What is Bullying?

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.  The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.  Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious lasting problems.

• In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
  • An imbalance of power: Kids who bully use their power-such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information or popularity-to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time an in different situations, even it they involve the same people.
  • Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.