Words used in American schools to speak about bullying ?

I wonder if there is a sort of slang in the US schools to speak about bullying, words invented by the kids to describe the phenomenon.

I already know that they use "food chain", but are there other words and sayings ?

I found the following definitions of the word "jocker":

• -"old-fashioned prison slang for a dominant male homosexual top, especially in his relationship with a submissive bottom, aka punk."
  
  
• -"a person who copies something exactly from another"
  -"someone who always wants to do what you do, a follower who tries to make your things their own".
  -"Someone who copies someone because they like your style!"
  -"jocking": "the mimicking of your behavior and emulating of your personality in the hopes of gaining your favor, attention, or affections."
  

How do these two meanings relate? Are they both in use in high schools ?

Here are the few definitions I could already make:

tease: torture untill the victim commits suicide
weirdo: individual
food chain: emerging hierarchy when adults fail to assume authority and justice
bully: tormentor
nerd: gifted student
brain: gifted student (pejorative)
in-crowd: minority potentially bullied by the average majority but preventively bullying the outcasts; vanguard of the average majority bullying the outcasts
outcasts: minority actually intimidated by the in-crowd but unable to take action against their bullies
jock: athlete lost in an academic environment
school shooting: act of revenge of an outcast pushed to suicide

Saint George wrote:

I found the following definitions of the word "jocker":

• -"old-fashioned prison slang for a dominant male homosexual top, especially in his relationship with a submissive bottom, aka punk."
  
  
• -"a person who copies something exactly from another"
  -"someone who always wants to do what you do, a follower who tries to make your things their own".
  -"Someone who copies someone because they like your style!"
  -"jocking": "the mimicking of your behavior and emulating of your personality in the hopes of gaining your favor, attention, or affections."
  

How do these two meanings relate? Are they both in use in high schools ?

Here are the few definitions I could already make:

tease : torture untill the victim commits suicide
weirdo : individual
food chain : hierarchy emerging when adults fail to assume authority
bullie : tormentor
nerd : gifted student
brain : gifted student
faggot : gifted student and any student from the point of view of an athlete
jock : athlete lost in an academic environment
school shooting : act of revenge of a student pushed to suicide

'Nerd' and 'faggot' have so many different meanings.

1.
The way I remember the term 'faggot' used in the 90s as an insult (other than the obvious homosexual reference) was not so much to mean a 'gifted/smart' person, but rather someone who participates in hobbies/activities that the insulting person finds uncool.

So you could get called a 'faggot' for being on the debate team, for collecting baseball cards, collecting stamps, being on the choir, on a science team, being in a theatre group etc.


2. Nerd changed its meaning.
Today it can mean someone who is very enthusiastic and knowledgable on a given subject - John is a civil war nerd, he knows all the battles and all the generals"
Back in the 90s you would not use that term in that meaning. You would instead say something like: "John is a civil war buff, he knows all the battles and all the generals"

So what did 'nerd' mean in the 90s? It referred primarily to someone who was great at math/physics/computers/IT, but had no social skills. The proverbial 'Dexter from Dexter's laboratory' kind of guy. It was certainly a more negative word then it is today. A 90s 'nerd' was pretty much 'a dork, but with math/science/computer skills'.

I feel like only in the 2000s did the word 'nerd' expand more into also meaning someone who knows a lot about scifi and fantasy. Later it expanded even more to just "someone who knows a lot about any given subject/hobby". It pretty much just replaced the 1990s word 'buff'.



By the way.... 'dork' - that's a word I have not heard in a looong time. I'm getting old.


... No I'm not.
I already am old.


Addendum:
- I mention the 1990s, as I was around back then and this is a columbine forum. So if one was to analyze the words used by for example kids in the Larkin interviews, I felt like giving the historical context would make sense.

Thank you Sabratha for your interesting comments. Do you know if there are any slang words specifically regarding harassment?

Saint George wrote:

Thank you Sabratha for your interesting comments. Do you know if there are any slang words specifically regarding harassment?

General ones? I recall things like: "Being pushed around" or "being treated like trash/dirt/shit", "hazing", "being teased" (that last on somewhat archaic already in the 80s and 90s).


In contrast is the term "mobbing"... I do not recall that term being used back in the day. I think it gained popularity only in the 2000s and I recall seeing it initially only in reference to office/workplace situations.

I am more aware of various slang terms for specific types of harassment both polish and english. Like "wedgies" or "Wodnik szuwarek" (literally: something like reed-coast-water-faerie) which refers to someone's head being stuck in the toilet and then flushed.

Keep in mind Polish is my 1st language, English is my 2nd. But I was already active online in the late 90s and early 2000s and was very fluent and very familiar with English as spoken by Americans my age (age-wise, I would have been roughly a freshman at the time of Columbine).

About that double meaning of "jocker" that I found:

Quote :

-"old-fashioned prison slang for a dominant male homosexual top, especially in his relationship with a submissive bottom, aka punk."

-"a person who copies something exactly from another"
-"someone who always wants to do what you do, a follower who tries to make your things their own".
-"Someone who copies someone because they like your style!"
-"jocking": "the mimicking of your behavior and emulating of your personality in the hopes of gaining your favor, attention, or affections."

It tends to support the idea of the "in-crowd" as the vanguard of the mass of average students.

How to understand that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers ?

Ralph Larkin noted that:

• "the predators perceived themselves as defending the moral order of the school. They perceived themselves as acting with the will of the majority of the students. The mere presence of the outcast students was judged to be a blot on the pristine nature of Columbine High School, which gave them the right to harass and humiliate them" (Comprehending Columbine)
  

Could it be possible that the "predators" actually acted "with the will of the majority of the students", not because they defended moral order, but because they harassed the outcasts? That is to say, because they identified a limited category of victims that perfectly suited the comfort of the "majority of the students"? The "predators" didn't miss their target, they always hit the absolute bottom of the "food chain", they never messed with the majority... and more, they realized the will of the majority?

Larkin understood that "The mere presence of the outcast students was judged to be a blot on the pristine nature of Columbine High School, which gave them the right to harass and humiliate them", but maybe it was not a "right to", but a duty, a mission to harass and humiliate them, and because they (the "predators") were under the threat of being themselves harassed and humiliated as a tiny minority by the vast majority of average and distressed conformists ?

We forget that the "in-crowd" is just another minority facing the vast "majority of the students", and that all minorities are at risk of being the victims of the majority. When the Soviet and the French revolutions happened, the majority targeted the "in-crowd" of their times, the beautiful minority that everybody admired suddenly became the target of the majority's hatred and violence (a revolution happening when the outcasts target the in-crowd in the name of the majority). Alexis de Tocqueville identified in his famous Democracy in America the possibility of what he called "democratic despotism": the persecution of a minority by the majority. The "in-crowed" is always at risk to become the target of the "majority", and its interest well understood is to offer a substitute to the majority, to preventively offer a victim: the outcasts. When harassing the outcasts, the jocks save their heads... because if there were no "outcasts", the only remaining minority to persecute would be the one of the "in-crowd"... and because the "champions" are always on the verge to fall at the rank of "meat heads".

So "They perceived themselves as acting with the will of the majority of the students" could be true, if they were the priests of the school community, performing sacrifice on behalf of the majority.

And they didn't have to theorize, they could understand everything from the guts... like a deer hunted by a pack of hounds is perfectly able to find a "substitute", to put the pack on the tracks of another deer...

They are many cases of societies putting an end to this kind of sacrificial practice when the "in-crowd" having consumed all the "outcasts" begins to look for victims inside the "majority". Then, the consensus ends, the stressed "majority" turns against the "in-crowd", brutally that is to say, because the "in-crowd" couldn't understand they went too far, being drunk on violence and unable to stop by themselves.

I wrote: "The "predators" didn't miss their target, they always hit the absolute bottom of the "food chain", they never messed with the majority... and more, they realized the will of the majority?"

But I have to make a correction, because of:

• "In spring of 1998, Coach Lowry called a meeting of the football team. He said he had received a letter from the district - they weren't bringing enough people to the games to use the larger Jeffco stadium - so they were going to have to use Trail Blazer stadium. Coach Lowry stated that he wanted all team members to treat everyone with respect in order to increase attendance. It was reported that several students had gone to Lowry questioning why they should attend the games when members of the football team were harassing students."
  

Which means that the jocks went too far, and began to be a minority rejected by the majority. The majority agrees with the harassment of the outcast, but when the jocks begins to aim at the majority, it becomes a different story.

It went too far not only because:

• "the predators perceived themselves as defending the moral order of the school. They perceived themselves as acting with the will of the majority of the students. The mere presence of the outcast students was judged to be a blot on the pristine nature of Columbine High School, which gave them the right to harass and humiliate them"
  

But also because DeAngelis granted immunity to the jocks, which amounts to encouraging them to harass victims, and what they did to an extent that was not longer bearable even by the majority.

Two of the outcasts took revenge on the majority, but the school was slowly evolving towards an ostracization of the jocks by the majority.

Saint George wrote:

How to understand that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers ?

You are tying to dig too deep.

The old-style term 'jocker' comes from the word 'jockey'. Which is the connection you seek.
1. Jockey as the guy on top. Obvious.
2 Jockey as in riding on someone elses coatails/style/vibe.

Sabratha wrote:

Saint George wrote:

How to understand that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers ?

You are tying to dig too deep.

The old-style term 'jocker' comes from the word 'jockey'. Which is the connection you seek.
1. Jockey as the guy on top. Obvious.
2 Jockey as in riding on someone elses coatails/style/vibe.

It's not digging too deep, I'd like to know if the two meanings are in use in US high schools, or were in use at some period. The use is more important to me than the origin.

Societies focus on an individual, on a member bearing a significant difference, when mimesis/emulation grew to such an extent that society became a mob polarizing its own inner violence on the last individual who had not completely melted like the others into the group. Any individual bearing a last difference can become the target of a conformist society: a read head, a stutterer, a lame, the least popular but also the most popular... Extreme positions are at risk, not only the last of the outcasts, but also the top dominant individual can become a victim. There is no "natural selection" in human societies: the only selection made by a society is based on difference from the majority, and the average majority always wins over the differentiated individual.

And there is also that inside the majority, anyone can be both a persecuted and a persecutor... both a follower and a dominant. I am very interested in that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers.

Saint George wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

Saint George wrote:

How to understand that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers ?

You are tying to dig too deep.

The old-style term 'jocker' comes from the word 'jockey'. Which is the connection you seek.
1. Jockey as the guy on top. Obvious.
2 Jockey as in riding on someone elses coatails/style/vibe.

It's not digging too deep, I'd like to know if the two meanings are in use in US high schools, or were in use at some period. The use is more important to me than the origin.

Societies focus on an individual, on a member bearing a significant difference, when mimesis/emulation grew to such an extent that society became a mob polarizing its own inner violence on the last individual who had not completely melted in the group. Any individual bearing a last difference can become the target of a conformist society: a read head, a stutterer, a lame, the least popular but also the most popular... Extreme positions are at risk, not only the last of the outcasts, but also the top dominant individual can become a victim. There is no "natural selection" in human societies: the only selection made by a society is based on difference from the majority, and the average majority always wins over the differentiated individual.

And there is also that inside the majority, anyone can be both a persecuted and a persecutor... both a follower and a dominant. I am very interested in that double meaning of both dominant persecutor and mimicking/emulating followers.

Well then tehr eyou go. Jock goes to jockey which goes to riding. Riding as in beign in charge, but also riding as in riding something bigger/better than yourself.

How many HS kids in the 90s used 'jock' in any other way than to refer to school athletes? Probably something like 0.001%.

Sabratha wrote:

How many HS kids in the 90s used 'jock' in any other way than to refer to school athletes? Probably something like 0.001%.

Are your sure that "jocks" and "jockers" are synonyms ? Thanks anyway.

Saint George wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

How many HS kids in the 90s used 'jock' in any other way than to refer to school athletes? Probably something like 0.001%.

Are your sure that "jocks" and "jockers" are synonyms ? Thanks anyway.

One is derived from the other. All goes back to 'jockey'. Confusingly enough, 'jockey' itself goes back to 'jock'.

At least that's what them internet things say.

Quote :

"person who rides horses in races," 1660s, a specific use of the earlier sense "boy, fellow" (1520s), which is a special use of the Scottish proper name Jockey, a familiar or diminutive form of Jock. Jockey-boots are from 1680s; jockey-shorts "abbreviated underwear for men" is from 1935 (jockey-briefs from 1946).

See? I know everything about everything. You don't have to take my word for it, just ask my dissapointingly male and alt-right fanbase.

So, the meaning:

"old-fashioned prison slang for a dominant male homosexual top, especially in his relationship with a submissive bottom, aka punk."

passed to high school slang. But the other meanings:

-"a person who copies something exactly from another"
-"someone who always wants to do what you do, a follower who tries to make your things their own".
-"Someone who copies someone because they like your style!"
-"jocking": "the mimicking of your behavior and emulating of your personality in the hopes of gaining your favor, attention, or affections."

didn't pass ?

Saint George wrote:

So, the meaning:

"old-fashioned prison slang for a dominant male homosexual top, especially in his relationship with a submissive bottom, aka punk."

passed to high school slang. But the other meanings:

-"a person who copies something exactly from another"
-"someone who always wants to do what you do, a follower who tries to make your things their own".
-"Someone who copies someone because they like your style!"
-"jocking": "the mimicking of your behavior and emulating of your personality in the hopes of gaining your favor, attention, or affections."

didn't pass ?

As far as I know the 'copying' meaning was outdated and not used... or at least not in the US. Harris in specific had somewhat an obsession about being original and not copying/mimicking, but Harris's journal never uses the term 'jocker' to denote this copying behavior. He always uses the terms "copy" or copycat instead.

Examples:

Heric Harris wrote:

(...) how many JO MAMMA jokes are there and how many do u think are original and not copied. KEINE.
(...) I always try to be different, but I always end up copying someone else (...) or others THINK I am copying.
(...)all the little shits trying to be "original-copycats"

As far as the dominant gay reference? I wasn't aware of it, certainly not in the 90s. I doubt Eric and Dylan or the ther people in CHS who were not gay were aware. To me the term 'jock' referred to a school athelte, the related subculture or at least a sporty kid. That's how I've seen the term used in media at the time etc.

So while the dominant-male-gay term perhaps never was entirely abandoned, I'm pretty sure it was unknown and unused by the general straight or lesbian population.


...and anyone who is an actual.. you know WASP American in their late 30s-40s, let me know if I'm wrong.

Diary of a wimpy kid has a popular ranking system as written by Greg Heffley but everyone here should know he is a sociopath with the proof of Mumkey Jones

Sabratha wrote:

As far as I know the 'copying' meaning was outdated and not used... or at least not in the US. Harris in specific had somewhat an obsession about being original and not copying/mimicking, but Harris's journal never uses the term 'jocker' to denote this copying behavior. He always uses the terms "copy" or copycat instead.

Examples:

Heric Harris wrote:

(...)  how many JO MAMMA jokes are there and how many do u think are original and not copied. KEINE.
(...) I always try to be different, but I always end up copying someone else (...)  or others THINK I am copying.
(...) all the little shits trying to be "original-copycats"

Thanks a lot, this is a precious material for me.

Saint George wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

As far as I know the 'copying' meaning was outdated and not used... or at least not in the US. Harris in specific had somewhat an obsession about being original and not copying/mimicking, but Harris's journal never uses the term 'jocker' to denote this copying behavior. He always uses the terms "copy" or copycat instead.

Examples:

Heric Harris wrote:

(...)  how many JO MAMMA jokes are there and how many do u think are original and not copied. KEINE.
(...) I always try to be different, but I always end up copying someone else (...)  or others THINK I am copying.
(...) all the little shits trying to be "original-copycats"

Thanks a lot, this is a precious material for me.

No problemo. Again: I might be wrong on the account of not being American. But at the same time, I was a teen in the late 90s and early 2000s.

Incidentally, I did recall one more meaning of the jock related term that was used then - 'jockstrap'.
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'Jockstrap' originated from a 19th century term 'jock' meaning penis. However to my best knowledge nobody in 99 used that term to mean penis. Terms like 'dick', 'weiner' or 'schlong' fully supplanted it.

A lot of uppity hippie schools that will use terms like "harassment", "discrimination", "isolation/rejection", "stereotyping", etc etc.. They also seem to be trigger-happy with using any -phobia or -ism terms. More often than not they'll get any kid suspended for racism if they state a fact or statistic regarding any minority. I remember once serving two days of ISS for telling a black kid that their kind averages 15 IQ points below whites.

I've never heard others (students) use terms for the social hierarchy or clique status. Kids in the 'lower' class will be bullied and teased more than those in a 'higher' class. As a student, you can just look over a cafeteria of students and know where they belong, students will form very exclusive groups and if you don't fit the exact criteria then you shouldn't even begin to think about approaching them. The ones with the most status are almost always the rich kids who are spoiled rotten, heavily involved in sports and community service, likely addicted to nicotine or drugs. Typically nerds and geeks, trans/lgbt+ and special education kids will be bullied the most. The absolutely lowest of these are the 'quiet kids', the general red flags, but they're avoided completely by the student body.

Insults and terms used to bully students is mostly exclusive to their 'role' in the hierarchy/social ranks and I can't think of any that haven't been mentioned already. Hope this helps.