Bullying Has Moved From Schoolyard to the Workplace
Tormenters just as likely to be an adult on the job
as a child at school, experts at Indianapolis forum say
Tormenters just as likely to be an adult on the job
as a child at school, experts at Indianapolis forum say
By Vic Ryckaert
Indianapolis Star (IN)
November 8, 2008
Bullies are not just the big kids running the playground and stealing lunch money these days.
Bullying, experts say, has moved into the workplace and over the Internet, and the tormenters are just as likely to be an adult as a young person.
More than 700 educators and law enforcement from 10 countries were in Indianapolis this week for the International Bullying Prevention Association's annual conference to share research and techniques aimed at ending the aggression.
"Bullying is usually what we call repeated acts or gestures that are used to make fun of, humiliate or intimidate another person," said Clarissa Snapp, director of the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy and an organizer of the conference at the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites at Keystone Crossing on the city's Far Northside.
While bullying can escalate into physical attack, Snapp said the most-used weapons are behaviors that are emotionally damaging, such as eye rolls, taunts or mocking gestures.
About 20 percent of middle-school age kids say they have been bullied, but more than a third of American adults face the same kinds of abuse on their jobs, experts say. Researchers say about 71 million Americans reported being bullied at the workplace or reported witnessing the bullying of co-workers.
"Bullying is a full-bore, laser-focused interpersonal campaign of destruction," said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Washington state. Namie was the conference's keynote speaker on Friday. In 2005, Namie also was the key witness in an Indianapolis case that became the nation's first successful workplace bullying lawsuit.
A Marion County jury ruled that Dr. Daniel H. Raess, the former chief heart surgeon at St. Francis Hospital, bullied heart-and-lung-machine operator Joseph E. Doescher into a severe depression and forced him to leave his $100,000-per-year job. Jurors also required Raess to pay Doescher $350,000.
An appellate court later overturned the ruling, but in April, the Indiana Supreme Court reversed the appeals court and ruled jurors were correct in their finding.
Raess, according to testimony, was angry that Doescher complained about him to hospital administrators, the justices said in their ruling. The doctor, according to the ruling, advanced on Doescher "with clenched fists, beet-red face, popping veins, and screaming and swearing at him."
Doescher backed up against a wall in fear, the justices said, and Raess stormed past saying: "You're finished, you're history."
The Indiana Supreme Court found this kind of workplace bullying equates to the intentional infliction of emotional distress, Namie said.
The ruling, Namie said, has made employers across the country -- and their lawyers -- nervous.
"It sent a shockwave through the corporations," Namie said. "The decision sent a message to companies to clean up your act."
Workplace bullies typically are supervisors who intimidate and belittle subordinates, often in front of other workers. Meanwhile, Namie said, they have perfected the art of "kissing up" to a point where their own superiors do not notice the damage they are causing in lost production and unneeded turnover.
Workplace and school bullying share the same power-and-control dynamic, said Marlene Snyder, associate professor at Clemson University and director of Development for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program -- the blueprint many schools use to thwart school-age bullies.
Snyder, also a conference presenter, said it is important for educators, janitors, cooks and other adults in schools to learn how to end bullying before youths take the behavior into adulthood. Indiana has required schools to implement anti-bullying policies since 2005.
Researchers found that the victims of school bullies tend to withdraw from extracurricular activities and score lower on standardized tests than classmates who aren't bullied. Some become depressed. More than half of all school shooters said they had been bullied prior to lashing out with violence.
Bullies face consequences, too. Studies show bullies are four times more likely than their peers to be convicted of crimes by age 24.
Geramy L. Ridley, accused of bullying another student at Warren Central High School in 2001, was convicted of armed robbery in 2006 and in 2007, records show. Ridley, now 22, is serving a three-year sentence in the Putnamville Correctional Facility.
Zachary Rutheford claims Ridley attacked and threatened him when they were freshmen at Warren Central. Rutheford filed suit in 2007, claiming that school officials failed to protect him from Ridley's abuse, according to Rutheford's lawyer David K. Margerum.
Rutheford is seeking damages from the school district and Ridley's family as reimbursement for school tuition and costs -- about $3,700 per year when Rutheford transferred to a private school -- and medical bills for injuries from the attacks. The case is scheduled for trial on May 19 in Marion Superior Court.
Bullies are becoming more tech-savvy -- using text messages, e-mails and social-networking sites to intimidate and harass, according to recent reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children ages 10 to 17 who said they were harassed online grew 50 percent from 2000 to 2005.
In 2006, Carmel High School used its harassment and bullying policy to expel a student who posted sexually explicit comments about a teacher on MySpace. A second Carmel student was suspended for 10 days and given community service for posting racially offensive comments about a teacher on the site.
Active intervention, experts say, can cut incidents of bullying in half.
Doug Scheffel, coordinator of safety and security at Wayne Township Schools, said bullying is a persistent problem in all schools. Wayne Township officers, he said, arrest bullies for intimidation whenever possible.
"We've taken a stronghold approach. We take every incident that is reported seriously," said Scheffel, a former lieutenant in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. "If a child doesn't feel safe coming to school, it interrupts the educational process. . . . That's a concern to us."
