Bullying
School is a place where we can feel safe and enjoy every second of our youth. It is a place we can learn to be ourselves and discover what life has to offer us. Unfortunately bulling is getting in the way of growing up, and it is becoming more and more apparent in our daily life. How does bulling change our life? How can we deal with this new type of violence? Theses are questions that go through every parents mind when they first send their child to school. But to answer these questions first we need to analyze all the aspects of bullying. Bullying has been going on since the beginning of times not only in school but also in our every day lives. Some thing change and now it is a major issue in our community, especially among our teenagers.
In today’s world, bullying is portrayed everywhere in the media. The big, scary, popular boy perusing the younger kids for their lunch money or the pretty and popular cheerleader how picks on the uglier girls. Even though this may, at one point, been the have been the reality, now it is nothing but a scene in a movie . Bullying is not as simple any more and that is why it became such a big issue. According to Milson and Gallo, there are tree types of bulling, physical, relational, and Verbal. Physical bullies use of violence to show power over others. These bullies will kick, punch, shove to induce fear and create respect. The retaliation bullies in the other hand, target one of their on group. (Milson and Gallo, 2006). The weaker kid in the group is singled out, and it is always the target of the group jokes. Finally we have the verbal bullying. These bullies uses of insults to torture the victims. While this is the most common type of bulling (Milson and Gallo, 2006), it is also...
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...hould they themselves intervene, should they go get help, or should they just do nothing and stay out of it? While adults may encourage kids to tell an authoritative figure, that isn’t always the response that the bystanders choose to make. These bystanders will always feel uncomfortable at the sight of bullying, however, they may not always necessarily make the correct decision about what to do in the situation. Bullying can oftentimes be prevented by telling an adult and it is vital for students who witness bullying to bring the situation to a responsible adult. Others can potentially be very hurt by bullying, making it essential to come forward with information. With all of these issues at stake, it is crucial for schools to crack down on bullying by using both different methods of prevention as well as increased support for children who have been bullied.
Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)
In school systems today bullying is only talked about as being wrong or not tolerated. No one does anything about a bully until someone has committed suicide, tried to commit suicide, or has taken matters into their own hands violently. Administrators, teachers, and parents should pay closer attention to prevent the bullying that happens right in front of them.
Over the last decade, bullying has really been a worldwide issue. Bullying is affecting children all over the world and has grown into a huge epidemic. According to the National Education Association, “160,000 kids stay home from school each day to ...
Schools want to violate your civil rights! Cyber bullying has been getting much attention recently and schools are being criticized for not taking action. There are three main reasons why schools should not limit students’ online speech: it violates our civil rights, it is exaggerated in size, it may result in more face-to-face bullying.
Although bullying has always been a problem in schools, it has more recently become a bigger crisis with vicious consequences. “However it is defined, bullying is not just child’s play, but a terrifying experience many schoolchildren face everyday. It can be as direct as teasing, hitting or threatening, or as indirect as exclusions, rumors or manipulation” (Garrett 2). Most kids do not think certain actions are classified as bullying, yet they do not realize the severity of the way they treat their peers. What they may see as “joking around” can be viewed as them being a bully, and they may even be hurting someone’s feelings without realizing the effect that they have. This can then lead to school violence, which is a prevalent issue in today’s society. There are many causes to bullying and school violence and many effects as well. However, if dealt with properly, there are ways to solve these prevailing problems.
In the school environment, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is an example of one particularly targeted group which is consistently besieged by attacks from homophobic students, faculty and staff. There have been charities and other organizations founded to specifically help minority groups, who are regularly targeted. In 2004-2005, a prominent English activist and charity group in the U. K. called Stonewall, set up partnerships to discuss homophobic bullying in schools with Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays (FFLAG) and Lesbian & Gay Youth Scotland and then launched a campaign to tackle that same homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools, called Education for All. Since then, Stonewall has done surveys, held conferences, and lobbied legislators, as well as worked with teachers to gather the research from the surveys on homophobic bullying in schools. In 2010, Stonewall released the first film centered around the problem of homophobic bullying, made solely to help schools tackle the challenges they and the students face, called FIT ("History of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equality." www.stonewall.org.uk). Even though the U.S. is notorious for its school shootings and school violence, a survey given by the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) conducted between the 2005 and 2006 school year, which spanned forty countries, showed that the United States was directly in the middle of the ranking of the survey when it came to the most reported bullying in school age children. The U.S. ranked 20th for girls and 17th for boys, with Sweden as the country with the lowest amount of reported bullying and Lithuania as the country with the most reported bullying in schools (Craig, "Global Bullying ...
There is a belief among parents and adults in general that if bullies are ignored they will stop bullying; others think that bullying is an inevitable phase of childhood that will pass (Betiniz, 2006). Some people think that all children must ‘learn to stand up for themselves ' since that’s what is expected in the ‘the real’ world (Betiniz, 2006). Bullying is not a new problem for schools, since it has been present for a long time; however, only in recent years is its importance being recognized (Betiniz, 2006).
Bullying has been a part of schooling for as long as children have been congregating. To some it seems like a natural, though uncomfortable, part of life and school experience, while to others it can mean terrifying experiences which spoiled and characterized otherwise happy years in school. Dan Olweus, a pioneer in bully behavior research documented that 2.7 million children are affected as victims, and that 2.1 children act as bullies (Fried, 1997, as cited in Aluedse, 2006). With bullying cited as the reason for violent, gun-related crime in the past few years, school districts as well as national governments have put anti-bullying policies in place. Bullying is a complicated phenomenon, involving more than one child demanding lunch money from a smaller child. It is a worldwide epidemic hitting schools everywhere. Virtually everyone has seen or experienced bullying. With technological advances, bullying is even hitting the internet. Parents, teachers, students and governments agencies alike are attempting to put a stop to bullying practices.
Although almost every state in the United States of America has a state law or a policy about bullying, its consequences, and how to report it, the laws and policies have not been fully effective. "I just finally took it up with the cop at the school, but he can't do anything unless it's physical. It's hard because now I feel like I'm alone in this" (quoted by Forbes). By not acting on an incident because it is not technically a physical altercation is an example of the weakness in the state laws and policies that have been passed. Many victims do not generally go to law enforcement, school administrator, or a parent and report bullying and if were too they should never have to feel like they have been forgotten about or that their bully has gotten away with their unacceptable behavior. “More than two-thirds of students believe that schools respond poorly to bullying, and that ...
Bullying is a growing concern in a society where status and exercising power over another human being are increasingly important in developing one’s social circles. Dan Olweus (Norwegian researcher and founder of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program) defines it as an “aggressive behaviour that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power. Most often, it is repeated over time” (Violencepreventionworks.org). School victimization is an especially delicate matter that has only really been in the public eye for the past half century, as more and more researchers and psychologists pointed out its short- and long-term negative effects on targeted individuals. It has since been widely investigated and numerous programs have been developed in an effort to address and prevent the many forms of bullying that exist today. The negative effects of such an abusive behaviour are various and can greatly differ from individual to individual. However, there are three main consequences that can be associated with school bullying, which are: school avoidance, depression/anxiety and even suicidal attempts.
Bullying has been around for decades and yet it is still a reoccurring problem, and it is only getting worse. The National Center for Educational Statistics, in 2009, said nearly 1 in 3 students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied in school. Eight years earlier, only 14 percent of that population said they had experienced bullying(Ollove,2014). There are two types of bullying the direct form and indirect form, in the direct form the victim receives physical harm example kicking pushing shoving. In the indirect form the victim receives emotional or mental harm by name-calling, rejection, gossip, threats, or insults(Green,2007). It doesn’t matter which way the victim was bullied it still causes
Everyone has been bullied or encountered someone being bullied at some point of their life. Whether it would be physically or verbally both can be exceedingly traumatizing and can have a long-term psychological influence on children’s development. Majority people may define bullying in a more physical term; nevertheless that’s not always the case. The act of bullying can occur in several ways and in reality affect the individual in the same way. Bullying is generally defined as repeated, negative, and harmful actions focused at target throughout a course of time, exhibiting a sense of power difference between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993; Limber & Mihalic, 1999 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). A survey was conducted in the United States estimating that over six million children, about 30% in grade six through ten have experienced frequent bullying in a school environment (Nansel, 2001 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). Many people might debate that bullying is something that every child goes through and is simply a part of growing up, although there are several damaging consequences that happens to the child’s brain. Bullying causes the child to feel upset, isolated, frightened, anxious, and depressed. They feel like they reason they are being picked on is because there is something wrong with them and may even lose their confidence feel unsafe going to school (Frenette, 2013 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005) Anthropologically, sociologically, or psychologically, bullying can be analyzed through different perspectives and several questions can be asked based on the topic:
Bullying is a devastating issue that threatens the well-being of today’s youth. Those who are most likely at risk are those who; have a learning or physical disability i.g., autism or ADHD, are underweight or overweight, are gay/lesbian/transgendered, or speak a different language. Of course, there are no specific guidelines of who will become victims of bullying. Children who are bullied experience lower self-esteem, greater loneliness, greater anxiety, and more depression in addition to the already stressful adolescent years. The longer the bullying occurs the more profound the symptoms can become. As a low-level, subtle form of violence, bullying creates an unsafe school environment and can lead to more serious types of violence among students (Whitted & Dupper, 2005).
“Researchers have conducted that at least 25% of all children will be affected by bullying at some point during their school years, and many of these children miss significant numbers of school days each year owing to fear of being bullied” (Bray, M., Kehle, T., Sassu, K. (2003). Bullying has become a major problem for our students and our schools. Children are missing educational time and are losing self-confidence because they are afraid or intimidated by other students. We, as teachers, need to reduce bullying in our schools and prevent bullying from being a reoccurring issue in the lives of our students in order for them to learn, grow and develop. Our goal as teachers should be “to reduce as much as possible-ideally to eliminate completely- existing bully/victim problems in and out of the school setting and to prevent the development of new problems” (Olweus, D. (1993).
In recent times bullying has become a national issue, notwithstanding the fact that it has been in existence for many years. Traditionally, bullying has been seen as horseplay, but with the increase of harassment in schools and suicides; parents and schools are now forced to take action to prevent bullying in schools. Bullying is an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance which has the potential to be repeated over time. Strategies to prevent bullying in schools are grouped into identifying the causes of bullying, creating policies and rules, building a safe environment and educating students and staff.