Bullying in schools is as old as any problem in our school systems. However, the air of denial is so pronounced that some schools identify themselves as "bully free" institutions. These denials have eventually lead to incidents of suicide.
In January, Phoebe Prince, a 15 year old high school student at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts, hang herself after nearly three months of being a victim of bullying. Nine teenagers are now facing charges of stalking, criminal harassment, and violating Phoebe's civil rights.
In Long Island, N.Y. town of West Islip, police are investigating whether cyberbullies contributed to suicide of Alexis Pilkington, 17. Alexis took her own life in March 21 following visicious taunts on social networking sites. What is worse, this continued even after her death, making it more painful for the griefing family and friends.
These are just two examples of end results of bullying. When I was researching on this issue, I was amazed to find out that bullying in schools, though an old problem, is often brushed aside by school officials, teachers, parents, and students. With modern technology, bullying is becoming even worse because of cyberbulling, which is even more traumatizing. Those who are not bold enough to bully others in person, do it easily online.
I have been asking myself questions over and over again regarding bullying in schools. One answer that comes to my mind is, we all have to work together to fight against bullying in our schools. Parents, teachers, school officials, and students have to be involved. Starting from our homes, as parents, we need to teach our children right from wrong. Teachers and school officials need to set rules and punishments towards this deadly problem. Students need to report to authorities cases of bullying they witness.
What do you think?
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Bullying is a major problem in the United States recently. The two main reasons people are bullied are because of appearance and social status. Kids pick on other kids because of how they look, act, their race, religion, or sexual orientation. Bullying is not only physical such as shoving, punching, and hitting. It can also be verbal and emotional, especially with increases in technologies such as text message and email. I don’t think there is any particular gender, race, or age that bullies. Both girls and boys can be bullies. Aggressive and outgoing kids as well as subtle, deceptive children can bully. Bullies share things in common such as their dominance over others and focus on themselves. They may have poor social skills and judgment skills.
ReplyDeleteI work in a local elementary school and we address bullying in every grade. Once a semester, the school psychologist comes in and runs a one hour bullying lesson using books, puppets, and stories. Beyond those hours, teachers implement the ideas we talk about on a daily basis. Part of my job is to monitor children while they work, play, and learn because children are learning to interact. We tell students to tell a trusted adult if they are feeling bullied. We emphasize that they should ignore the bully and walk away, holding their head high as it sends a body language message that they are being the stronger person. We talk about who are true friends and how they should stick with their true friends. The 3 step program of “stop, walk, and talk” is language we use to problem solve through confrontations. I am amazed at how well my kindergarteners can articulate what bullying is, how it makes them feel, and what they can do to fix/prevent it. While I know many schools need to address this issue , I do not think it is fair to say that no school is addressing it. I think we need a more systematic, country wide program so that all children and teens have the same knowledge and skill set to deal with bullying.
I did a little research about bullying that I would like to share with you all.
ReplyDeleteBULLYING
What is bullying? Bullying can be defined as physical, verbal, and emotional harm done to another individual on purpose and repetitively to break him/her down. Bullying should not be confused with conflicts or disagreements kids usually have with each other based one thing or another (loveourchildrenusa.org). It is common among kids between school ages 6 to 13. Boys tend to bully differently than girls do. While boys bullying style may be physically abusive such as tripping, kicking, punching; Girls on the other hand are usually non physical, but emotionally just as hurtful. These may include spreading rumors, teasing, isolating the victim from a group (pbskids.org).
I have to admit, we have come a long way in finding ways to address the bullying issue. At one time people used to think it’s part of growing up, and that kids needed to learn to stick up for themselves. Erikson’s theory (Santrock 2009) explains that this developmental stage (Industry vs. Inferiority) is where kids venture out and explore both home and school. They need lots of encouragement in both contexts in order to increase their industry and lower their inferiority. Bullying therefore is devastating at this critical stage (P.319). It may seem as though in a bullying situation there are two parties involved. We forget that the innocent bystanders are very much a part of what is happening right in front of them. They carry the burden of siding with one or the other. Most innocent bystanders would not stick up for the kid being bullied out fear, that they may suffer the same consequences (loveourchildrenusa.org).
There are some possible reasons why one becomes a target for a bully to start picking on a person. Most of the reasons would fall under being different. Here are some examples:
I) He or she is a different size than the rest of the class, so a bully might pick on this individual by either name calling or size ridiculing.
II) He or she suffers from some sort of disability that makes the individual talk or walk funny. The bully might make this individual uncomfortable enough to affect his/her performance in school.
III) Shy/ Withdrawn kids can also get picked on because they may not be social or outgoing as the rest of the class.
IV) Being of different race, religion, ethnicity or even having a unique name can trigger a bully to bring that indifference to everyone’s attention (pbskids.org)
In an attempt to nip bullying in the bud, it is very important to understand where the bully comes from. A bully usually is being bullied by someone else at home. It is a learned behavior, and what is learned can also be unlearned. This vicious cycle does not have to coninue.
The school board, parents, and students, together can make a big difference on how bullying can be handled. This way school is a safe, happy and comfortable environment for all different types of kids to try new things without fear of failure or mockery.
REFERENCES AND WORKS CITED
Love Our Children USA. (2010). Bullying And Guns In School. Retrieved on March 28, 2010
From http://www.loveourchildrenusa.org/bullying.php
It’s My Life. (2009). Friends. Bullies. Retrieved on March 28 2010, from
http://www.pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/index.html
Santrock, J. W. (2009). Life Span Development (12th Ed) New York: McGraw Hill
It's sad to watch and hear bullying practices in our schools,i think this practice should be condemned by acting serious and punishing those students involve in this evil practice, to advice this;There should be a law that stand against bullying and who ever found against it,disciplinary action must follow i.e. suspended out of school and volunteer to cleaning or perform any work at school,dismissal out of school,to put record in their academic slips that states their behavior..And by every school to form or establish department of discipline responsible for anti bullying and correction of behaviors in schools in doing this Bullying will be reduced or eradicated.
ReplyDeleteBullying in any form is the most dangerous behavior still exist in our school. It will cause emotional, psychological, and physical damage to victoms. Recently, I heard from news that a little kid tried to jump out of the window from one of Baltimore schools. She said, she was trying to get away from being bullied by other school mates.
ReplyDeleteSome schools try to hide such acts just to keep thier school reputaions. But by doing so, they neglect others.
kids at every level must be taught that bullying is bad. Schools and teachers should pay close attention where specially bullying occurs. It is the responsibility of the schools and the law makers to keep kids safe from bullying.Yes, it can be stopped and prevented.
I was an intern at an Elmentary school, and there was bullying almost every day. I only saw the small kind, such as a kid laughing at another one, or whispering a joke about him to his friends. But its the little hurtful words that can easily hurt a child. The school I was at was big on bully awareness. Every month they would review information about bullying, such as how not to be a bystander and treat everyone with respect. However, on the news I have heard horrible stories about bullies, and children who fear for their lives just going to the bus stop. I think that schools all over need to try their hardest to prevent bullying, and everyone needs to understand how sensitive people are to hurtful behavior.
ReplyDeleteBullying has gotten completely out of hand. It use to be bad enough, but it has taken such a disasterous turn in the past 15 years or so. It has to involve the school and parents. Schools have to address it at the first sight, but I ultimately feel it is the parents responsibility to teach better behavior and tolerance. Many parents just don't take the job of parenting seriously and leave it up to the TV to teach the morales and expected behaviors....that's not a good thing with all of the violence on tv and in video games. This really needs to be addressed at a early age by parents and the community.
ReplyDeleteIt’s true that bullying usually goes unnoticed. It’s something that we kind of consider juvenile and acceptable at the age of adolescence. It starts small and in some cases can escalate to serious consequences as you suggested. It’s also interesting that you mentioned cyber bullying. This completely slipped my mind and I have heard of many cases where this was a problem. I actually dealt with this first hand. I had a ex-girlfriend make up a fake myspace account and then make threats to my current girlfriend through myspace. Needless to say it caused a lot of stress in both my life and my current girlfriend’s life. There should be more consequences for cyber bullying.
ReplyDeleteWhen i was in high school, i got beaten up by a girl who just butt heads with me. the teacher broke us up, but didnt call the cops. i was attacked, but no one did ANYTHING at all. she was suspended from school for ten days, that was it. They do not have a stricter rule for fighting or bullying, and even though we all wish we could do something about it, maybe all we can do is talk to each child of our own, and try to give a speach about why bullying is bad, maybe reinforce it if it is your child. an eye for an eye. but not in a horrible, torture way.
ReplyDelete