No one wants to be picked on. No one wants to feel excluded and feel like an outsider. Bullying isn’t the only problem in schools. Many bystanders watch without taking charge or standing up for the victim.
The bystander effect refers to situations where individuals do not help a victim if there are a group of people around. One would say they are too afraid to stand out from the others that also do not respond to an act of bullying.
“I think it’s because people don’t want to make themselves feel alienated by others around them. People are afraid they may lose friends or be alienated by people because they used their voice. Everyone wants to feel accepted and feel like they belong,” psychology teacher Sara Ibs said.
Minnesota has placed a bill to prevent students from “being tormented by classmates”. Governor Mark Dayton, creator of a bullying-prevention law, believes that this bill will educate students that bullying is a large problem that must be handled in the hands of a teacher who can than report it to their administrator. Then they are able to give students an engine to speak out to what’s wrong and encourage what’s right and mature.
“Asking for an adult to help can potentially keep you [as the victim] anonymous and may be the socially safer route to take,” Orono’s social worker Jane Leeper said.