Stryker Police Chief Steve Schlosser gave people at Quadco some pointers on how best to respond when they feel they are being bullied.
In the presentation he made at Quadco’s Stryker building on April 10, he urged the people in attendance to make sure they told their supervisor or someone they trusted if they ever felt they were being bullied.
“I imagine that everyone here has felt bullied at one time or another,” Chief Schlosser told the crowd.
“If it’s happening to you, make sure you tell someone, and if you don’t get a response that satisfies you, tell someone higher in charge,” he told the group.
[emember_protected custom_msg=”Full content protected for online subscribers. Purchase a one week subscription from the top menu bar for just $1.99 to read all online content (full access). Longer subscription plans are also available. Subscriptions cover our costs to attend local events; bringing forth Hometown News Coverage to our communities.”]
The chief said often people who bully do it because they have low self-esteem. The act of bullying others makes them feel better.
He said the best response when sometime tries to bully a person, is to walk away and show no reaction. He said an immediate response is what a bully is looking to achieve.
“If you walk away, you’ve won,” the chief told the group, because the bully didn’t get the reaction they wanted.
After that, the chief said, the bullying should be reported so the proper action can be taken.
Chief Schlosser said there are several types of people who tend to bully others.
He said there are people who are self-centered and always want to be in control. They tend to have no empathy or feelings for other people, only caring about themselves.
The chief said there is an impulsive person who bullies. They may key in on something another person is doing wrong and make a big deal out of it.
There are physical bullies, he continued. They tend to be bigger than other people and want to be physically intimidating to others.
There are also verbal bullies who use words to demean other people, intentionally trying to hurt others.
He said there are also secondary bullies. He said they are people who jump in when another person is bullying a person and joins with the bullying along with them.
The chief said there are times police get involved when bullying reaches an extent that it breaks a law under the Ohio Revised Code.
One the areas many people are watching these days is when bullying is done on social media sites or by cell phones. Police can get involved in these cases when the actions violate telecommunication laws.
The police chief told the group that charges can also be filed if threats are made to cause physical harm or if a person is stalking someone else.
[/emember_protected]