One day every month, thousands of people across the globe wear pink shirts with the words “Stood Up” across the front. This is no coincidence: students, school teachers and advocates all over the world are supporting International STAND UP to Bullying Day, which takes place on the last Friday of each month. It is a day devoted to recognizing bullying and supporting victims. The next STAND UP day is Friday, Oct. 25.

The stand

The idea for the campaign started in March 2007, with the first official STAND UP day occurring in February 2008. International STAND UP to Bullying Day was based on an occurrence at Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia, Canada, when seniors Travis Price and David Shepherd stood up for a freshman when he was being teased about wearing a pink shirt. Bobby Cooper, executive director of the Bully Help Initiatives , decided to use this story as inspiration to create an entire international movement. Since then, participants commemorate the day by wearing a pink shirt and signing their name on the back of it to show their commitment to the cause.

“My theory when I started this campaign was that an overwhelming majority of the population believes that bullying is wrong, and (they) will help victims to their full potential if they are called upon to do so,” Cooper wrote in an email. The event became so popular among schools that it changed from an annual day to one that takes place monthly. Currently, the movement spans four continents, 25 countries and more than 1 million people.

Schools, organizations or individuals can take the pledge on STAND UP’s website, order the special pink shirts with “Stood Up” written on the front, and commit to live by the organization’s principles.

“Not only does this show victims that they can turn to one of these people for help,” Cooper wrote, “but it also shows bullies that their ways are not necessarily so accepted, without getting directly in their faces and confronting them. 

Large-scale anti-bullying effects?

So how well do these large-scale campaigns work? Do they really make a difference in mitigating bullying worldwide? The answer is not straightforward, according to local professors and professionals who offered their opinions on the subject.

“I think … that a large campaign is great as a kickoff event, but if the goal is truly to reduce bullying, it needs to be an everyday effort,” said Michelle Jett, a statewide organizer of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, a group focusing on anti-bullying for LGBTQ students. “It has to be a whole, full systemic change in the approach of how everyone is treated and how they treat each other — and that requires day-to-day effort and monitoring.”

Karen Rudolph, psychology professor at the University, believes that while adults can help in establishing the anti-bullying rules, sometimes it is truly up to the students themselves to enact them.

“More and more researchers are thinking, ‘Well, we actually really need to not just tell kids to stop bullying, but we need to teach them pro-social skills as well,’” she said. “So I think what some of the programs that are being tested now are doing is … (teaching) kids that bullying is bad, and you should stand up against it, but also that you should have the skills to be able to (stand up against it).”

Either way, it may be that the most effective anti-bullying campaigns, programs or research are multifaceted. They must engage not only the adults in charge (school teachers, administrators and staff), but also the students themselves — bullying victims, bystanders and the bullies themselves. This way, there will be a higher likelihood of creating lasting positive change.

Not just for kids

According to Cooper, “People are bullied at all ages, in all sorts of environments.”

While research studies about bullying tend to focus on children or adolescents, the subject isn’t only limited to kids. International STAND UP to Bullying Day is open to all participants, regardless of their age.

“Once you get into middle and high school, children know what to use as the weapon for bullying, so they’re very informed on what racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, all of those things look like,” Jett said. “When you’re an adult, it’s not called bullying — it’s called being racist or being sexist or something along those lines.”

As children grow, the type of bullying can vary significantly, said Jun Sung Hong, University alumnus and assistant professor of social work at Michigan’s Wayne State University.

“The peer dynamics among young adults is quite different … from younger kids,” Hong said. “There may be college students who are bullied or bully other students, but also there tends to be a lack of monitoring as opposed to in schools where teachers … are supposed to monitor peer conflicts.”

There are fewer studies and programs that highlight college-aged or young adult bullying, although the issue can still be relevant, Rudolph said.

“At least in (grade) school, you have a captive audience and you can teach the group of kids,” Rudolph said. “At a college level, obviously people are dispersed a lot more … so I think (anti-bullying campaigns) would have to be more creative (when targeting college students). But certainly raising campus awareness and trying to teach people skills for dealing with it should certainly apply at the college level. 

The bottom line

Overall, International STAND UP to Bullying Day, other anti-bullying campaigns, and ongoing research studies aim to mitigate bullying in society. Tomorrow’s movement will strive to propel this ideological change and quell these harmful social practices on a large scale.

“Having an international campaign can be a major advantage,” Hong said. “Stakeholders or researchers, as well as teachers and school officials from all over the world could get together to share ideas, learn from each other, and also share what works and what doesn’t.”

Reema can be reached at [email protected].