Nearly a quarter of all students ages 6-19 are bullied or harassed at school as a result of their beliefs, race, nationality, sexual orientation, and more (“Bullying”). When examining bullying to LGBT youth, it is crucial to consider direct bullying and biased comments made by students. The most noticeable remarks used in schools is when the word “gay” is used in a negative way, usually to mean that something is “stupid” or “dumb.” About 70% of LGBT students state they have often heard these types of remarks. Direct victimization in schools happens more regularly among LGBT youth than among heterosexual peers. In a school climate survey of LGBT youth, students were asked about experiences of verbal harassment, physical harassment, and physical assault linked to being LGBT. Students described persistent harassment and assault at school in the survey (“Kosciw”).
When people indirectly bully, a common type of bullying, they may not even recognize that they are doing it, and many do not. Bullying indirectly can consist of rumors or stories about someone, along with exclusion from groups (Bullying). With access to computerized communication, adolescents can increase the amount of bullying and possibly harm through cyberbullying (“Kosciw”). Cyberbullying may be considered a category of indirect bullying and can be performed by, but not limited to, email, websites, text messaging, and chat rooms. In a study conducted by Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin in 2010, they broke down the amount of cyberbullying by gender and found that homosexual males were less prone to be victims of cyberbullying. On the other hand, females that were non-heterosexual were to be a higher target for cyberbullying (“Hinduja”).
In a middle and high school nat...
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...ing and Sexual Orientation." Cyberbullying Research Center. Cyberbullying Research Center, 2011. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Horn, Stacey S., and Katherine E. Romeo. "Peer Contexts For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Students: Reducing Stigma, Prejudice, And Discrimination." Prevention Researcher 17.4 (2010): 7-10. Education Research Complete. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Kosciw, Joseph G., Mark J. Bartkiewicz, and Emily A. Greytak. "Promising Strategies For Prevention Of The Bullying Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Youth." Prevention Researcher 19.3 (2012): 10-13. Education Research Complete. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
"LGBT Health Youth." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
"What Is the It Gets Better Project?" It Gets Better Project. It Gets Better Project, 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
The definition of bullying uses broad statements to define the actual meaning. Because of this, people may view the definition differently than others. Bullying can range from physical violence to verbal abuse to even cyberbullying. Most people do not realize how common cyberbullying actually is. Over half of teens and adolescents have been bullied online and almost the same number have engaged in the bullying (“Cyber Bullying Statistics”). Cyberbullying is becoming more and more prominent throughout this time period because of the technology continuing to expand around the world. Each year this statistic increasingly grows due to the technology
When the word bullying is brought up, one always pictures in his or her mind a big angry boy, who picks on other small helpless children. What some don’t realize is that bullying comes hand in hand with popularity, likeability, and peer acceptance. Children are heavily influenced by other kids his or her age, as the old saying goes, “But mom Jimmy gets to stay up past 10, why can’t I?” According to Miranda Witvliet, to understand children’s peer group affiliation, you need to be able to examine children naturally occurring groups resemble each other on bullying, likeability, and perceived popularity. To be accepted by a popular group of kids, others would follow in his or her footsteps and will bully others, even if the child knew it were wrong. Schools around the country have constructed anti-bullying campaigns and have programs setup to teach students, teachers, and family members what to do to prevent bullying. In an article by Jennifer Dignan, she explains how Stomp Out Bullying and The National Center for Bullying Prevention are two organizations working to put an end to the epidemic. To help prevent bullying people need to understand how the victims and the bullies are affected by other peers.
Cyberbullying has become a widespread problem. The more people have been using the internet, the more the number of cyberbullying incidents increase. According to document A, 25.1% of girls and 16.6% of boys reported being bullied in their lifetime. In addition to this, document A also
Mercer, L. R. & Berger, R. M. (1989). Social service needs of lesbian and gay adolescents. Adolescent Sexuality: New Challenges for Social Workers. Haworth Press.
The fight for full equality has gone on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. People of color, the mentally and physically ill, and the disadvantaged have all struggled for equal rights in the face of discrimination, and for the most part, they have won. Very few people today will witness someone in a wheelchair and claim that he is less of a person than one who is able to stand. Yet, there are people all across the country, of any race, age, and manner of health, who still struggle to this day. These people are routinely beaten, alienated, and shamed due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or any mix of both. One of the most saddening aspects of this is that much of this hateful behavior either takes place in, or is reinforced by, the K-12 school setting. Young children who were called ‘sissies’ on the playground go through puberty and receive the new nickname ‘faggot’. Hateful language is especially prevalent in the high school setting, where the word gay is now considered a synonym for stupid or unfair. Discrimination of students based on sexual orientation and gender identity affects K-12 students of all ages by enforcing shame and hatred of a natural function, and can be solved by adjustments in sexual education and individual open-mindedness.
Not only do they face unrestricted discrimination and harassment at school, they often face similar or worse homophobia at home. Parents, unaware of their children's sexual orientation, often make cutting remarks about homosexual television characters, community members, or the orientation in general. They may not even recognize their comments, but the child is hanging on to every word, looking for at least a tiny bit of acceptance from family. Many times they find hate instead of acceptance, sometimes to the point of being kicked out of the house at age 14 or 15 when a homophobic parent does find out. This leaves them with nowhere to turn. Sometimes, what makes it so especially hard for gay teens is the very thing that protects them, their invisibility. For example, the lesbian, gay or bisexual te...
Bullying has always been a problem within the past century and has become an epidemic. However, because of social media people are becoming more aware of the issues associated with bullying and how it has become a trend in today’s society. You turn on the news and you are hearing about kids being bullied and the end result is suicide. Bullying is occurring worldwide. Not only is it happening in our schools and social networks, but also in the work place. The various types of bullying that exist and the attempt to entirely eliminate them is not achievable because of individual and environmental factors.
Demographically, it has been reported that boys are more likely than girls to be perpetrators of cyber bullying whereas girls are more likely than boys to be involved in both aspects of cyber bullying – the perpetrator and the victim (Mishna, Khourg-Kassabri, Gadalla, & Daciuk, 2012; Sengupta & Chaudhuri, 2011; Slonje & Smith, 2008...
The first one is that there are direct and close relationships between LGBT-related supports in schools and the homophobic behaviors to LGBT students. Those supports may include the increasing numbers of teaching staffs with supportive attitudes, inclusive curriculum and positive school policies. The second hypothesis is that school support can contribute to better self-esteem of students. The third one is that school supports would be related to better educational outcomes (fewer missed days of school and higher GPA) primarily through the indirect relations via decreased victimization and increased self-esteem but perhaps also via direct relations to educational outcomes. And the last hypothesis is that LGBT-related school supports would buffer the relations between victimization and self-esteem and victimization and educational outcomes above and beyond any direct or indirect contribution. In this study, results suggest that a hostile school climate has serious ramifications for LGBT students, but they also highlight the important role that institutional supports can play in making schools safer for these students. Furthermore, these steps to improve school climate are also an investment in better educational outcomes and healthy youth development for LGBT
Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place with the use of any electronic technology. Cyberbullying is a major problem affecting young people today. There are different types of cyberbullying. This topic comes as an interest to many people these days because bullying is very common and it can ruin a person’s life. These days, cyberbullying is considered a new form of bullying. It can happen over the internet by computer, mobile phone or any other electronic devices. Cyberbullying could involve any form of unpleasant words or pictures being displayed on the internet for others to see. It could also involve the spreading of lies about the victim on the internet. Many people are stepping up efforts to prevent bullying in the first place. Approximately half of U.S. students are impacted by traditional bullying each school day (Ross). Bullying peaks in middle school, then reduces in high school. Other types of bullying may involve the passing of notes behind someone’s back, rumors being whispered about someone, or being threatened in the internet. The most common types of cyberbullying include passing of humiliating photos, cell phone pranks, cyber stalking, impersonation, online slam books, and text wars. Bullies appear scary but truthfully they are the unhappy ones. Majority of bullies have been bullied by parents, siblings, or other young people. This may trigger them to bully and pick on other kids.
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.
Baker, Jean M. How Homophobia Hurts Children: Nurturing Diversity at Home, at School, and in the Community. New York: Harrington Park, 2002. Print.
Bullying does not have a standard definition. Bullying can be anything from calling someone else names, beating them up just for the fun of it, to texting or messaging them on the internet or any mobile device. Any person can be the victim of bullying, not just children. Bullying causes many issues, physically, emotionally, and mentally, not only for the victim, but for their entire families as well. Bullies have many different reasons as to why they start bullying someone else. The actions done to the victim leaves them with only a few options on how to stop being bullied. How they handle it is always different.
Bullying has always been present within the United States. Although the issue has been around for a long time, it continues to grow and become more of problem. It is said that about 160,000 children within the United States are refusing to go to school because of bullying. Another statistic is that within American schools alone, there are an estimated 2.1 billion bullies and 2.7 billion victims (Dan Olewus, MBNBD). The numbers presented here are outrageous and although there are organizations to stop bullying, obviously there needs to be a new set of solutions. Any type of bullying presents problems to children, “Suicide, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, trouble with the law, poor performance in school and work, and lack of involvement in socially accepted activities are some of the difficulties resulting from bullying (Austin, Reynolds, Barnes, Shirley). Of course, there is more than just a single type of bullying. Feeding ground for bullies can range anywhere from text-message or cyberbullying to physical bullying in schools. Also, bullies can begin to strike at a young age and could also be; teenage, middle-age, or even the elderly. Even though there are these many versions of problematic bullies, the largest bullying problems take place within the school setting: a place that is supposed to be safe for children rather than harmful. Although it seems impossible to completely get rid of bullying, these are a few suggested solutions; making the school informed on bullying issues, schools implementing rules on bullying, and having students positively use electronics to stop bullying.
1 vols. Issues: Hate Crimes. 14 March 2014 www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story>. Joanna Almeida, Renee M. Johnson, Heather L. Corliss, Beth E. Molnar. Emotional Distress among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation.