Julie Koivisto-Interview

In order to gain another perspective on the topic of bullying, I interviewed one of my mentors on the subject. Edye Levin, a soon to be graduate of the Master’s Program of Higher Education in Student Affairs, shared her thoughts about bullying with me. When I introduced the topic to Edye, I could tell that she had a passion for this subject. She was very excited to answer my questions about her view on bullying.

                                       Edye Levin-HESA Grad Student at Salem State University

I first asked Edye if she thinks that bullying is an important problem in our society today. Edye responded by agreeing with it being a problem, and also said that those who are affected by this problem tend to grow up self-conscious and worried about who they are developing into. I then asked Edye her thoughts on whether the community thinks of bullying as an important issue. She responded by saying, “Yes, but what do they do to change it, and what can you do? There are movies that you can show to talk about bullying, but do these movies really get students thinking about the effects of bulling on a student? I think more can be done to help prevent this problem.”  I asked Edye a third and final question, asking if she knew of any policies set by the government that deal with bullying. Edye was hesitant to answer this question, she was unsure if there were any set laws that talk about bullying in schools. I proceeded to tell Edye about how it is a mandated law in Massachusetts to teach bullying prevention in schools, as well as for teachers to report any activity that occurs in any type school that follows the detailed description of what bullying is.

After this interview, I have come to realize that bullying is definitely a hot topic to talk about. There is awareness of what bullying is, but the approach is something that is not taken seriously. Due to the fact that Edye wasn’t aware of any policy regarding bullying shows that this law is not expressed enough. If it was publicized more, different prevention methods of bullying could be formed because more people would be aware of this issue.  All in all, I feel as if bullying is a topic that is known, and even though there are organizations in our society that are created to prevent bullying, not enough people are proactive when it comes to empowering students to prevent bullying in their classroom.