VALDOSTA – Television sitcoms portray bullies in cliched ways: a leather jacket, a snarky attitude, a deep-seated anger issue. 

By the end of the show, the fictitious bullies typically have an emotional breakthrough that tears away their hard exterior, revealing the kindness beneath.

Unfortunately, that is not real life.

Bullying, whatever form it takes, is no laughing matter. 

Lives are scarred and some young people have even taken their own lives as the direct result of having been bullied by their peers. 

According to national statistics from stopbullying.gov, a federal government website managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 28 percent of middle and high school students in the United States have experienced bullying and 70.6 percent of young people say they’ve seen bullying in their schools. While it can be seen in any age group, bullying is more commonly seen in middle schools.

“There is not a single profile of a young person involved in bullying,” HHS states. “Youth who bully can be either well connected socially or marginalized, and may be bullied by others as well. Similarly, those who are bullied sometimes bully others. Youth who both bully others and are bullied are at greatest risk for subsequent behavioral, mental health and academic problems.”

Bullying is defined by the American Psychological Association as “a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort.”

While in years past, bullying may have been seen more in the school hallways, technology has made it possible for a child to be a bully or a victim of bullying in school, after-school and even in the home.

The SunLight Project team in Georgia and North Florida has taken a look in the coverage areas of Valdosta, Dalton, Thomasville, Milledgeville, Tifton and Moultrie, Ga., and Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., to see how bullying has changed and how school systems deal with it.

Confronting ‘cyberbullying’

Cyberbullying includes, but is not limited to, harassing, teasing, intimidating, threatening or terrorizing another student or staff member by way of any technological tool, such as sending or posting inappropriate or derogatory e-mail messages, instant messages, text messages, digital pictures or images or website postings, including blogs, according to the Valdosta City Schools Code of Conduct.

“We deal with it in all ranges,” said Dr. Cloise Williams of Baldwin High School in Milledgeville. “It can be kids who were friends and all of a sudden that friendship is broken and now there’s a separation between the two and now there’s harassment going on through text messaging or social media. Now what they do is gather with other friends and begin to highlight things shared with the friend during that time with others and now they begin to exploit that.”

Valdosta High School Counselor Brian Law has watched bullying evolve during the span of his 22-year career.

“With new technologies, that’s the form of bullying people now prefer,” Law said. “Technology is a good thing but it can also be a bad thing. I’ve seen it grow. When I first started in counseling in 1996, you didn’t have all that. Back then, it was a he-said/she-said that you could typically track and find the original source.”

The preference for cyberbullying not only stems from the difficulties of tracking it, but from the ability to hide behind a screen.

Tiffany Oldham, a guidance counselor at the Scholars Academy, said the method of bullying has shifted due to middle school children often being provided a cell phone.

“There’s a convenience about handing your middle school child a phone,” Oldham said.

Oldham added giving middle school students a cellphone is like giving them keys to a car simply because they can reach the pedals.

“This makes you 10-foot tall and bulletproof,” said Thomasville Scholars Academy counselor Marcie West, holding up a cellphone.

Law said the ability to hide is a key factor that contributes to cyberbullying.

“Being online and creating a fake profile, the empathy isn’t there,” Law said. “It’s almost like you’re an object.”

However, cyberbullying isn’t the most popular method in every school system.

Baldwin County High School Assistant Principal and Bullying Coordinator Markeeta Clayton said if bullying were put on a 100 percent scale, only 30 percent would be cyberbullying within their system. The other 70 would be physical or verbal altercations.

“That’s mainly because it’s all dependent on the discourse and how it’s interpreted amongst the peers,” Clayton said. “You can have students that communicate with each other regularly and have done so for years but it just got to the point where it turned to where one student felt offended. So it all depends on how they feel about it.”

How schools tackle bullying

All schools have policies in place involving the investigation of bullying reports, whether it’s physical or cyber.

“A student mentions bullying and we’re on it. Any student that comes to me saying they’re being bullied I start an investigative form on them immediately,” Baldwin County’s Markeeta Clayton said. “The moment that I find there is an inkling of evidence there that shows there is an issue, then that’s when I actually upload the case to a private Google form shared with my administrators. Then it’s discussed in an administrative meeting. From there we make the determination of whether or not to move forward or if it’s necessary to move forward. Either the case is closed out or it remains open and we continue that investigation always keeping in communication with parents to let them know where we are with that.”

The Thomasville City School System tracks instances of bullying, physical and cyber, in the same manner as other discipline incidents.

“We use a computer tracking system which feeds into our student information system,” said Dr. Laine Reichert, Thomasville City Schools superintendent.

For the 2015-16 school year, a total of 11 bullying incidents were reported at MacIntyre Park Middle School and zero were reported at Thomasville High School.

For the 2016-17 school year, a total of nine bullying incidents were reported at MacIntyre Park Middle School and six were reported at Thomasville High School.

The Colquitt County School System’s anti-bullying effort includes two programs –Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports, and the CHAMPS program.

PBIS is in place at 60 percent of the county’s public schools and will be introduced on the remainder of the system’s campuses during the 2017-18 school year as part of a three-year process.

While conduct codes, and the punishment they bring, are the stick, the program is a carrot that looks to reinforce positive behavior, Colquitt Schools Superintendent Doug Howell said.

“This is a program that we think – and Georgia thinks – will make a big difference,” said Howell, who is in his second year as superintendent. “All of our bus drivers have had training, (and) nine of our schools. We’re going to get the other six this year. We should have everybody at least in the first stage of training.”

During the 2016-17 school year, schools in Colquitt County documented 32 school-related bullying incidents out of 2,658 total disciplinary incidents, or about 1.2 percent of all disciplinary cases.

Of the 32 incidents, 10 occurred at Willie J. Wiliams Middle School, five each at Stringfellow and Sunset Elementary schools, four at C.A. Gray Junior High, three at Cox Elementary and two at Okapilco Elementary.

Colquitt schools reporting one bullying disciplinary case during the year were Doerun, Hamilton and Norman Park elementary schools.

Out of the total of 32 bullying incidents investigated, 28 were Level 1 severity, the least serious category, and the other four were Level 2. 

There were no Level 3 bullying cases, which involve repeated acts of bullying as defined under Georgia’s legal code, and includes willful attempt or threat to inflict injury, or the apparent means to do so; any display of force that puts a victim in fear of harm; any written, verbal or physical act that threatens, harasses or intimidates; causes another person physical harm; interferes with a student’s education; or is severe and pervasive intimidation or threatens the educational environment.

Not all incidents involving students are classified as bullying, Howell said. Two students who have an argument that escalates into a fight does not meet the threshold.

The 263 disciplinary actions for fighting represent nearly 10 percent of all discipline issues dealt with by administrators last year. Of those, one rose to the severity of Level 3. The most numerous disciplinary actions involved attendance, at 701 incidents, followed by fighting.

Thomasville City Schools also uses the PBIS program in the hope of helping students better understand the true definition of “bullying.”

“Our PBIS program contains many elements to prevent bullying and students participate in character-building activities,” said Dr. Laine Reichert, Thomasville City Schools superintendent. “We also bring in guest speakers periodically to address topics such as bullying.”

Along with the PBIS program, each Thomasville City School has trained counselors to receive reports of bullying. Reichert said all certified staff undergoes mandatory compliance training each year “to freshen their awareness of the signs of bullying and how to respond.”

“We are working toward purchasing an app that students could use to anonymously report bullying as well as illegal or violent activities and abuse,” she said.

In the event of discipling in a bullying incident, each city school has “a discipline ladder for offenses,” Reichert said.

At Whitfield County Schools, the PBIS program is currently underway and the schools have been trained in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

“Those two frameworks work hand in hand to focus on the individual culture of schools to promote expectations and behaviors that are desired in schools and to identify potential problems/issues and potential solutions before they become major problems,” said Chris Parker, director of student services for schools. “Schools also have counselors on staff to work with students if necessary and to help put them in contact with other agencies if needed.”

Along with these programs, Dalton Public Schools Lead Social Worker Jackie Taylor said the schools “work hard to promote kindness and to create the atmosphere that students know it’s not acceptable to pick on others” and that teachers set up classrooms “as if they were families.”

In the 2015-16 school year, there was one reported bullying incident across the Suwannee County school system — at Suwannee High School. In 2014-15, there was only one incident reported by the district at Branford High School. No incidents were reported in 2013-14.

The Suwannee district tracks the incidents, along with a number of others, through its Student Information System. Cyber bullying is also tracked in the same way although the two are not tracked separately.

The Lafayette County schools had no bullying incidents reported during the 2015-16 school year, while Hamilton County had one incident at Central Hamilton Elementary School. The Lafayette schools also had no incidents in 2014-15 or 2013-14, while Hamilton County High School had two bullying cases in 2013-14 and CHE had one incident that year as well.

Nearby, Madison County had one incident at Madison County High School as well as one reported case at Pinetta Elementary School and another at James Madison Preparatory Charter.

Madison County Central School had two cases in 2014-15, the lone ones reported throughout the district. But in 2013-14, MCHS had three incidents with six at Madison County Central, four at Greenville Elementary and one at Pinetta Elementary.

The district tracks the incidents, along with a number of others, through its Student Information System. Cyberbullying is also tracked in the same way although the two are not tracked separately.

Tift County Schools bases its bullying policies on state policies and school counselors are required to teach bullying awareness and prevention programs to all students via classroom guidance and TAA sessions, said Dr. Gina Cox, student services director.

In Valdosta, a former program called Teens Against Bullying started by Georgia State Rep. Amy Carter brought together both Valdosta City Schools and Lowndes County Schools and trained teenagers to talk to fifth graders about bullying.

Valdosta’s Brian Law said while the program only lasted a couple of years due to funding and the difficulty of getting the kids away from school, he believes starting in elementary school is beneficial.

“A fear of someone different starts the cycle of bullying,” Law said. “In elementary school, it’s important to show everyone’s different and to respect each other. In middle and high school, we look at work traits. There’s bullying happening in the work place and if we don’t start training them now, it goes out into their future jobs.”

Students in Valdosta are also taught about their “digital footprints” and how things posted online never truly go away.

“It could affect future scholarships and admissions for these students,” Law said. “Employers look up social media.”

All the schools echo similar punishment policies, ranging from counseling to expulsion pending the number of times the student has bullied and the severity of the situation.

Lasting effects of bullying

Both the bully and the bullied can suffer long-term consequences beyond just the punishment put forth by the school.

Baldwin High’s Markeeta Clayton said some students may feel anxiety upon re-entering the classroom where the bully is. Dr. Cloise Williams, also of Baldwin High, said it may become a situation where changes will need to be made.

“When we find out whatever the case is and if the two students have to still coexist in a setting we try to put in interventions and accommodations so that we don’t have the situation present itself again because at that point it’s already investigated,” Williams said. “We want to ensure the child who has been bullied is safe has a place to come to when they need to talk about it.”

Law said he has seen some students go as far as self-mutilation over the effects of bullying. He said some students will begin fearing technology if they’ve been a victim of cyberbullying.

“You see grades drop. You see depression,” Law said. “Parents need to be aware of changes such as not wanting to go to school and staying away from technology.”

Battling bullying

While some bullying cases are reported, many others are not, whether because of fear or a discomfort with speaking to adults about the matter. Many schools have policies in place that allow parents and students to report bullying.

Colquitt County School Board policy allows for reporting of bullying by a student, parent, guardian or other stakeholder to an administrator, teacher, counselor or staff member at the student’s school. 

Reports may be made anonymously. Any staff member who receives a report of bullying is required to promptly document it and forward it to the school’s principal or administrator designated to receive it. System employees who witness bullying or learn a student is being bullied also must report it.

Students who suspect another student is being bullied also may notify a staff member.

One additional avenue for reporting bullying incidents is to tell one of the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office’s school resource officers who work on campuses. 

Four of the officers are assigned to Colquitt County High School and two each to the junior high and middle schools, while others visit the elementary schools on a rotating basis.

Tift County Schools has similar policies including schools “encouraging teachers or other school employees, students, parents, guardians, or other persons who have control or charge of a student, either anonymously or in the person’s name, at the person’s option to report or otherwise provide information on bullying activity,” said Dr. Gina Cox, student services director.

Law said he believes parents should play an active role in ensuring their children’s safety from being bullied or becoming one.

“I encourage parents to make sure settings are put up on electronic devices and check phones regularly,” Law said. “They need to know what’s on it and know their kids’ passwords.”

Other methods of reporting bullying include calling the Georgia Department of Education’s School Safety Hotline at 1 (877) SAY-STOP (729-7867).

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Desiree Carver, Alan Mauldin, Charles Oliver, Eve Guevara, Jordan Barela, Jessie R. Box, Gil Pound and Patti Dozier.

To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.

Desiree Carver is Lifestyles Editor at the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be reached at (229) 375-5777.