Anti-bullying videos: More and more reassure gay youth that ‘It Gets Better’

Kids (and sometimes their parents) may think they are the only ones being singled out by school bullies, but of course they’re not.

About half of all children will be bullied at some time during their school years, and about 10% will be bullied regularly, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says.

Recently, Yale students added their voices to the It Gets Better Project with 200 drama and theater students volunteering to tell in a YouTube video their personal stories of being bullied when they were younger, a Hartford Court story reports.

The idea of making videos is to reassure gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students — or anyone being bullied — who might consider suicide as an answer that “it gets better.” Thousands of people, including President Obama and celebrities, have responded by making videos that have appeared on the project’s YouTube channel since September.

So what exactly constitutes bullying? The youth resource website BullyingInfo.org points to these types of behaviors:

• “An attack or intimidation with the intention to cause fear, distress, or harm that is either physical (e.g., hitting, punching), verbal (e.g., name-calling, teasing) or psychological/relational (e.g., rumors, social exclusion);
• A real or perceived imbalance of power between the bully and victim; and
• Repeated attacks or intimidation between the same children over time.”