Bullying in the adult world
Bullying does not only exist in elementary, middle, and high school, but in college as well (Anibal Santos)
Bullying does not only exist in elementary, middle, and high school, but college as well. According to the government website stopbullying.gov, bullying may cause anxiety, depression, health complaints, decrease in academic achievement, and even in more extreme cases, death.
Alex Castellanos, former linebacker for the Saddleback Gauchos, said that as football players some laughed and made fun of other people but he says not to the point where he thinks the victims could hear what they were saying.
“A few of the football players would fight physically and verbally, but I wouldn’t consider it bullying.
“Once you’re in college you deal with what is thrown at you. If you have a sensitive mind then you won’t survive,” Castellanos said.
There were petty fights with some of his former teammates. Some were about girlfriends, some about being kicked off the team and jealousy he said.
In other cases, one of the biggest reasons for bullying, aside from being gay or the way you look, is racial segregation.
“Teammates would call me ‘beaner‘ in high school, and by the time I reached Saddleback College, I didn’t care anymore,” Castellanos said. “You find ways to put up with it.”
Castellanos had witnessed physical and verbal bullying in and outside of practice. He said that it was a matter of mentally dealing with the punches. The word bullying is almost silly to him he said, as this word is typically related to school children.
The government owned StopBullying.gov site defines bullying as: “Behaviors that are traditionally considered bullying among school-aged youth often require new attention and strategies in young adults and college students. Many of these behaviors are considered crimes under state and federal law and may trigger serious consequences after the age of 18.”
Now there is clarification as to the difference between children bullies and adult bullies. It isn’t until one is 18 years old that bullying may have a legal impact, whereas children may suffer lesser consequences, like suspension, expulsion, detention and most times, nothing but an eyebrow raise. According to the StopBullying site, the state of Montana doesn’t even have regulations against bullying.
Unfortunately this was the case for the most recent reported death of Felicia Garcia who was bullied to death Oct. 24. The New York Daily News reported recently, Garcia, 15, was a student from Staten Island who was always bullied for the way she looked, and for allegedly having consensual sex with some football players in her high school team which led her to jump in front of a train last week after being harassed at school. According to the news site www.gather.com only two teammates were suspended for the bullying although it was many more students who had tormented her.
In high school, that’s just your standard bully.
The Bullying Statistics website, bullystatistics.org, refers to five different types of adult bullies including: narcissistic adult bully, impulsive adult bully, physical bully, verbal adult bully, and secondary adult bully.
College student Farhad Moayedi, 20, biology major, who moved from Iran 3 years ago, admits to being bullied ever since he got to California.
“Some would call my friends terrorist,” Moayedi said. “They would accuse me of this behind my back.”
Although he said, it doesn’t bother him, he confesses later that he would be sad and upset when he got home.
Maybe the reason why the word bullying isn’t necessarily used in college because the word has been changed into a more dangerous synonym such as: harassment, verbal or physical abuse, torment … etc.
Since the word has matured within the school system, so have the punishments and consequences.
Deputy Chief of Police at Saddleback College, Jim Pyle, advises that if any student is harassed or bullied, police can take a report on what happened and interview the other party involved. Campus police would decide what kind of issue it was, whether it was verbal or physical and take the story to the vice president of student services. If it was only verbal, the police would handle it as an administrative issue and sit down with both parties and take various steps to find a solution to the problem. If it was a physical incident, then they would take legal action immediately.