
• Victim:
• short term: depression, suicide, anxiety, anger, significant drops in
academic performance, feeling as their life has fallen apart,
excessive stress.
• long term: feeling of insecurity, lack of trust, hyper-vigilance, mental
illness (psychopathy and PTSD). ( Pappas, 2014)
• Bystander:
• Witnessing bullying incidents can produce feelings of anger, fear,
guilt, and sadness in observers. Bystanders who witness repeated
victimization of peers can experience negative effects similar to the
victimized children themselves. ( Wojcik, 2013)

11. Bullying and
school
shooting nexus
Center for Disease Control
2011 Youth Risk
Surveillance System
“750,000 students that bring
weapon to school monthly,
20% experienced bullying,
63% had carried a gun”

12. How Bullying Escalates
• Optimistic bias as institutional norm ( Carbino, 2010)
• Numerous bullying venues within school: playground and outdoor
recess areas, hallways, lunchroom, bathrooms classrooms and
front of school. Any place where there is inadequate or no
supervision or unstructured time. (Heath, Dyches & Prater, 2013)
• The more popular a teenager becomes while climbing the social
ladder, the more likely they are to be victimized by bullying
behavior. ( Faris & Felmlee, 2011)
• Supportive or neutral bystanders

13. Bystander effect
• The triad relationship: Bully-Victim-Bystander. (
Twemlow, Fonagy & Sacco, 2009)
• The bully, victim and bystanders all know each
other. The bystander is an integral component in
this relationship.
• Bystanders are of the major components that can
de-escalate a situation and also de-escalate
bullying behavior.

14. Myths
• Bullying is a consequence of
• large class or school size.
• competition for grades.
• Students who are overweight, wear glasses, have different ethnics origin, or speak with
unusual dialect are at risk of being victims.
• Bullying is just teasing.
• Only boys bully.
• Bullying is a normal part of growing up
• Bullies go away if ignored.
• The best was to deal with a bully is to beat them up.
• People who are hurt by a bully only hurt for a while and then get over it. ( Olweus, 2003;
Scarpaci, 2006)

15. Reduction Strategies
• Make sure adults know what is happening to their children
• Make it clear bullying is not acceptable…anywhere
• Bullying can occur within the hierarchy of a school or organization
• Emphasize and model caring, respect and safety.
• Help bullies with anger management and development of
empathy.(Olweaus, 1993) (Craig and Peplar, 1999) (Ross, 1998)
Morrison (2002) (Whitted & Dupper, 2005)
• Neutralize bystander effect by character education programs that
turn bystanders into “guardian angels that intervene.” (Ttofi and
Farrington, 2011)

16. Elements for successful
programs
• Interventions should be focussed at peer group level
rather than individual bullies or victims. (Sutton and
Smith, 1999)
• Raising awareness of the role bystanders play in the
bullying process, as well as increasing their empathic
understanding of victims plight, can reduce bullying.
(Poyhonen& Salmivalli, 2008)
• Students should be taught safe strategies to support
the victim and encouraged to make common
decisions. (Olweus, 1991)

17. Contact information
• Dr Vince Carbino
• vince.carbino@lausd.net
• 24hr phone: 323-321-2439