Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide pptx

Bullying, Suicide,

and Homicide

Bullying, Suicide,

and Homicide

Understanding, Assessing,

and Preventing Threats to Self and

Others for Victims of Bullying

Butch Losey

New York London

Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

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New York, NY 10017

Routledge

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© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Losey, Butch.

Bullying, suicide, and homicide : understanding, assessing, and preventing

threats to self and others for victims of bullying / Butch Losey.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-415-87344-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-415-87347-5

(pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Bullying. 2. Bullying--Prevention. 3. Suicide. 4. Homicide. I. Title.

BF637.B85L67 2011

302.3--dc22 2010047313

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v

Contents

Pr e fac e vii

Acknow l ed gm ent s ix

Author’s Not e xi

Chap t er 1 Pers is t ent Bu l ly ing and Su ic id e as a

Viabl e Op t ion 1

Chap t er 2 Ef f ect ive S choo l P r e vent ion 9

Chap t er 3 In con s picuous Partn ers: Bu l ly ing as a

Pr ecursor to Su ic id e and Hom ic id e 25

Chap t er 4 Factors That In cr e as e Ris k for Vict im s

o f Bu l ly ing 33

Chap t er 5 S cr e en 53

Chap t er 6 As s e s s 65

Chap t er 7 Med iat e 79

Chap t er 8 Pr act ica l App l icat ion o f th e Bu l ly ing

Le tha l it y Id ent i f icat ion Sys t em 101

E pi logu e 119

Re f er en c e s 123

App end ix A: Bu l ly ing Le tha l it y S cr e en ing Too l 129

App end ix B: Su ic id e As s e s sm ent 133

vi Contents

App end ix C: Thr e at As s e s sm ent 137

App end ix D: Do cum entat ion o f Bu l ly ing Int ervent ion 141

Ind e x 143

CD C ont ent s 159

vii

Preface

I was like many others: a victim of bullying. My story has no tragic end

or great triumph over adversity. It happened; I suffered to some degree

and somehow navigated the experience through avoidance or fighting

back. Beyond that, I have no real personal story of bullying to tell.

Some years back, many things seemed to converge all at once in my

life. I was struggling to finish a doctoral degree and trying to figure

out how to collect data for ethnographic research on the importance of

family dinners. I was going nowhere with it. At the suggestion of my

boss, I switched my research to collecting data on the Olweus Bullying

Prevention Program, a program that I had recently been certified to

teach and was set to implement in four schools in a local district.

School had been in session for just over a month when we began the

implementation of the Olweus program, and I concurrently began my

data collection. During this time, I was asked to assist in the imple￾mentation in several schools of another prevention-based program

called the Signs of Suicide. For this program, we surveyed every stu￾dent in the schools and then conducted a personal interview with any

student who was identified as a suicide risk. I was astounded by the

number of children who reported that they had or were contemplating

suicide to some degree because of the bullying they were experiencing.

Surprisingly, we had never asked about bullying during the survey.

viii Preface

As I worked on both projects, I was regularly contacted by schools

interested in implementing bullying prevention and parents trying to

figure out how to stop their child from being victimized. I also heard

from a few people who had lost loved ones tragically by suicide as a

way to escape the pain of bullying. As they talked, I listened. Their

stories touched me. I learned the connection among bullying, suicide,

and school violence. I learned of our failures in mental health and

education to protect these children.

I wondered what I could do to make a difference. I decided that I

could help by filling in a gap and creating a way to assess the impact

of bullying victimization on mental health. I expected that by using

a screening and assessment tool with victims of bullying, a mental

health professional could identify the level of torment a child was

experiencing and in this way potentially divert the tragic solution of

suicide or school violence some children choose. Using these tools

could get the student the help they need.

Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide will increase your understanding of

the impact of bullying on the core essence of one’s sense of self. You

will learn that bullying prevention and intervention will be most suc￾cessful when an ecological approach is implemented. You will learn

the components of screening and assessment tools that will guide your

decision-making process as you intervene with victims of bullying. All

the tools and forms that I have created are printed as appendices and

are on the CD included with this book. The CD will afford you the

opportunity to modify the tools to fit your individual work setting.

I believe that I have met my goal for making a difference.

Professionals across the country are using these tools. I have presented

numerous workshops on the topic. And—you are reading this book.

Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide will add to your repertoire of skills to

intervene during a difficult time in a young person’s life. Your inter￾vention may translate into one life saved. That difference is in no small

measure what I had hoped to accomplish.

ix

Acknowledgments

I would like to recognize and thank Susan Graham for her ideas that

contributed to the development of the Bullying Lethality Screening

Tool. The screening tool created the foundation for the material in

this book. I would also like to thank Jim Carter, chief executive officer

of Child Focus Incorporated, for his continued support of my bullying

prevention efforts. Both are strong advocates for bullying prevention

in Cincinnati, Ohio.

xi

Author’s Note

Many writers on bullying go to great lengths to be sensitive to label￾ing individuals. They are careful to avoid using the terms bully and

victim as much as possible when describing students who bully others

or who are bullied by others. I depart from this perspective to respect

the experience of those who have been the victim of a persistent,

unwanted, and seriously harmful assault on their physical, emotional,

and psychological essence of self. Bullying is victimization; therefore,

bullies have victims.

1

1

Persistent Bullying and

Suicide as a Viable Option

Desire´’s car sits in the garage as if it is waiting for her to drive

down Bach Buxton with the windows down and her hair blow￾ing in the wind. Her room sits the way she left it, as if waiting

for her return. I too sometimes lose track of reality and think she

will be coming through the front door any minute.

Donna Dreyer, mother of Desire´ Dreyer

Moving to a New School

When Desire´1 first transferred to Eastside High School2 outside

Cincinnati, Ohio, the eighth grader was full of promise. The attrac￾tive blond had trained as a cheerleader since she was seven and was

eager to pick up with the sport at her new school. Like any teenager,

she had trepidation about moving, yet this was a girl with many tal￾ents, a strong academic record, and a disarming smile. She was sure

to adapt.

The transition to her new school would have appeared relatively

smooth to anyone willing to notice in the hustle of the middle school

milieu, yet a seemingly insignificant event would open the door to

a perception of persecution that Desire´ believed was orchestrated

by Eastside High. She also would soon be in a downward emotional

1 Desire´ Dreyer (2007). Adapted from personal interviews with Donna Dreyer,

Desire´’s mother. Some of the elements of the story have been added for readability.

2 Eastside and Westside schools and individual names other than Desire´ and her

family are fictitious names to maintain anonymity.

2 Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide

spiral and experience escalating abuse by

her peers that continued over the course

of the next several years.

Desire´ adjusted quickly to Eastside

High and signed up for tryouts for the

cheerleading squad. Desire´ was caught

off guard when told by the school coun￾selor that she “held all zeros” on her

report card from Kentucky and was

ineligible to try out for cheerleading.

Desire´ was devastated, knowing that

the zeros reflected a glitch in trans￾ferring her grades from her school in

Newport, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. However,

she interpreted the situation as a sign that the school administration

did not want her.

Within just a few weeks of starting school, Desire´ made several

friends and developed a close relationship with Ashley, a girl her

age. She also began a romantic relationship with a boy she met at

the Eastside versus Westside basketball game. Her relationship with

Cameron would become a source of support and affection and the cat￾alyst for victimizing Desire´. Finally, her grades from Newport were

forwarded, and she would qualify and compete with the junior varsity

cheerleading squad through the end of eighth grade.

At the end of her ninth-grade year, Desire´ decided to transfer to the

communications and technology program at Westside High School;

driving her decision certainly was the knowledge that Cameron was

at Westside. The decision would require her to meet class prerequi￾sites, and she decided to complete these during the summer. Along

with the typical activities of a teen with a summer free, Desire´ com￾pleted the necessary paperwork to transfer to Westside and attended

summer classes.

Several days before the start of school, Desire´ received a call from

the school counselor at Westside informing her that her application

was denied, and she would not be placed in the communications and

technology program because the student enrollment maximum had

been reached. Desire´ was devastated once again, concluding that this

Desire´ Dreyer