The results were stunning for Jeong. “Usually people expect an anti-bullying program to have some impact — some positive impact.”
The student videos used in many campaigns show examples of bullying and how to intervene. But Jeong says they may actually teach students different bullying techniques — and even educate about new ways to bully through social media and texting.
Jeong said students with ill intentions “…are able to learn, there are new techniques [and gain] new skills.” He says students might see examples in videos and then want to try it.
According to Jeong, some programs even teach students how to bully without leaving evidence behind. “This study raises an alarm,” he said. “There is a possibility of negative impact from anti-bullying programs.”
Jeong and others like him believe that until the message delivered by anti-bullying programs improves — some programs may be doing more harm than good.
Personally, I always thought any kind of program to de-stigmatize anything in school was an automatic fail.
Is there anything more uncool than educational officialdom and the messages that come from them?
My impression has always been that any time the school system tries to market a message to youth, just the fact that it's from the "squares" in authority (do I sound "square" enough by saying that?) means that the opposite gains legitimacy.
Remember all those anti-smoking messages? Did they do squat to curb smoking? No.
If anything, it made smoking seem more acceptable for cool kids precisely because the clean-cut people hated it and all the kids wearing black did it.
