Sunshine and Shame: The Ultimate Remedy for Teenage Bullying

Teenage bullying is a situation that has been with us for a long time and has recently become high profile as several teen suicides have been linked to it. Fortunately, there is good news connected to this negative teen behavior depending on how we want to look at it.

Consider this an opportunity rather than as just another problem . Abortion? Immigration? Too much government? Too much business/marketplace influence? Teenage bullying is one subject all of us in our fractious society can agree on. Its bad and we should-----if we can------eliminate it. So let's begin by being positive.

Bullying is a product of the "teen peer subculture". Teenagers live in their own world and have their own ways of communicating. It is a systemic issue and all successful interventions ( so far) have in effect targeted the entire culture--usually public school culture ("you need to pay attention to what the kids are doing"- - - prevention expert Marlene Snyder, quoted in The Bully Problem, Christian Science Monitor, May 3,2010)

It is precisely because bullying arises from the peer subculture that there is reason for hope. The prevailing wisdom and virtually all our current programming regard the peer group as an absolute negative to be minimized and controlled by whatever means necessary. Yet we have a significant amount of research and considerable empirical evidence that teaches us how to turn the peer group into an absolute positive, and thereby unleash the caring, concern and clear cut accountability that teenagers consistently demonstrate when we adults create the right conditions for such qualities to emerge. The Los Angles area has long used Teen Courts as an effective and economical juvenile justice practice and has found that teens, if anything, are harder on their peers than adults. When we have the courage to structure our interventions using the teen peer group as an asset rather than a liability, we create the opportunity to virtually eliminate the scourge of teen bullying.

How is this done? Individual school districts, beginning with the Executive and the school board, would design and implement a specific system (policy) patterned after the rule of law.

What constitutes bullying would be precisely defined. Teens themselves would serve as prosecutor, defense attorney, judge and jury. A Wall of Shame list of those convicted by their peers would be established. Offenders could be sentenced to the Hall of Shame, an after school remedial group therapy gathering run by knowledgeable professionals. Teens could work their way out of the Hall and off the Wall by demonstrating to their peer sentencing authority that they had indeed "learned their lesson".

What is the single most important thing in the life of a teenager? "What do my friends (and other peers) think of me? (!)".   Shame, in and of itself, can be a powerful motivational tool especially with teens. A teen who has been so identified will really think twice about bullying others.


The process of developing and implementing such a policy will bring the entire school community together just as previously indifferent neighbors instantly cooperate in the face of a natural disaster that impacts all of them And it's cheap-----no highly paid outside consultants, no equipment, no capital outlay, everything done through the grass roots.

How about cyber--bullying? Another opportunity, only this time instead of a school district, it's an opportunity for an entire community, or township, to work together to implement basically the same model. Legal issues? As long as the punishment is voluntary meaning that it is not a legal violation and once again those found guilty through "due process" are publically shamed in some specific way---- there should be no problem. And besides, it might be interesting to see what our Supreme Court might say about a well managed, internally consistent ,inexpensive and totally effective local program initiated and driven by total citizen involvement and consensus!

Negatives? Working with teens in a continuing group situation and with the teen peer group is like running a nuclear power plant. No complacency is allowed. And those of us trained and immersed in zero tolerance theory and practice may have some trouble contemplating the idea of positive peer pressure which is the engine that will drive this initiative. But be of good cheer. All of us have a right---brain hemisphere and it's just as big as our left brain is! All we really need to do is bring it out of hibernation and begin to practice with it"".

Sunshine and shame. Expose offenders to the kind of ridicule and derision that only teenagers can instantly generate. Create a climate in which secretive macho support for bullying turns into scorn and sanctions. By the kids themselves. We have the tools to do it. Do we have the will?



  Country Joe College is the pseudonym of a local youth worker who wishes to remain anonymous.

Other Voices
(From "How to Provide Effective Peer Support Services
To Teens"---Youth Today, April 2010)

" Recruit youth counselors from different cliques and walks of life(jocks preps ,geeks ,etc"-create a structure that lets the youths steer the content and direction of meetings, even if they're not actually running the group"

" Youths sometimes respond to the interventions of other youths better than to that of adults"
" With adults on the sidelines, youths become more open and comfortable---it's reassuring to talk to someone your own age who has gone through what you have gone through" ( from Jessica Grimm, Youth Forum, Syracuse,NY)
" Often the best advice these kids get is the advice they receive from one another, not the adults" (Brenda Spevlin, Toledo Ray, Toledo, Ohio)

  ( From "How to Promote leadership Skills through Sports"
Youth Today, Feb 2010)
" In most communities, teenagers are looked at as vulnerable and as threats. We see them as inspired assets" (Sam Intrator, Professor and Co-Founder of Project Coach, Smith College (Massachusetts)