Anti-Bullying Laws and the Just Cause Essay

Bullying is one of the leading causes in teen suicide today. People bullied in the past or present have been studied and it has shown that they have a lower quality of life. Though they have a lower quality of life, the have better physical and mental health. (“Seaman” 1). Studies have shown that most bullying happens in middle school and high school. There is bullying in elementary school but it is minimal and less serious (“Bullying Statistics” 1). Most kids refuse to speak up while being bullied in fear that the bully will just taunt them more (“Cyber-Safety Act” 2). Bullying has become a very serious issue regarding our society today.

Bullying is still in fact a major source of predicaments among many children, adolescents, and young adults; in the cases of schools in particular, “[o]ne out of every four students (22%) report[ed] being bullied during the school year” (US Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, 2015, ¶ 1). Concomitantly, one must accept the fact that bullying is a constant problem that requires more solicitude and awareness from the general public in order to further aid in its prevention. Nonetheless, studies conducted by Hawkins, Pepler, and Craig (2001) have also revealed that more than half of

Unfortunately, bullying is very common during the elementary and middle school years. In one study of 4th – 6th graders, 25% of students admitted to bullying another student several times or more often during the school term. Another study found that 80% of middle school students reported engaging in some form of bullying during the past 30 days; with 15% doing so frequently. In a national study of more than 15,000 students in grades 6 through 10, 17% reported having been bullied “sometimes” or more often during the school term, and 19% reported bullying others “sometimes” or more

Bullying is defined as “verbal, physical, or psychological abuse or teasing accompanied by real or perceived imbalance of power” and is usually targets what children perceive as different (Olweus, 1993). Bullying is prevalent across the nation. It has devastating effects on students each day. Bullying is a problem for all students, regardless of race, gender or class. The National Education Association reports that 160,000 children are absent intentionally from school each day because they fear being bullied whether it is an attack or just intimidation by other students. This accounts for 15% of all school absenteeism (Hunter, 2012). Dan Olweus (1993) from the National School Safety Center tells us that bullying includes three parts: (1)

They need to empower teachers and especially students to help enforce policies by teaching them to see what behaviors are not acceptable and how they should react. Schools need to increase adult supervision because bullying happens when adults are not around. Schools should have assemblies and activities that bring the community together to show that bullying is wrong. Teachers can have their students write a set of school or class rules or sign a behavior contract. Making scenarios of bullying and what to do can help students know what they should do.

“Nationwide, one out of four students from the ages twelve to eighteen have been bullied. That is twenty five percent to the teenage/young adult population and these numbers are continuously to rise every day” (Wassdorp, Bradshaw, and Leaf 116, 149-156). Bullying is the action of repeated harmful acts or harassing another in various forms. Many situations fall under one or even multiple of these categories: physical, verbal, indirect, and cyber. What this does is strips the victim down from their identity and leaves them to pity themselves for being the way they are. Bullying is an issue in this nation because it tears apart the teenage/young adult population, and it is causing an increase in risk of suicide among these groups. Bullying is

Bullying has become a major issue in the United States and around the world. What brought the attention to people about bullying is the number of suicides that are committed by adolescents and the stories they share online or live television. Bullying is categorized to be direct verbal, direct physical, and indirect forms. Not every person has an idea how terrible bullying can be and how harmful it is to the victim. Bullying has driven students to commit actions they have never done before such as cutting themselves, suicidal thoughts, health disorders, and bad behavior. Bullying must be taken seriously, because it results in negative effects on its victims and may drive students to commit horrific actions. Lawmakers should draft anti-bullying legislation, students should stand up for one another, and society should work out what can be done to combat this problem.

The state of New Jersey passed Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act in 2011 to reduce school bullying. The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, which is Chapter 122, is “an Act concerning harassment, intimidation, and bullying in school settings, amending various parts of the statutory law and supplementing”. After learned the current situation of bullying in the United States, and compared the rates of bullying to New Jersey, realized the benefits of anti-bullying regulations have on youths, parents, teachers, school stuffs, and so on, and the history of successfully implemented public school anti-bullying statutes in 2002, legislators in New Jersey saw the needs and being confident of enacting the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (C.18A: 37-13.1).

To deny the existence of bullying throughout the nation, especially within the brick walls of school, is to be ignorant. Bullying is a huge issue that is evident in may schools throughout America. Seventy percent of students throughout schools in America have said that they have witnessed bullying. A total of forty-nine percent of student in grades 4-12 have reported getting bullied at least once a month. Parents have to constantly worry about their child getting picked on while at school. One out of every four students, equalling to around twenty percent, are bullied every year. Around fifty-five million children throughout the United States are attending school this year, many whom are getting bullied.

Once perceived to be child hood fun, bullying is now the subject of hundreds of laws and an important issue for teens and parents around the country. As time has passed and more modern technology has risen in popularity it has created even more ways for bullying to occur, causing a larger effort of prevention. Therefore this paper will discuss whether there should be more bullying legislation enacted within the United States of America.

Bullying is a very serious and present issue in today’s society. Those who are “bullied can experience negative physical, school, and mental health issues” (“Effects of”). These children are also “more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school” (“Effects of”). Annually, there are about “5.4 million students skip school” due to being bullied (“The Effects”). Victims

Lawmakers, activists, and parents have all been working to institute laws to help reconcile the bullying that has invaded the schools. It has not been a speedy process, only nine states require the schools to report bullying to the local authorities (Garby, 2013). New Jersey has the stiffest anti-bullying law thus far, by suspending or

The Effects of Bullying on a Child Every day in our schools, children are threatened, teased, taunted, and tormented by bullies. At any given time, about 25 percent of U.S. students are the victims of bullies and about 20 percent are engaged in bullying behavior (Education World, 2000). The National Association of School Psychologists estimates that 160,000 children stay home from school every day because they are afraid of being bullied (Education World, 2000). Bullying is characterized by three criteria(NCPTB, 2003): It is aggressive behavior or the intent to harm,

Bullying has been escalating to a certain degree that it has affected as many as 160,000 students that reported staying home from school every day, because they were afraid of being bullied (www.stompoutbullying.org). Bullying does not only stops one from wanting to go to school, it also makes one feel anxious, insecure, and unhappy at school, isolated and at times severely depressed (Young, Shin Kim, and Leventhal). Schools must have better resources available to students; this includes the victim and the bully. The victim should have both better counseling and stricter laws to protect them. Bullies also need counseling due to research which states “that many bullies tend to come from families where parents are more

About twenty-eight percent of student’s ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year according to the Indicators of School Crime and Safety report, by the Bureau of Justice statistics. Across thirty-nine states survey, 7.2 percent of students admit to not attending school because they do not feel safe. The importance of bullying can’t be undermined. Teachers and parents must understand the importance of looking and listening for signs and behaviors of bullying. This will help tackle the issue before it gets serious and someone gets hurt.