source : Gillian Karatinos, MD, M.S. • Psychiatry
Harassment is an illegal behaviour towards a person that causes mental or emotional suffering, which includes repeated unwanted contacts without a reasonable purpose, insults, threats, touching or offensive language.
Harassment can affect everybody : children, younger people, adults, older people, women, men. And it’s possible everywhere, on the street, in a family context, in at school, in at work, at a sportsclub …
But the most affected are children or younger people because school is very complicated and children aren’t kind to each other. It can start because a child or a young person isn’t the same as the others, or doesn’t have a lot money, or because the clothes he/she wears aren’t fashionable or brand new …
Harassing can take many forms such as physical and moral bullying, cyberbullying, social bullying or sexual bullying, intimidation, assault, ridicule, offensive jokes, offensive pictures… The harasser can be your boss, a supervisor in another department, a co-worker, or even a non-employee.
Actually, harassment is a current subject because now on the networks the video of an Australian little boy travels worldwide. This little boy is affected by a disease : dwarfism. This little Australian cries and expresses a desire to kill himself because this classmates make fun of him.
His mother shows this video on the networks to show the wickedness of children, and demonstrates what young people who are harassed can do. She wants to raise awareness about harassment.
This video has circulated around the world, and many celebrities have sent an emotional message to this boy. For example, the actor of X-Men has sent a message or the Indigenous All Stars rugby league team have sent a emotional video and invite the little boy and his family to come to a rugby game.
But the harassment is punished by the law. Laws regarding workplace harassment are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the Equality Act for the harassment out of the workplace.
Behaviours that are not considered as harassment are those that arise from a relationship of mutual consent. A hug between friends, mutual flirtation, and a compliment on physical appearance between colleagues are not considered as harassment.Harassment is very dangerous for the victim because it can lead to depression, detachment, fear, or suicide. One must be careful.
Finally, harassment is very dangerous, it is punishable by law, however, the victim can sometimes keep the persecution to themselves whether it is at school, at work or at home, I think that more prevention should be done in schools, and at work in order to be able to identify certain signs. More prevention campaigns are needed, because there are more and more suicides among young people.
Jeane NICOLAS
Links :
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51582696
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/fr/dictionnaire/anglais/harassment
https://www.thewrap.com/quaden-bayles-bullying-video-celebrities-respond/
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