Say the word “bully” to alm o st anyone you know, and the stories will flow. W h et her it was from a personal experien ce or som e thing they read or heard on television. The stories we h ear cau se co nsiderab le alarm in parents and teach ers. Teach ers, paren t s, and students b e lieve that you ng people have the right to feel safe, s ecure, accep ted, and valued at school. Creating this atm o sphere has becom e a challenge. Sheras, (2002) reported every two seconds of every schoo l day, acco rding to th e National Education Association, another stude nt is physically attacked in school. A typical schoolchild has a nearly 25 percen t chance of being involved in bullying on school grounds, teasing or taunting on th e bus, sexual harassm e nt, “fla m i ng” on the internet, and beatings or ga ng activity (Sheras, 2002). Parents, teachers, and even leg i sl ators have responded to th e acts of vio l ence occurring in the schools. In a few states legislators have even introdu ced n e w laws cracking down on harassm e nt, hazing, and violen ce in schools (Sheras, 2002). W h at is still lacking is a clear unde rstanding of what bullying is
, how and why it occurs and which techniques are m o st e ffective in stopping it. Several experts have taken a closer l ook at this behavior to determ ine the cause of bullying, and how we may correct it. Even m o re im portan tly how we m a y em power the victim . In the article, “Overcom ing Bullyi ng Behavior,” (Clore
& Hibel, 1997) bullying was described as “one or m o re individuals inflicting physical, verbal, or emotional abuse on another-including threats of bodily harm
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wea pon possession, extortion, civil rights violation, assault and batter y, gang