The Behavioral Corner 
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us, as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while.

Steve Martorano 
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Behavioral Corner. Here we are hanging at the intersection of what's going on and what kind of shape are we all in? Hi, I'm Steve Martorano and what I do is I stand here on the Behavioral Corner and as luck would have it, I always wanted to interesting people who have great things to share with us, essentially, about the way we behave and the choices we make and the results of all that stuff because it contributes to our behavioral health. And that's what we're here to talk about. We are supported by our underwriters Retreat Behavioral Health. And we're grateful for that. We'll hear more about them a little bit later down the road. So here's what we're talking about today, because October, you may or may not be aware, has been designated for the past few years, anyway, as the month set aside, where we take a look at bullying, and anti-bullying measures, we raise awareness about bullying and try to obviously prevent it. So we're gonna take a look at that, because a very big issue. Kids are now finally, for the most part back, to school after the pandemic. Incidentally, bullying did not stop during the period when they were not in class, we'll find out about that ahead. We have a great expert in this field to talk to us. But before I introduce Leah to you, I just wanted to start by saying the sea change in our attitude and our activities towards bullying has been nothing short of dramatic. It is a relatively new phenomenon or development in terms of what goes on in children's lives. And I say relatively new framing in my context when I went to school 200 years ago, and I think many people have this experience of bullying was always present. There have always been bullies and their victims. The difference growing up for me was while it was regrettable, and to be avoided, and bad. It was also considered, well, a rite of passage. And, in fact, a learning experience. You gotta stand up to bullies. It'll be a real valuable experience. But then something changed -- something very dramatic change in the culture. And we said, No, no, that's not enough help. We need to get more involved. So to that end, we welcome Leah Galkowski with us. She has been in the field, working towards making schools safer for a couple of decades. Now she is with the Center for Safe Schools, and we welcome her to talk about bullying. Leah, good day, how are you?
)
Leah Galkowski 
I'm good. How are you doing today?

Steve Martorano 
I'm good day. Did I get most of that right about the attitude change and bullying over the years?

Leah Galkowski 
Well, what I can tell you from the research is we found out that it's not just a rite of passage, that the impacts are lifelong from bullying behavior. So I think one of the biggest changes is thanks to the research, we discovered that the impacts don't go away. And there are significant impacts from bullying behavior. And we know a little bit more about that actually, Dr. Olweus, Daniel Olweus, started his research back in the 70s on bullying behavior in Norway, and we have a lot of information, some big research projects in Pennsylvania, actually, about the impacts of bullying. And we know more now, I think, the changes, we've learned, we've done the research, we've done the studies, we know that bullying has significant impacts on behavioral and mental health. And we know that we need to do something about it. And you're absolutely right, just you yourself, being able to stand up to a bully doesn't always stop that behavior. So we need those supports from bystanders and adults. The adults are the key. We need support from the adults who witnessed it or know about it to be able to stop the behavior. If children could stop it on their own. They would it wouldn't happen anymore. And we found that that's just not the case.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, it's fascinating about why they can't because I guess they're not equipped. We'll find out more. There are so many questions, your comments just raised from me. I do want to talk about the Olweus program because I know you guys are dedicated and advocates for that fascinating stuff. I read him started in Norway. The techniques are amazing some of the findings -- and these are evidence-based findings -- have been remarkable about what works and what doesn't work. Want to get to that ahead. Just briefly about the Center for Schools -- Safe Schools. Tell me about the organization. They're right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, right?

Leah Galkowski 
Absolutely. We're based in Camp Hill -- but we honestly work all over Pennsylvania and beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. For actually over two decades now, almost three decades, the Center for Safe Schools has been committed to developing creative and effective solutions to problems that disrupt the educational process and affect school ship safety. We have tons of training opportunities available, but we're also you know, we work directly with schools, we work with community youth organizations to help maintain and provide safe, productive learning environments. And we know that that learning environment expands beyond the brick and mortar schools. So you know, we expand our opportunities for professional development beyond those walls.

Steve Martorano 
I would urge people who are in the education field or just parents who want to know who can help to take a look at the Center's website. It's comprehensive, there's a lot of material there, we're focusing on the anti-bullying aspect of what you guys do. So let's begin there where I always begin when we talk about bullying, Leah, what are we talking about what's bullying?

Leah Galkowski 
When I talk about bullying behavior, I tend to use Dr. Olweus' definition. So his definition is when someone repeatedly or one purpose does mean or hurtful things to another person who has a hard time defending him or herself. That and there are three key elements of that definition that are important to talk about. One of those is repeatedly it happens more than once or often in different locations, or by more than one individual. The other thing is that it is purposeful, it is intentional. And unfortunately, the person who's being bullied has a hard time defending him or herself.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, the intentionality is interesting. Does the Olweus technique, take a look at them -- again, I'm sure it does -- but tell us about why take a look at the person bullying, because I think the focus from the public generally is the victim. What can we do for the victim? What can we do for persons being harassed? The bully needs help, too, don't they?

Leah Galkowski 
Absolutely. And that's one of the reasons that the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is effective. And other research-based programs are effective as they focus on the whole school environment -- and it's not just the child who's being bullied. Everybody in the school plays a role in preventing bullying and intervening in bullying incidents that happen. So we're talking to the child who's doing the bullying about that behavior, that it's not okay. It's not acceptable. And there are consequences for that behavior. We're also talking to the students who or the children who are bystanders who see it happen, who don't exactly know what to do about it, or who want to do something and you know, don't know what that is. So a program like OBPP, and I'll say that from now on because it's a little hard to say the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program over and over, we want to talk to the bystanders. So what can you do? What do you feel comfortable doing? SuEllen Freed has an -- and it's on our website -- if you take a look at it has what's called the continuum of bystander behavior, which is an excellent way to look at bystander behavior. You have the child who's the defender, who's very comfortable going in and saying that's not okay. You can't do that. We don't you know, we don't do that in our school building. We don't do that in our communities organization. But honestly, that's not the majority of kids. That's not the majority of people who you know, who witnessed bullying behavior. There are lots of people on that spectrum. So there are people who are willing to go to an adult, go to their parent, go to their caregiver, or go to an adult at school and say, this is happening, can you please stop it? Can you do something about it? And then there are those kids who might not feel comfortable doing that. But they might say something to the child who's being bullied later, they might say, I'm really sorry that that happened to you. Do you want to sit with me at lunchtime? Or do you want to sit next to me in study hall? So, you know, we need to talk to kids about where are you in that spectrum? Where are you and what do you feel like you'll be able to do? The other thing is we need to practice with kids and have these conversations. So it's not boom, they're in the situation and they know what to do about it. It's just like a fire drill. If you practice, you know what door to go out, you know, where to, you know, if you're going to the parking lot or the playground. If you practice that if you you know, practice scenarios and bullying behaviors, you know what to do if the situation arises, you know, well, maybe I'm not real comfortable confronting the bully, you know, or, you know, intervening in the situation, but this is what I know that I can do to help that student.

Steve Martorano 
We all think we understand bullying, it looks like a pretty straightforward thing. The mean kid picks on the weaker kid and another stands around thinking it's either amusing or they don't look at, but it's it goes much, much deeper than that. What is the bully seeking? What is the bully want to achieve by their behavior,

Leah Galkowski 
They really like that power, and they gain it in different ways. So I mean, it could be, you know, the traditional playground bully who's taking lunch money could be monetary, they can do that. It could be the prestige, that they gain among their peers, this person's in a position of power, and I'm going to hang with that person, either. So it doesn't happen to me, or because I want that power to, and that form of aggression works for them, they get the satisfaction and they get the things that they need as a part of that. They build their peer status, and they might get monetary or other physical things.

Steve Martorano 
It sounds like the behavior is part of the spectrum of attempts all children make to find their place. I want to be with that group or identify with the athletes or the math people, the bully is looking to, okay, I'll be the school tough guy. What characterizes the victim? Are there young people who are more susceptible to bullying and why would that be?

Leah Galkowski 
There are. So upfront it is possible that anybody can be bullied. You know, if that happens in all socio-economic statuses across racial lines, it can happen to anyone. Adults also. You know, it happens in the workplace. We know that. But some children are at a particularly high risk of being bullied because of the ways that they are perceived as being different. Some of these differences might be positive, it could be our gifted in our talented youth. But sometimes these differences can be viewed as negative behaviors. So, children who might have physical cognitive or learning and behavioral disabilities, that might include ADHD, or autism spectrum disorder, or Asperger's Syndrome, or special health care needs and medical conditions, other things that affect their appearance, such as obesity. We also know that our LGBTQ youth are bullied at higher rates than other children. And it is a moderate and consistent risk factor for victimization in schools.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, appearance has always been the easy and fastest route to ridiculing somebody, or a little bit later here, we'll get into the effects social media has had on exacerbating that problem. We just heard incredible testimony about what Instagram is doing, which is a big company bullying people when you think about it. But I want to back up to this notion of where the bully comes from. Is this behavior learned?

Leah Galkowski 
Some of it is learned. Yeah, absolutely. But there's no single profile of children who bully, they tend to have a positive attitude toward violence. They might be quick-tempered, but they also show little or no empathy toward their targets or victims. They also might be involved in other antisocial behaviors. It's not always those kids, though, sometimes it's the popular kid. They like being popular, so they'll bully other children to maintain that popularity status. And children who bully don't always have obvious behavior problems or engage in antisocial behaviors.

Steve Martorano 
They're not future sociopaths. Although they could be.

Leah Galkowski 
Yeah, actually, there are children who are identified as bullying others in middle school who are four times more likely to have a conviction by the time that they turn right 24.

Steve Martorano 
Four times more likely.

Leah Galkowski 
Four times more likely.

Steve Martorano 
It's interesting, there's, as I looked at some of your material, can see the numbers are staggering. If you think there's no other harm to bullying, that someone's feelings are hurt, or they feel uncomfortable thousands, tens of thousands of days of missed education go on because kids don't go to school. Right?

Leah Galkowski 
Right. They don't feel comfortable in the building. And it's not just you know, psychosomatic issues their real physical symptoms, like headaches, and stomach aches, and you know, all of those anxiety-related disorders. Children who are our targets of bullying are much more likely to experience those symptoms, depression and low self-esteem at much higher rates than other children.

Steve Martorano 
Let's talk about who the bullies are boys, boys, and girls. How's that work?

Leah Galkowski 
Typically, it is males more than females, but what we know is that males tend to bully other males. Girls are more likely to bully girls and boys. So you know there's a little bit of an interesting dynamic there. And the bullying among boys is usually direct. It tends to be physical. But that's, you know, of course, that's not always the case that just that the higher incidence of. Girls are more likely to use relational aggression. But boys do it too. It's just at higher rates among girls.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. The mean girl trope, that we're all familiar with, is that a situation that allows for that kind of bullying among girls, they gather around their ability to be, you know, harsh and critical and judgmental of the other kids. Is that part of the process?

Leah Galkowski 
That is part of the process, and part of it is manipulation. So the person who's doing the bullying might actually not be the leader of the pack, the leader of the pack is using that person to manipulate others or to do the bullying for them. It's an interesting dynamic, but a difficult one to intervene. And it doesn't just happen among girls, there are many instances of bullying among boys that are manipulative and using relational aggression. And what we know is that typically, peers bully peers, so they don't tend to go outside their peer group that does happen. There are kids on the margins, that groups or single individuals will target for bullying behavior, but typically, most bullying happens among a group of peers.

Steve Martorano 
Oh, you know, that surprises me. I would have guessed that bullies punched down. 

Leah Galkowski 
No.

Steve Martorano 
No, not true? What there's less status and doing that than keeping it in the family? 

Leah Galkowski 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
Because they're trying, I guess, because they're trying to impress certain people.

Leah Galkowski 
Right. They want to gain status, they want to gain, you know, gain the power in that group. Bullying is all about power imbalances. It's gaining that power. That's what they're looking for.

Steve Martorano 
They were talking to Leah Galkowski of the Center for Safe Schools and Communities about anti-bullying or bullying prevention, which we take a look at in October here on the Behavioral Corner, and I got a lot more questions I want you to stick around. We'll be back.

Synergy Health Programs 
Studies show that 2020 has negatively affected the mental health of millions of Americans. That is why at Retreat, we work to provide comprehensive mental health programming through our Synergy Health Programs. To learn more about Synergy and the comprehensive mental and behavioral health services we offer, call us today at 855-802-6600.

Steve Martorano 
Okay, so we're back here on the Behavioral Corner, we're talking about bullying and anti-bullying measures, you know, the cliche, Leah, about it takes a village to raise a child. I know in the program that you guys use the Olweus program, they make a very significant point in saying, this is not about peer group mediation, this cannot be settled in the schoolyard among the kids, this is all hands on deck. Tell us about when that program is employed, who the stakeholders are and how you approach them to fight to bully.

Leah Galkowski 
It's actually everyone. Everyone's a stakeholder. So the program works when everybody is on the same page. That's actually the case in any evidence-based program is everybody has to be involved. It can't just be done in one classroom, or even in one grade. These are programs including all the bullying prevention programs, that our school-wide approaches. And even better when you can bring in a community youth organization where the kids go after school. So spreading that message, talking the same language across the school, and then outside its borders, where the kids go make the program more effective. So when you focus on the whole school environment, and typically what happens is a committee is developed within the building or within the school to talk about the implementation of the program. So they're trained, they understand the language, they develop policies and procedures based around those elements that make it effective, and work together to implement the program. It's not somebody coming outside and handing you a book and saying this is what you do. It's developing that program and the practices from the ground up, you know, what works for everybody, and making sure that everybody is trained and understands all of those elements that we've just talked about in bullying behavior, you know, what's the definition? What are the components that you know, make the most impact? Why is it important? Why should we do something about this, all of those elements go into building an effective program.

Steve Martorano 
It's so deeply -- it's so well thought now. As I said, this is this program is decades old now -- it's successful all over the world. One of the things that struck me immediately when reading about it was right away say, look, this cannot be peer-mediated. I think educators and parents took a lot of comfort in the notion of, well, this is the kid solving their own problems. And it's one to one and you know, and Olweus says, no, it doesn't work in bullying, why doesn't it work?

Leah Galkowski 
It's all based on that power imbalance. If we're putting a peer in the position of trying to impact that power imbalance, they're on that same level, they're not going to be able to impact that power imbalance. It takes an adult, it takes an adult intervening and saying that this is not okay, we're not going to accept this behavior, and there are consequences.

Steve Martorano 
Someone is wrong here. And we're here to identify who that is, and then deal with the behavior. You know, it's interesting, it takes a long time to, to realize something so very obvious.

Leah Galkowski 
Yeah. And people want to stay away from the word "bullying." Okay, so it's, you know, we can address that we do want to stay away from it. But that's not the case, you have to identify that, that behavior, so knocking their books out of their hands, or saying calling them a mean name, that's bullying. Those behaviors are bullying, and it's not okay and it's not acceptable. It's also clearly identifying to students that, that behavior equals bullying. And it's not okay. I can't just say that you know, bullying, we can't we don't allow bullying. Well, what does bullying look like? Going over those definitions? Understanding that that behavior is bullying, and it's not okay.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. Are there situations where people complain about teachers exhibiting bullying behavior?

Leah Galkowski 
Absolutely. And it happens all the time. Teachers just need to take some self-reflection time. That's actually one of the components that it's very effective in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is there's a moment when we sit back and we look at teacher behavior. Some of us as adults use sarcasm, daily. Sarcasm doesn't work, especially with elementary-age students. They don't understand it. It's not in their brain development capacity to understand. So, it's not something that you can use in elementary school. So, very well-meaning educators, you know, have to take a look, this is going to change my own behavior.

Steve Martorano 
The tools available for someone to bully are varied and not always obvious. We think of bullying as a physical activity you mentioned knocking books down and threatening violence. But language is a huge bludgeon to terrorize people. And adults are very good at doing that as well. Now, by the way, before we move on to the Olweus, which is a program that you guys advocate and use, this is a program that school districts pay for, correct?

Leah Galkowski 
That's correct. I'm a trainer in the old days bullying prevention program. I'm also various technical assistance consultants, which really just means that I mentor new trainers through the certification process. I just help them get started in the program and train their own schools or other organizations until they reach a level of certification.

Steve Martorano 
And in your experience, what have school districts done, they've added to their budget or as they had to have fundraisers? It's not It's not an inexpensive program. But certainly, it's, it's absolutely worth it if you can demonstrate some results. And they have. So how do they typically fund these things?

Leah Galkowski 
Well, a lot of times, then, especially in Pennsylvania, there are grant opportunities. Olweus is not super cheap to implement. But it's not one of the most expensive programs. So I would say it's in the, you know, in the middle range. But it is one of those programs that it's really just startup costs to implement. And then over time, it's much more sustainable financially. It's the initial training and getting the teachers trained and doing the initial serving, getting the initial materials that are you know where your costs are.

Steve Martorano 
And after that process, what hope has happened is that the culture and attitude, and awareness of bullying are now part of the overall environment of the school. By the way, for those who want more information about Olweus spell it is for me. O - L... 

Leah Galkowski 
O-L-W-E-U-S. Dr. Olweus was Swedish. So that "W" for us in the English language is a "V." But he developed his program in Norway after he did his research.

Steve Martorano 
I can tell you from the brief stuff I've read about it, it's remarkable and they claim they have numbers, they can show dramatic improvement in the environment in schools, not only bullying but the whole environment of safety. So they've been around for a while. So it's very impressive. In a final couple of minutes. We have to talk about the return to school now it's been it was a year when lots of kids were being taught virtually what was the impact on bullying in that context? I mean, there wasn't any physical contact with bullying go away?

Leah Galkowski 
No, it didn't. And unfortunately, what we're seeing is that the kids who are returning to school are picking right up where they left off. So while we probably and I don't have the data at this point, because it's not all in, we'll see an uptick in cyberbullying over the 2020 - 2021 school year, what I'm afraid we're going to see is a significant uptick in physical and direct bullying in the 2021 - 22 school year, because kids are back in person. Some of the calls that we receive and some of the information that we receive are that things didn't really change in the school environment, and things are going right back to where they left off.

Steve Martorano 
And further on the idea of virtual connection, the whole social media environment that young people are now born into, has had a significant impact on this kind of behavior hasn't it?

Leah Galkowski 
Yeah, and but what we know from the research is that cyberbullying or electronic bullying is not the biggest chunk of bullying behavior. It is direct in-person bullying, which is the much more significant percentage of bullying incidents.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. And finally, we, you know, also had the opportunity to see the testimony about Facebook's lack of responsibility, according to the whistleblower, with regard to the effect that their platform and others are having on young people. I wonder if you have a comment about her particularly sharp criticism and the internal documents of Facebook themselves on what Instagram's impact was on particularly young women. It's a form of bullying when you bombard somebody with images of beauty that are unattainable? Is that a fair way to look at it?

Leah Galkowski 
Yeah, I think so I don't have a whole lot of information. What I can't tell you is that Facebook has been responsive, when they're notified when they're given specific information. Children are reluctant to report that information because they're afraid that they will lose their electronic communication. So they don't report it. They don't want to bring it to their loved adult's attention, because they're afraid that that person is going to take away their phone or take away their computer if they find out that negative behavior is happening. However, when the information is brought to the attention of the right person, the Facebook post comes down or the Instagram account comes down. (I) actually had it a circumstance in that was reported to us that I reported and the posts came down. So you know, sometimes we, you know, we want to say that these things are awful. And they do happen. And I totally believe that they do happen that, you know, the images that are posted out there are not what is every day, what is real, what is legitimate. But when we take the proper steps, and I think that's the important thing, we have to take that extra step, we as the adult have to go that next line of communication is that next step on the hierarchy and do the reporting. Take the post down. Make sure that it's reported to the right people, law enforcement, if necessary, the attorney general's office if necessary.

Steve Martorano 
Well, that's certainly the message of bullying prevention month is that it's not just going to go away. People have to, first of all, identify it, and then call it what it is and do something about it. That's certainly what our guests Leah Galkowski have been here doing for 20 over 20 years now at the Center for Safe Schools. She's a coordinator there, we thank you for your time. We if people want more information about your group, and they can just go to your website what's the address with that or phone numbers? as well.

Leah Galkowski 
It's safe schools dot info. Safeschools.info And my phone number -- I'm happy to give you my direct line. It's 717-763-1661. Extension. 152.

Steve Martorano 
Leah, thanks so much for joining us. We will have that information on the Behavioral Corner website. You're such a great resource. You have so many other topics. I hope we can do this again sometime real soon. 

Leah Galkowski 
Absolutely. 

Steve Martorano 
Hey, everybody. Thanks so much. Thanks, Leah. Don't forget you know how the deal works -- you follow us on all those places. And like us in the other places as well Facebook and all the rest. And look for us next time here on the Behavioral Corner. I have a good day. Bye.

The Behavioral Corner 
That's it for now. And make us a habit of hanging out at the Behavioral Corner and when we're not hanging follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on the Behavioral Corner.