Bullying by Annette Garcia

Picture yourself in the second grade. You’re in the classroom line in the hallway walking the halls getting ready for lunch. When you see the fourth graders exiting the cafeteria, you see who you thought was your older friend telling her teacher you are a bully! At the end of the school day we get on the bus and it continues. This epidemic is called bullying.  Bullying is defined as aggressive, unwanted behavior in school aged children who find amusement in making other children feel less about oneself (Stop Bullying). Bullying is a social epidemic; ninety percent of students in grades fourth through eighth grade have reported they have been harassed or bullied (Education Corner). Bullied victims stated that sixty-four percent of children did not report the bullying (Education Corner). With bullied victims not speaking up, we can come together to help the victims not be afraid to use their voice.

History

The social epidemic of bullying has grown tremendously from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century.  The first death report caused by bullying was in October 14, 1862 by a twelve-year boy from Canterbury, United Kingdom (Education Corner). In 1952, bullying developed into verbally picking on someone and stealing their belongings along with aggression. The first research was in the 1970’s by Dr. Dan Olweus (Gilmour 1). In 1981, Dr. Dan Olweus proposed a law against bullying in schools, so children do not have to live in fear of humiliation going to school (1).

Over the years, bullying has developed in a powerful way. Bullying is not just verbal abuse anymore for examples, name calling, and rude gestures were considered bullying. Bullying is now developed into physical abuse, along with verbal abuse. For examples, one kid shoving another kid, an older kid picking on a smaller kid, and social media embarrassment are all types of bullying. Along with bullying not just happening in schools anymore, it continues at home. Bullying continued to escalate when technology began to expand and became popular to kids and became an everyday thing.

With technology and social media sites taking an effect, bullying harassments began, “with the growth of technology bullying will be difficult to track” (1). They would happen at school and continue online for making fun of a picture they posted or what happened in school would carry over to social media where everyone could see. This led to children commenting suicide due to bullying getting severe and affecting the safe place where children are supposed to call “home” and not feeling secure with themselves. They do not express their feelings/situation to their guardians, teachers, and other family members. The history of bullying has developed more powerfully and common within over the years, and it is becoming more demanding on the bully and victim leading them to feel isolated from the world around them.

Social Effects

            The social effect of bullying does not only affect the victim and the bully, it affects the community and town. Bullying, with all its concomitant forms, such as hazing and sexual harassment, is a global problem, “With severe impacts on lifelong development and mental health, finding a way to prevent bullying is a major public health concern” (deLara 1). Bullying happens everyday at all hours of the day, which is affecting children’s mental health and questioning their place on earth.

The effects of bullying do not only affect the victim and the bully, it affects the bystanders who watch the bullying happen, “Which happens when a group of people watch a bullying incident, and no one responds” (Goron 1). There are two types of bystanders; one type is those who step in when they see bullying happening, “During a bullying incident, if there is only one witness, that one person is likely to help the victim” (1). The bystander feels the power within himself to defend the victim and stand up for what is right. The second type of a bystander is one who does nothing and watches the bullying happen. “In a group of three or more people, no one person feels like it is their responsibility to act, they are less likely to step forward and help the victim” (1). With these two types of bystanders, bystanders are not qualified as the bully. They are just a victim of seeing the bullying happening and their decision is the outcome. With bystanders taking action, they are making a change in the world.

Bullying effects, the victim and the bully physically and mentally. “Bullying includes instances of emotional, psychological, and physical violence” (Delara). “Bullying can have negative short and long-term consequences for both the victim and the bully” (Hurley 1). The physical and mental effect can cause depression, anxiety, social isolation, low self of stem, headaches, stomachaches, and schools performance in academics and sports. Bullying is leading to their being a decrease in school’s attendance.

Examples

            Examples of bullying can be so many different scenarios, “Two teenage boys who had been relentlessly bullied brought 50 bombs to school, and then went on a shooting spree wounding twenty-three, fatally shooting thirteen, and taking their own lives” (Gilmour). With this one example of bullying, people can see just how severe bullying is getting to children and how much bullying is really affecting children.

With so many examples, I have a bullying example from when I was bullied as a child. When I was in elementary school, a family friend accused me of being a bully. She was three years older than I and lived down the street from my grand-parents house. She always used to pick on me on the bus and at school. She would pull my hair, push me, make fun of me for falling asleep on the bus and call me names for not being bilingual like her. With this happening I told an adult I trusted, and it was my mom. My mom told her parents about the situation and she left me alone. But with this experience of bullying, I became more furious and felt a hatred towards her. Over the years I grew as a person and did not let that experience in my life affect me while I am still growing as a person instead, I was able to learn a life lesson from that experience.

Solutions

            The social epidemic of bullying has many solutions. Most people think kids are just being mean to one another and kids are overreacting. But that is always not the case, and children, and adults should know how to confront a bully and the situation of bullying. A simple easy solution schools should add on bullying is making a program about bullying and what do to in the situation, “Many evaluated programs that address bullying are designed for use in elementary and middle schools” (Ellis 1). “Training may take many forms: staff meetings, one-day training sessions, and teaching through modeling preferred behavior” (1), when students are showed the bullying program, teachers should be aware of bullying and the rules, “School staff can help prevent bullying by establishing and enforcing school rules and policies that clearly describe how students are expected to treat each other and the consequences for violations of the rules should be clearly defined as well” (1). Every school has a statement that enforces their concerns about their students and their policies that follow for each student:

[Name of School] is committed to each student’s success in learning within a caring, responsive, and safe environment that is free of discrimination, violence, and bullying. Our school works to ensure that all students have the opportunity and support to develop to their fullest potential and share a personal and meaningful bond with people in the school community. (Olweus)

This quote should be a statement all schools and staff members of the school should know and follow by, to ensure their students and parents feel secure of their children attending their school. In this quote, “A code of conduct describes the positive behaviors expected of the school community, the code of conduct applies to all, sets standards for behavior, and covers a focused set of expected positive behaviors” (1). A code of conduct works for students because it sets a line of discipline that children are afraid to cross and afraid of the consequences that are bound to happen. Code of conducts most of the time work for schools because children do not want to face the consequences of going to in school suspension and having the results of them calling their parents:

Schools can establish clear procedures for reporting rule violations so that reasonable consequences can be given to students when rules are broken. Reporting systems help track individual incidents and responses as well as trends over time Some tips for establishing a reporting system: Make it easy People are more likely to report when it’s easy to do. Maintain reports in a way that shows emerging problems and patterns over time. Keep reports confidential and private School staff and students should be encouraged to report violations without fear of retaliation. (1)

 When school systems invented the anonymous hotline to report suspicious behaver, children felt more comfortable because the report would remain anonymous and it is easy to access while making a report, and while also resolving problems and creating solutions to keep intolerable behavior under control.

What can schools do to solve the social epidemic of bullying? Schools are known as a safe place for the students and parents, while children are also learning and developing. Schools should also worry about children who are sitting alone or eating alone because there should be no children at a young age sitting alone at school during recess time and not having fun, “Training can be successful when staff are engaged in developing messages and content, and when they feel that their voices are heard” (1). When the teachers are properly trained on the topic of bullying they can incorporate the topic in a classroom discussion and open up about what is bothering them and let their boss and other teachers know situations that occurring within the students. While also creating the solution the schools staff members, the teacher should always reward children for speaking up and respecting their classmates with kindness.

Camus and Absurdity

            Camus is a French absurd author, philosopher, and journalist. Camus would define bullying as inhuman and plain out unnecessary. Camus would want to talk to the victim and the bully and ask what the point of bullying someone is and making them feel less of them sleeves which leads to harm. Because Camus strongly did not agree with people committing suicide, he said “there is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. There is no way of escaping the absurdity of life the absurd frees man from all feeling of responsibility, annihilates the future and leaves only one certainty the sensation of being alive” (A quote by...). With his saying he means that even though life is unanswered and unpredictable, and challenges get in the way, suicide is never the answer and is the weak way out to leave the world. “Dr. Olweus defines school bullying in a general way as "repeated negative, ill-intentioned behavior by one or more students directed against a student who has difficulty defending himself or herself Most bullying occurs without any apparent provocation on the part of the student who is exposed” (Olweus). With this scientific research by Dr. Olweus bullying is a trait from seeing bullying happen and schools need to enforce stricter discipline and have classroom teaching skills on how to treat one another.

Conclusion

            In conclusion bullying is a major social epidemic that has increased all over the world for many years. Bullying has always been an important topic, because bullying was defined as verbal abuse to another person. Then within over the years it began to become more common to bully someone else but became a top priority when children turned to suicide as an outcome to leave this world and leave the physical, verbal abuse at ease. The main reason bullying has spread world wide is because teachers, and parents aren’t recognizing the early signs of bullying and harassments that are occurring. The generations that are evolved now and the generations to come should not have to face a bully or be a bully. The students and adults now can come together and create a solution within the school to stop bullying one another and have the students grow a stronger relationship within their own parents, and staff members at school. This solution will have the social epidemic of bully decrease and maybe even be gone for good if we all treat each other with respect.   

             

Work Cited

"Set Policies & Rules." StopBullying.gov, 29 Feb. 2012, www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/at-school/rules/index.html

“A Quote by Albert Camus.” Quote by Albert Camus: “life is a sum of all your choices”. So, what …”, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/405686-life-is-a-sum-of-all-your-choices-so-what

Delara, Ellen. "Bullying is a Global Problem." Home - Falk College – Syracuse University https://falk.syr.edu/bullying-is-a-global-problem/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.

Ellis, Ross. stop bullying. www.stompoutbullying.org/get-help/about-bullying-and-cyberbullying/effects-bullying. Accessed 2 Mar. 2019.

Gilmour. orgins of bullying. www.bullying-190.blogspot.com/2012/11/origins-of-bullying.html.

Gordon, Sherri. "How Bystanders Are Wounded by Bullying." Verywell Family, 26 Dec. 2012, www.verywellfamily.com/how-witnessing-bullying-impacts-bystanders-460622. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.

Hurley, Katie. "Short Term and Long Term Effects of Bullying: Psychological & Societal." PsyCom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986, 26 Sept. 2018, www.psycom.net/effects-of-bullying. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.

Loveless, Becton. "Bullying Epidemic: Facts, Statistics and Prevention." Education Corner© Online Education, Colleges & K12 Education Guide, www.educationcorner.com/bullying-facts-statistics-and-prevention.html. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.

Olweus. "School Bullying is Nothing New, But Psychologists Identify New Ways to Prevent It." Https://www.apa.org, 29 Oct. 2004, www.apa.org/research/action/bullying. Accessed 14 Apr. 2019.