Harassment and bullying means the creation of a hostile environment by conduct or by threats, intimidation, or abuse, including cyberbullying, that 
has or would have the effect of unreasonably and substantially interfering with a student’s educational 
performance, opportunities or benefits, or mental, emotional, or physical well-being; or reasonably 
causes or would reasonably be expected to cause a student to fear for his or her physical safety; or reasonably causes or would reasonably be expected to cause physical injury or emotional harm to a 
student; or occurs off school property and creates or would foreseeably create a risk of substantial disruption within the school environment, where it is foreseeable that the conduct, threats, 
intimidation or abuse might reach school property. Acts of harassment and bullying shall include, but not be limited to, those acts based on a person’s actual or perceived race, color, weight, national 
origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender or sex. For the purposes of this definition the term “threats, intimidation or abuse” shall include verbal and non-
verbal actions. (Education Law §11[7]). 

• Dignity Act-Related Term Definition (pg. 54). Bullying has been described by the U.S. Department of 
Education as unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The 
behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. According to the U.S. Department 
of Education, bullying generally involves the following characteristics: 
o An Imbalance of Power: Individuals who bully use their power, such as physical strength, access to 
embarrassing information, or popularity to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change 
over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people. 
o Intent to Cause Harm: The person bullying has a goal to cause harm. Bullying is not accidental. 
o Repetition: Bullying behaviors generally happen more than once or have the potential to happen 
more than once. 
Examples of bullying include, but are not limited to: 
o Verbal: Name-calling, teasing, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting and threatening to cause 
harm. 
o Social: Spreading rumors about someone, excluding others on purpose, telling other children not 
to be friends with someone, and embarrassing someone in public. 
o Physical: Hitting, punching, shoving, kicking, pinching, spitting, tripping, pushing, taking or breaking 
someone’s things and making mean or rude hand gestures. 
For more information see: www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/index.html
Definition of bullying offered by the Queering Education Research Institute
Bullying is overt verbal, physical, or technology-based aggression that is persistently focused on targeted 
person(s) over time and typically replicates structural inequalities based on race, gender, nationality, language, 
sexual orientation, social class, religion, ethnicity, and (dis)ability by policing the boundaries between “normal” 
and “different” in a specific social context. Individuals who are targeted are likely “bullied” or marginalized by 
multiple students for their perceived difference (Payne & Smith, 2013).