Bullying is often associated with high school, middle school and elementary school. In these places, bullying is a big issue that is addressed heavily. Beyond high school, bullying is not regarded as very relevant.

However, recently in the news, bullying showed its face in a different setting. The recent situation with Richie Incognito, a Miami Dolphins NFL football player, demonstrated that bullying occurs in all types of settings and among all sorts of age groups.

Incognito was recently suspended from the team for bullying a fellow teammate to such an extent that the fellow teammate, Jonathan Martin, left the team. Incognito’s reputation for bullying carries all the way back to 2002. Since then, there have been many separate reports of incidents where Incognito behaved like a bully. Incognito’s bullying actions include harassment, starting fights, and targeted physical violence. Incognito proves that bullying takes place among athletes but bullying doesn’t only extend there.

Kelcey Oemig, a student at Madison College, was a victim of bullying herself on campus. She is a member of the Volunteer Center board.

“With our volunteer center board, we put pictures of each of the members on the back bulletin board,” Oemig said. “There were three or four instances where there were comments and pictures that were tacked below my picture.”

The person responsible for the act was not caught. Oemig also said the whole situation made her feel uncomfortable.

“When I come here, I commute from Lake Mills area. It takes 45 minutes to get here. I don’t come here to mess around; I come to work on the Volunteer Center,” Oemig said. “To have that type of stuff happen just doesn’t make it worth it sometimes. It’s very demeaning.”

Initially Oemig chose to ignore these disrespectful comments but as they continued, she felt the need to confide in her supervisors. One of Oemig’s supervisors promised everyone in the office there would be serious consequences for whoever was responsible.

After that, the comments stopped. Oemig said she thought she could have handled the situation better.

“I wish I would have taken charge and done something,” Oemig said. “I just kind of hid from it.”

That is a common reaction by those who feel bullied. However, that may have been all she could have done. John Boyne, a counselor at Madison College, said Oemig dealt with her bullying situation in a decent manner. Seeking the help of an instructor or an advisor is often an effective way to deal with bullying.

“If someone is experiencing bullying or witnessed it, reporting it to security and eventually counseling would be the best way forward. If someone is feeling bullied or harassed, they should talk directly to their instructor or go directly to counseling and say this is my experience,” Boyne said. “Then we would check it out and there are several options. We would coach the student; teach them how to advocate for themself. If it doesn’t stop, they should come back.”

Boyne also said investigating what might be causing the bully to harass others is an important step in resolving this type of conflict.

Bullying is explicitly prohibited in the student code of conduct and in many cases, punishments will be placed upon the bully. That being said, Boyne said that working with the bully is the more favorable approach.

“The idea here is that we want them to learn from their behavior,” Boyne said.

Boyne added there may be something going on in the bully’s life and addressing that can help get to the bottom of bullying incidents.

In the bullying case of Incognito, it came to light that Incognito was bullied for being overweight as a child. This type of information can help explain why Incognito may behave in such a monstrous manner.

Upon taking closer looks into adult settings, one can discover that bullies are lurking everywhere. Boyne suggested if more bystanders were willing to intervene and speak out against bullies when witnessing bullying then there would be a stronger support system for victims.

“There is an idea called bystander training. One thing that is known about a lot of inappropriate behavior is that there are often multiple people watching but they don’t do anything about it,” Boyne said. “So one strategy would be to change the culture around this, promoting a cultural norm to intervene. If you see something bad, you speak up.”