There is a pain that can be inflicted easily, leaving no physical trace—no bruise, no broken bones—but it can have a drastic effect on its victim and may last a lifetime.
Bullying permeates all levels, areas and ages of society. From schoolyards to seniors’ homes it can be inflicted without thought, without caring and without realizing.
Sensei Frank Clayton is lead instructor and owner of Canadian Martial Arts Academy. “I may have done things when I was a kid that might not have been correct at the time; we have all done things,” said Clayton. “But as an adult I think we want to try to teach our kids to be more responsible and have more respect and be more politically correct. I am sure we have all been bullied at some point and it is how we deal with it and handle it that will determine our outcome.”
He works with students aged four or five through to the upper 60s and beyond. He sees instilling self-respect, respect for others, discipline, taking responsibility and setting achievable goals for his students as a way to help build a better community and he does that through combining personal development with martial arts training.
There are three elements to respect that Clayton teaches even his youngest students. “Ourselves, other people and environment,” he said, explaining that eating healthy food, exercising and projecting a healthy body image lead toward self-respect. Respecting other people is through “being polite and respectful, not saying bad things and not using our physical bodies to kick and punch and to harm them in any way.” Respect for the environment follows naturally once a person respects themselves and others.
Clayton then works on discipline, explaining both body and mouth discipline to his students. A person doing physical harm with his or her body has bad body discipline, or a person saying something hurtful has bad mouth discipline. It is a simple lesson, but the message gets across to all ages of students.
For older students Frank emphasizes compassion. “It is not how much you know, it is how much you let them know that you care, which is important.”
The last day in February is designated as anti-bullying day, the final day of a week of raising awareness about bullying. On this day, many people wear pink, a visual statement of working together and standing up to bullies.
The movement of wearing pink began in 2007 with two grade 12 students in Nova Scotia. To show support for a younger student who had been bullied for arriving at school wearing pink, David Shepherd and Travis Price took 50 pink T-shirts to school and canvassed their fellow students to wear pink, creating a “sea of pink” and turning the tide against bullying.
“It looked like there was a big weight lifted off his shoulders,” said Shepherd during a CBC interview at the time. “He went from looking right depressed to being as happy as can be.”
Bullying is no stranger to the workplace. Darcie MacFronton, employment counsellor at Career Link, said “Over the years I’ve worked with many people who have left their work because, over a lengthy period of time, they were reprimanded in front of customers and/or coworkers; given all the ‘crappy’ jobs; sexually harassed; subjected to crude ‘jokes’ based on gender, sexuality, disability, race or culture; made to show more flexibility in accepting shift changes or work duty changes or being called in on days off more than other workers; not being included, or actively being excluded from formal or informal company events; and some were yelled at and/or sworn at by bosses, supervisors or coworkers.”
Workplace bullying, which includes mobbing, should be a concern to employers as well as employees. It is bad for business. It can lead to reduced productivity, increased workplace incidents and accidents and decreased customer service, all of which have financial implications. It creates a hostile environment, results in sick days and lost work and ultimately taints the business with an unhealthy reputation. It increases stress levels and reduces trust among colleagues.
More than 80 per cent of bullies at work are bosses or individuals with power, making it very difficult for a victim of bullying to speak up and take action. According to Canada Safety Council, “The target chosen by an adult bully will often be a capable, dedicated member, well liked by coworkers...The bully considers their capability a threat and determines to cut them down.”
MacFronton has a few suggestions for employers to reduce workplace bullying, which include alerting all staff to being aware of bullying and what to do if they are either victim or witness to abuse. All employees can work together with employers to pay attention to workplace dynamics, ask questions, raise topics of concern and facilitate employees bringing claims of being bullied to their employers.
Bullying can be experienced by seniors, especially seniors who are dependent upon assistance for their day-to-day care. And, it is very prevalent on the Internet.
Cyberbullying has gained in momentum through social networks such as Facebook. It can be just as harmful as face-to-face bullying and have a wide-reaching and devastating effect.
False information can be posted within a few keystrokes and spread to countless witnesses. By bullying online it is possible for the bully to remain anonymous and not see the effect of their actions. Sharing emails or images of a person without their consent is a form of cyberbullying, as is pressuring others to exclude somebody from an online community.
Media Awareness Network has created a cyberbullying and the law fact sheet. It states that cyberbullying can be addressed under civil or criminal law based on the situation. Civil law deals with property rights, personal dignity and freedom from injury where as criminal law covers crimes against the state and can include harassment or defamatory libel.
From when first entering martial arts, Clayton knew he wanted to be a teacher. He attended many personal development lectures by leading speakers and put a lot of their philosophy into MA training. “The philosophy of MA is to aim to have good character and a strong body to be able to defend yourself,” he said. “But if we can incorporate personal development in there and teach our kids to be more responsible, teach them to have goals that they can set and goals they can accomplish, then they will go further in life.
“When those kids walk through the door for their very first class and are nervous, I am excited,” he said, “because I like to mould them a little bit. If they can learn discipline, respect and compassion, I am a happy guy.”
