Bullying in Schools

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Bullying is not something that can just be addressed inside one teachers classroom, it requires a comprehensive community effort to effectively stop bullying and the tolerance of bullying. Research shows only 4% of teachers intervene in a situation where a student is being bullied yet 50-75% of students with special needs are the main targets of bullying. These percentages do not add up. With more adult involvement and awareness of what to look for with students educators possess the power to not only stop occurring bullying incidents, but to reduce the number of new occurrences in the school’s community. The factors that are a result of victimization are the same ones that cause students to be targeted and bullied it is a vicious cycle. When educators are not afraid to intervene in a situation involving bullying the student’s self-esteem rises as well as their willingness to learn.

BULLYING

Bullies. At some point or another everyone has either been one or known one, but what happens when we as educators suspect it is happening in our classroom, and what if it is happening to a student with special needs? Bullying is defined an overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people. It is no surprise that bullying is still a huge factor in schools today. (Nansel, Oveepeck, Pillia, and Ruan 2001; Olweus 1999). Currently there is a strong value placed on the standardized test scores of students but the social developmental aspect is being over-looked. (Fleming et al. 2005). Over the past decade violence has dropped but it is still something that plagues classrooms all over the world because educators lack the training required to deal with anti social behaviors. (Brener, Lowery,...

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