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Answerman - How Bad Is Bullying In Japan?


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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6188
PostPosted: Thu Jun 16, 2016 10:57 pm Reply with quote
mrsatan wrote:
The first thing I would do is take away the Teacher's Lounges. I'd have the teachers and administrators, eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping in the same places as those kids. They need to quit isolating themselves and integrate. Then they'll see a bit more of what's going on.


This makes no sense. Plus you wouldn't need to have all the teachers/administrators in some of the same places as the students given that some schools already have them in places like the lunchroom and school bathrooms usually aren't student exclusive anyhow.

mrsatan wrote:
Take out the P.E. Teacher's office and have him/her out there in the locker room. Keep an eye out for inappropriate behavior.


Wouldn't that in essence be a violation of privacy?

mrsatan wrote:
Authority figures should be near omnipresent so that the bullies don't feel relaxed and empowered.


Bullies will feel relaxed and empowered so long as they got a crowd/click willing to stand around and do nothing about their actions.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 12:19 am Reply with quote
At the last high school I attended, the coach's office was separated by a window from the boys' locker room(might've been different for the girls' side, not that I'd know). I never felt too bothered by it(I did have anxiety in middle school about changing in a locker room, period, but by then I no longer gave a damn).
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nemuyoake





PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 4:03 am Reply with quote
We, teachers in Japan, do what we can do to prevent bullying. A lot of the bullying is now made on SNS or Line etc. It's hard to detect these cases of bullying. But when we did detect something, we do all we can to make it stop. We handle the culprits very severely AND the people around who just watched it without doing anything to make it stop or to let us know.

And it begins again some months later in another class.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5909
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 8:19 am Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:

This makes no sense. Plus you wouldn't need to have all the teachers/administrators in some of the same places as the students given that some schools already have them in places like the lunchroom and school bathrooms usually aren't student exclusive anyhow.

When I went to school, teachers never used the boys bathroom. That is why a lot of bad stuff can happen there.

BadNewsBlues wrote:

Wouldn't that in essence be a violation of privacy?

There is no privacy in the boys locker room and showers. You are surrounded by dozens of your male classmates. Perfect place for hazing, being ganged up on while you are changing, and you can have human shields block the view of adults.

Also, it was rare for anyone to be showering during normal school hours, for fear of what might happen, along with those that are body shy. For those who cared about body odor, you just brought a lot of deodorant with you.

BadNewsBlues wrote:

Bullies will feel relaxed and empowered so long as they got a crowd/click willing to stand around and do nothing about their actions.

That is why there needs to be more adults in the places where bullying activity is allowed free reign.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6188
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:14 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:

When I went to school, teachers never used the boys bathroom. That is why a lot of bad stuff can happen there.


It's different for other places I assume


TarsTarkas wrote:
You are surrounded by dozens of your male classmates. Perfect place for hazing, being ganged up on while you are changing, and you can have human shields block the view of adults.


While that may be true my mentioning had to do with the prospect that some people might not be comfortable with having an adult watch them switch out of their clothes and into their gym uniforms.

TarsTarkas wrote:

That is why there needs to be more adults in the places where bullying activity is allowed free reign.


It's not something to be held solely over the adults though like I said the kids spectating need to be more responsible and conscientious about seeing someone that could be them under different circumstances getting picked on or assaulted.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 8:07 pm Reply with quote
I should mention that at every school that I went to, the restrooms were for use by everyone in the school. Teachers, students, and staff alike used the same restrooms. Didn't stop the boys' restrooms at my middle school from having turd on the walls or the girls' restroom being strewn with thrown rolls of toilet paper.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5909
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:00 am Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:

While that may be true my mentioning had to do with the prospect that some people might not be comfortable with having an adult watch them switch out of their clothes and into their gym uniforms.


That was never an issue. All the gym's and locker rooms that I have been to since school are not segregated between child and adult, just male/female. Male PE teachers would walk through occasionally, not to keep you safe, but rather to talk to their favorite students.


BadNewsBlues wrote:

It's not something to be held solely over the adults though like I said the kids spectating need to be more responsible and conscientious about seeing someone that could be them under different circumstances getting picked on or assaulted.


I am sorry, but that is a nice dream. Doing that requires will power, to stand up against a bully or a mob, and when you know the school will not back you up or will treat you as the troublemaker, there is not much incentive in being the one good guy or gal that stands out to be whacked. In my twelve years in the public school system, I have never seen that type of hero/heroine behavior.. What I have seen is chanting mobs of kids enjoying the local blood fest.

And it is something to be held over the adults. Children and teens are required to be in school to learn. It is the adult's responsibility to ensure that the children and teens attending have a safe learning environment.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6188
PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 3:29 pm Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
I should mention that at every school that I went to, the restrooms were for use by everyone in the school. Teachers, students, and staff alike used the same restrooms. Didn't stop the boys' restrooms at my middle school from having turd on the walls or the girls' restroom being strewn with thrown rolls of toilet paper.


I never quite understood the idea of messing up a bathroom in such a way/

TarsTarkas wrote:


And it is something to be held over the adults. Children and teens are required to be in school to learn. It is the adult's responsibility to ensure that the children and teens attending have a safe learning environment.


Kind of meaningless though if the kids aren't interested in learning and don't wanna do nothing but cause misery for others, the teachers and the schools, along with simply treating school as a spot to hang out (whenever they choose to go) with their friends and what not.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5909
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:56 pm Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:

Kind of meaningless though if the kids aren't interested in learning and don't wanna do nothing but cause misery for others, the teachers and the schools, along with simply treating school as a spot to hang out (whenever they choose to go) with their friends and what not.


There are plenty of kids wanting to learn and wanting to have a successful future. It is the adult's responsibility to separate those who don't out.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:11 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:

There are plenty of kids wanting to learn and wanting to have a successful future. It is the adult's responsibility to separate those who don't out.


Sounds like a nice dream.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18345
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:37 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
There are plenty of kids wanting to learn and wanting to have a successful future. It is the adult's responsibility to separate those who don't out.

Oh, trust me, teachers and admins would love it if it were that simple. The problem is that there are these pesky things called laws which require students to be provided with an education up to a certain age. In at least some states in the U.S. that has made expelling students a tricky and difficult process typically requiring an extensive paper trail. Even things like forcibly transferring a student to an alternative school (if that is an available option) typically can't be done without good cause and due process.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:13 am Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:
I never quite understood the idea of messing up a bathroom in such a way.


Why do monkeys fling turds? Because they think it's funny and it's also a show of aggression. Same goes for middle school kids. They do this weird stuff that's usually vile and disgusting because they find it funny and empowering to shock people.

Key wrote:
Oh, trust me, teachers and admins would love it if it were that simple. The problem is that there are these pesky things called laws which require students to be provided with an education up to a certain age. In at least some states in the U.S. that has made expelling students a tricky and difficult process typically requiring an extensive paper trail. Even things like forcibly transferring a student to an alternative school (if that is an available option) typically can't be done without good cause and due process.


My high school actually had a legally separate, miniature high school in one corner. It was completely cut off from the rest of the school with a 15-foot fence and, to the best of my knowledge, was used to transfer students with problems from the main high school to that one. The schoolyard rumors were that students who were so bad in behavior that even the cops around the school couldn't rein them in were put there (with vicious bullies and other particularly violent students who suddenly vanish said to be "sent to (name of this school)"), but the only thing I knew for sure was that everyone there was once a part of the main high school. That information (that students are transferred there) I obtained by asking a teacher, though the teacher refused to say anything more. I never figured out what the conditions were to get someone over there (it was really small and couldn't have held more than 100 students, and my high school, at its peak, had over 7,000), and it's the only such example I have ever seen or heard of. My high school has a Wikipedia page, but this miniature school does not, and my high school's Wikipedia page does not make any mention of the school in the corner.

Although I would see students in there if I happened to pass by the front of the building during a weekday morning or afternoon, I never once saw anyone come in or out of it. It was already empty and the gates locked by the time we headed for the school buses (which lined up along the same road as this miniature school's entrance). I refused to play hooky when I was still enrolled, so I only really saw the building occupied after I graduated.
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1791
Location: South America
PostPosted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:02 pm Reply with quote
Juno016 wrote:
I can't say I know much about most of the bullies' present day lives, but the ones I do know have improved as people in my eyes.


Very moving.

My cases of bullying in a Brazilian school were lighter but I still found it significant. When I was in the 8th grade I moved to a new town where people spoke with a different accent. As a result I couldn't quite understand what my classmates talked about so I asked then "what" in Portuguese and they started to make duck soounds in reference (quack is the Portuguese word for it) and in the end of the 8th grade the class made a "theater" presentation to the teachers where everybody was doing "quack, quack, quack, quack,..." the teachers were dumbfounded later the class voted me the "class scapegoat" by the way a teacher was conducting the vote. I remember I was almost crying in one class from the aggression I was suffering during class as the student was shaking my class with his leg (from his own class) and throwing insults at me while the teacher was busy writing on the blackboard.

And in the 9th and 10th grades a bunch of guys made up a fake character girlfriend who was sending me love letters all the time. They liked to watch me react to those even after I figured it out it probably was fake. In terms of physical aggression the most I suffered were eraser parts thrown at the back of my head (it hurts quite a bit) from guys behind me during class.

After that I suffered less bullying at school (mostly being constantly insulted by my lack of football skills and assumed to be an inferior human being because of that, not being allowed to play in the field as an equal and then they began to tell me that I shouldn't ever drive or play guitar because I have "no motor control" as if I was malfunctioning in some way) but I still find myself traumatized: when I hear laughter I think it's someone is making fun of me and I am scared from driving of doing any sports. Anyway now I am getting angry from remembering this stuff so I think I should stop.

Incredibly I became friends with these same guys later and even we all went out on trips together and stuff as young adults. Still I am not friends with any of them now and I don't plan on meeting them again.

I think bullying exists in every country and its hard to say where it is more prevalent.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 8:01 am Reply with quote
I've been on the receiving end of bullying in some form growing up. Fortunately, the higher-ups have done all within their power to discourage it, at least for the most part.
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