Bullying and Students with Disabilities: The Untold Narrative

Abstract

The documentary Bully was released nationwide in theaters in March 2012. Originally titled The Bully Project, the filmmakers followed five families whose lives had been turned upside down by bullying. Two of the families in the movie lost their sons, Tyler and Ty, to suicide, and three of the youth in the movie,Alex, Kelby, and Ja'Meya, were bullied in school and on the school bus. The movie shows the devastating consequences of bullying and the depressingly poor response on the part of adults. What the movie does not address is the mental health history of one of the boys, who commits suicide, as well as the developmental disabilities affecting another boy in the movie, who was born prematurely (Bazelon, 2012). Understandably, this is a difficult narrative. The filmmakers did not want to delve into the complexity of mental health issues and bullying for fear of creating a story line that those who are bullied are obvious victims. However, by not addressing the issues of ADHD, bipolar disorder, Asperger syndrome, and developmental disabilities, an important narrative was missed. Bullying is a complex phenomenon, and both mental health and physical health difficulties play into involvement in bullying. While there is no narrative that those who are bullied somehow deserve such egregious treatment, we shirk our professional responsibilities if we do not shed light on the compelling evidence that youth with disabilities are at great risk for involvement in bullying-both for bullying others and for being bullied (AbilityPath.org, 2011; Rose, Monda-Amaya, & Espelage, 2011). The purpose of this article is to review the research on bullying and students with disabilities and to propose an inclusive narrative: when differences are celebrated rather than used as fuel for maltreatment, a world will be created where bullying is not tolerated. This will be a better world for everyone.