You hear in the news and other media that bullying and its variations are a major issue today in schools across the nation. The various forms (cyber, physical, and “covert” bullying) all sound rather serious except for the word “bullying”. The word appears to have stuck with us since elementary school playgrounds. Now we use it to describe any form of intimidation.

When I think of the term “bullying,” I imagine a bunch of six-year-olds being picked on by a large eight-year-old kid on the playground. A childish image, if you ask me – an innocent label on something that is much more serious than the name given to it.

One must admit that it sounds rather odd to hear a middle-aged man say the word “bullying,” especially when it invades an National Football League locker room the way it did with the Miami Dolphins in November.

Take the word and strip it down to what it represents; it is basically repeated aggressive behavior to intimidate or scare another individual.

Now take the word ‘harassment’. They both have a similar definition with the difference being that one is in the workplace (NFL, for example) and one is for the playground. Either way, it is the same thing no matter what label you try to give it.

Today, people try to make bullying a crime because it has become such a problem in schools. Students have committed suicide because of it; when I see a headline reading: “14-year-old bullied to suicide,” the impact of a tragic story is trivialized with a childish term.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens and young adults, according to National Alliance on Mental Illness.

At this point in high school -when we are all about to legally become adults, is it really appropriate to use this term? Why keep the childish term? If you break it down it is essentially harassment with a more innocent label on it.