Bullying: Why All the Fuss?

“Why is there such a fuss being made about bullying? Bullying is commonplace, normal, and part of growing up.” This was a comment made with frustration and more than a bit of annoyance to me by an experienced and, as best I can judge, highly qualified 4th-grade teacher several years ago after the publication of an article by Nansel et al.1 That article received considerable media attention and press coverage, raising the issue of bullying to a more prominent level in violence prevention efforts.2 Interestingly, this teacher was unaware that I had, in fact, written a commentary for that article emphasizing the need to address bullying as part of a comprehensive approach to youth violence prevention.3 However, his sentiment has been repeated to me by many others, especially teachers, since then and reflects a concerning problem with respect to people’s understanding of this issue and its importance. Yet, although the Nansel et al article was among the first studies to report on the prevalence of bullying and its associated psychosocial concerns in this country, there was already a considerable body of work on this subject from other countries that reflected the extent and seriousness of the problem as well as well-evaluated strategies for …