What kind of laws protect against bullying?

What age group are we talking about here?

@Season_of_Fall

Any age.

Looks like your dealing with workplace bullying, is that accurate?

My question has a typo: the second “victim” should be perpetrator.

@Season_of_Fall
This question does not pertain to me. “Bullying” or harassment occurs at all ages from places such as a grade school to a retirement home. My question is when the behavior is repetitive, deliberate and intended to hurt the victim then what laws protect the victim? Although I have had no experience with HROs, I often hear about them getting thrown about among people for nonsense reasons but rarely in the cases of bullying. Why?

Depending on the degree of bullying or harrassment, I’m sure you could take legal action. I’m am the youngest of eight boys and understand feeling bullied, but I have tried to learn how to deflect or stand up to people who act like this. Most of the time bullies act out of fear, and a lot of the time that fear is the fear of weakness. Since they feel small inside they have to pick on people to feel bigger about themselves.

Let me recommend three books that have been instramental in helping me learn how to stand against bully.

Assertiveness Training
Dance of Anger
Dealing with difficult people.

“rarely in the cases of bullying. Why?”

Because it has to be able to be proved, why, because people use them too capreciously as a form of counter bullying or outright bullying. RO change a person’s life, they are a pretty big deal and should be only used in the right degree of danger cases. A person who has had a RO put against them loses the right to bear arms and other liberties, ect.

@Season_of_Fall

The following is an account from a bully I found on another website.
___________________________________________________________________________

Bully:

Well I’ve never been bullied. I mean we all have had people make fun of us but I’ve always been more on the popular side so it hasn’t ever exceeded to bullying. My friends were there to defend me when someone didn’t like me and I could hold my own as well. I find bullies pick the weakest most vulnerable people they can find usually and that was never me.

I will admit a lot of kids I hung out with in school were the bullies. I wouldn’t call myself a bully, but I did pick on people and make fun of people. I played pranks on people and sometimes did try to humiliate them. The guys in our group were what I’d call bullies though. Like they were violent and aggressive. We girls rarely ever got violent but we did try to intimidate other girls and even some guys. I remember different scenes. We hid girls clothes or went outside and threw their underwear and bras around the court yard. My friends and I surrounded this girl once because we didn’t like her and we just started insulting her and calling her names. This one girl kissed one of my friends ex-bfs and we made her life a living hell, pushed her books down the stairs every time we saw her in the hallway, took her lunch, make jokes about her in front of class, said friend who used to date the guy spit in her face. Things like that. We made up lies and framed people basically to get them in trouble. One of my best friends invited a girl over for a party and we played truth or dare. She dared the girl to strip down naked and then took a piccture of her. Then some of us forced her outside and locked the doors. She videotaped the girl from the window crying and kind of hiding in the bushes . We never threw her cell out or anything so she could call someone for help. I don’t know how she made it home but she was in school the next day. To her horror, my best friend spread the pictures around school and emailed the video to everyone. That was harsh, I know. We did a lot of mean things, even humilated boys who really should have known better than to believe we actually liked them. It was worse when someone didn’t fight back, it made us see them as more pathetic. Standing up for yourself gave you a bit of respect even if we didn’t leave you alone. A lot of the people who were bullied by the more popular people never did stand up for themselves or really fight back. I just found that so sad. Like Its one thing for me to think you’re worthless but by not doing anything back or holding your ground you’re accepting that as truth too, which is the saddest thing ever.

Idk again I don’t see myself as a bully but now that I look back on things I probably could have been considered one. I made a lot of people cry. Oh well. I mean there’s nothing I can do about that. I guess I just have a bitchy personality but I’m okay with that.

Just giving some perspective from the other side
___________________________________________________________________________

My thoughts:

The girl whose nude pictures were taken should have filed a restraining order in my opinion. A lot of the cases where bullying is out of the hand leads to suicide need to file for harassment restraining orders.

She could have probably taken action, but didn’t. Like you said most of the time they don’t. It’s really an all or nothing proposition for them though. Fighting back might win a little respect but they realize it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

@raven860 – what state are you in? (if in the US) and what form of harassment does this refer to? I may have answers

@Season_of_Fall

Perhaps in her case she felt so but fighting back is not something she would be doing just for herself. Standing up to bullying will encourage others to do the same or at least come forward with it. It will also discourage bullies as they will find out their actions are not tolerated. Teasing and pushing/shoving to some degree is okay…its even normal but at the level mentioned in the Bully’s account it is disgusting and sadistic.

@JessicaRTBH

I live in California but this is a Nationwide issue. However, I know for a fact that kinds in high school & college kids bully verbally or by psychological things such as isolation, rumors, lying & mind games.

Mostly, I think its because people being bullied still want to be accepted. Once they decide to take legal action, they know they have foreclosed the option of the popular group accepting them. I was never “bullied” but I wasn’t accepted for a while either, and that was my thought process up until Jr. High (when I found friends who are as nerdy as me).

As for the story @raven860 found, I don’t think it would have been difficult to win a legal battle. However, that’s what it would have been, a battle. Even the plaintiff would have gone through tough times. Think about it: the defendants friends would have given her a horrible time in school. The pressure would have been much worse than before. I don’t know much about psychology, but I can’t imagine a teenager coming out that happily.

@roundsquare

That makes sense however I wish the victim was unaffected by their remarks and found support through other classmates outside of the popular group. I am not sure why there aren’t more people with better moral foundations in high school.

Restraining orders often make things worse, to be honest with you…

I never understood how someone really ends up in a situation where they are bullied, I never had that problem in school, probably because I wouldnt hesitate to slam my textbook in someones face for talking shit. Violence can solve some problems.

@cheebdragon How old are you? Because I know that now, if you slammed a book into someone’s face for any reason, it’s highly probable you’ll get arrested for assault. And restraining orders are often useless for getting people to stay away, but a necessary step for getting the police to actually protect you should things get worse.

@Aethelflaed If you are able to get a restraining order from the court then any action that the perpetrator enacts that violates the order is seen as illegal and the perpetrator can be punished for it severely for defying the courts order.

@cheebdragon

Why do you believe a restraining order will make things worse?

@raven860 I know, that’s why it’s necessary. What it doesn’t do is actually keep people away. If a person is the type to actually follow a restraining order, then you probably don’t need the order in the first place. It’s the people who don’t have regard for restraining orders that you have to take them out against. Just because someone violates the restraining order doesn’t mean that the crime will leave enough evidence for the perpetrator to be both charged and convicted, nor that you’ll be safe and sound and in good shape if and when they are arrested.

Laws to protect against bullying vary from state to state and what the laws cover also vary. I believe about 34 states have laws that are specific to cyber bullying, but some of them only apply to minors (from what I remember). So, as far as protection is concerned, it really depends on where the people live. Some states are willing to do more than others and I believe most of the states have a different definition of what harassment/bullying/threats actually are.

@raven860 Restraining orders don’t really make you any safer or make it so that the perpetrator will necessarily get in more trouble if they don’t abide by it. Not to mention, in order to give someone an order to stay away from you, you have to give them your address and your work address, so they know where they have to stay away from. So, if the person going after you didn’t know where you lived before the restraining order, they will afterwards. If they are truly intent on doing harm to you, a restraining order isn’t going to stop them and proving that they violated the restraining order can take a lot of work if they aren’t caught in the act.

I’m 23, it would take a lot more to make me slam a book in someones face these days, but back in 6th-12th grade, I was more aggressive. You only have to stand up for yourself a couple of times before people catch on that you’re not someone they should fuck with.

@raven860 – I agree it is a nationwide issue. I also fear it’s getting worse with emerging technology.
I feel like a victim often fears being put through more torture by their attacker if legal action is taken or they simply don’t want to repeat what happened and just move on. It may not be right but often times the victim already feels helpless and sometimes may not know what to do.