Bullying, a pervasive issue with profound effects on individuals and communities. Not only in the US, but across the world, every country is having students who experience this horrible action that's gradually damaging their mental and physical health. According to the NCES, "in 2019, about 22 percent of students ages 12–18 reported being bullied at school during the school year." The impact extends beyond the immediate distress, often leads to long-term consequences such as anxiety, depression, etc. These effects are like small needles that cause damage to the victim's inner self and their health status.

 

While the SNSI/NSI of NJROTC units are responsible for implementing hazing and bullying prevention programs, The goal of the program is that it should be led by the NJROTC unit's cadet leadership. The unit's program must ensure cadets can report improper conduct without fear of reprisal and take corrective action as deemed necessary to prevent recurrence in accordance with school policies regarding misconduct.

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Below are some knowledge about these terms to take consideration of

 

DEFINITIONS:

 

Hazing is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. Hazing is any action or situation, with or without the consent of the participants, which recklessly, intentionally, or unintentionally endangers the mental, physical, or academic health or safety of a student.

 

Bullying is any type of unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance with the intent to abuse, embarrass, control and/or harm the victim. Bullying can be physical, verbal or written (to include social media).

 

Cyberbullying is bullying that uses electronic communications devices, and it cannot be ignored as an avenue for bullying and sexual harassment. With the proliferation of social media, most students are aware of cyberbullying immediately and quite often know the perpetrator and the victim. However, most cyberbullying goes unreported. Nobody deserves to be bullied or sexually harassed, and it is our shared responsibility to ensure it doesn't happen.

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NJROTC cadets should feel confident in their knowledge of hazing and bullying prevention and apply that knowledge throughout their school and community. We want and expect our cadets to be role models for other students to emulate.  As professionals, we understand that there is no place for any form of hazing or bullying.

 

An outstanding web resource for recognizing and dealing with bullying is stopbullying.gov.  This site has several pages, videos and other resources to help with this problem. To check it out, click HERE.

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Sexual harassment is bullying of a sexual nature and includes the creation of an atmosphere of fear or mistrust. Hazing/bullying is not acceptable in any form in the NJROTC program. In order to safeguard our program from these problems our cadets are a available to be talked to and cadets are assured that they can go to whoever they feel most conferrable talking to ensuring that they have multiple contact persons who will take the issue seriously and act immediately to address the problem. We hold all of our personnel to the highest standards of accountability. 

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If you have witnessed others being bullied or harassed, or if you yourself are experiencing this, please contact one of your NJROTC instructors directly. If you feel more comfortable talking with another cadet about this issue, we encourage you to contact our Executive Officer Kelsey Zhao.

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For any case of sexual assault, harassment, bullying (or cyberbullying), and Hazing, the unit will conduct a disciplinary review board to determine the facts of the situation and then the outcomes for our unit. We also will bring these serious situations to the school's attention.

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Cadets of the John D O'bryant School of Math and Science will Adhere to the highest standards of personal and interpersonal conduct-- as such there is absolutely no room for these behaviors in our program

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Additionally here is a video about this topic and what to do if it occurs in school in general, as well as a link to the BPS Department of equity and inclusion page for more information. 

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