Bullying can appear in many ways and in many places ranging from school to the home. But bullying also often shows itself in the form of interpersonal or sexual violence.
“Several researchers who look into sexual violence prevention have proposed the theory that sexual harassment in middle school is a building block behavior that if unchecked, eventually leads to more severe forms of sexual violence later on,” said Rachel Valentine, Community Education Director for the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.
She says the center has a program they teach in elementary and middle schools called SafeTouch. And they have one for high schools called Start Strong.
“We start to shift from talking about how your body belongs to you,” Valentine said. “So no one should be touching you or treating you in a way that you don’t like, to how that applies to other people.”
Rachel Valentine spoke with Aaron Keck this week on WCHL.
After starting conversations like this in elementary and middle school, they switch to discussing ideas of consent and harassment in high schools. Valentine says most bullying in today’s day and age is actually considered identity-based harassment, or expressed violence towards someone based on his or her race, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic status and other factors.
“I think we would be better prepared to actually prevent bullying if we stop to really think about what leads children to do this,” she said.
Valentine said having programs in schools and teaching children at an early age about interpersonal and sexual violence, the more students are to be active bystanders, willing to protect others against that violence. They’re also more likely to seek verbal consent in their sexual relationships.
“We’re not in the business of teaching a generation of kids how to protect themselves from harm,” she said. “We’re in the business of teaching a generation of kids how to engage with one another without causing harm.”
Valentine said this can be achieved by activities that encourage school connectedness. She says students who are connected to their schools are more likely to be the ones to step in and prevent violence wherever they can. She also says the first step to preventing all types of relationship violence is to recognize and listen to victims.
“If someone is coming forward to say that they have experienced this type of harm, we need to start by believing,” she said. “And then go from there in terms of what the educative response can be for the person who’s done it to them.”
Even though October is National Bullying Prevention month, OCRCC has informational prevention programs for students, families and community members all year long. More information can be found here.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines