This Spring a case of a high school girl taking her life after continued bullying, even in front of teachers, upset us all again. Celebrity shrinks like Dr. Phil and Dr. Drew and many other psychologists have provided an analytical perspective. At the end of the analysis is the Character Triangle.
Although we know this, it’s important to model and teach kids to apply the Character Triangle (CT) values. The most obvious one is Respect. The verbal and physical “attacking” seen in these bullying cases is the exact opposite. In fact, some research states that verbal abuse is more harmful than physical. Self-accountable people take responsibility for their behavior and refrain from bullying, and also speak up to stop it when observing the behavior from others. In the above case apparently students and teachers watched kids blatantly abuse the targeted student and did little or nothing to intervene.
This is a major issue in the school halls and cafeterias. However, bullying happens in the office, it is now regularly over the internet and applying the CT can help make a difference to overcome this issue.