My last class period has a student that most seem to target. He is a likable young man. Well-mannered, thoughtful, and polite. He just tries too hard to fit in with his classmates.

In return, they steal and hide his things, accuse him of any bodily noises or smells that appear in the classroom, and make disgruntled noises and loud complaints if he has to sit near them. As someone who was bullied, I take offense easily. I know I do, but how do you stop the targeting?

He has spoken to me several times. I know that he is just trying to find where he fits in and into which group he belongs, but due to the fact that many of them travel in the same group all day, there aren’t many opportunities to find the perfect friend. I know that by the time they get to high school, much of that will change. The high school is a combination of 2 middle schools (ours being much smaller), and many middle school friends will fall by the wayside as new friendships are forged.

Until then, it is constant punishments for those involved (which are many), and he usually lies and states that they didn’t do it, so they get away with it. While it is great to have a strict bullying policy, we often don’t equip our students with the safety to stand up and report the acts. They are fearful, and in this state, they will not “snitch.” In the above case, he doesn’t want to destroy any chance of making friends, even if it would be a toxic friendship. I don’t see him as capable of doing the same thing to others.

As a teacher, have you seen this happen in your classroom or school?

The post Challenges in the Classroom: Targeting appeared first on Teaching ELA in the Middle.