Are Antibullying Strategies in Schools Successful?

Bullying, often labeled as just a part of growing up, is a major problem in America’s schools today. Although it is such a hot topic in our country right now, it is also a long ignored problem that only seems to worsen. The complication with bullying is that no one quite understands it, and it is not taken seriously. The definition of bullying is an overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people. In more simple terms, bullying is not a onetime incident; it is repetitive and happens among individuals when there is an imbalance of power. Statistically, every one in six children are bullied, and this cannot continue to take place. Every child has the right to feel safe and have the pursuit of being happy in which bullying completely takes those rights away.

Though it is a popular act, it is not beneficial to either the victim or the bully. Studies have shown that bullies and victims are equally depressed and that bullies experience more frequent suicidal ideation than whom they oppress. Bullying can also affect the lives of victims and bullies post-secondary education, causing them to be troubled in adulthood. One measure that can be taken to solve bullying is to implement bullying intervention programs in schools. Although bullying happens in every stage of life, it ordinarily begins in education systems. The best way to eliminate a problem is to stop it at its source. With intervention programs enforced in schools, bullying levels would decrease before they reach adulthood. Bullying interventions should be sanctioned in schools as soon as possible. It should not be delayed until after someone else becomes another bullying

Schools are the most well-known settings for bullying. This is the place where students learn and socialize for most of the day. A school is a place meant to feel safe, not afraid. However, studies have shown us this is not the case. More and more students are reluctant to come to school. Why? Their peers may criticize them and abuse of them both verbally and physically. Bullying is more serious than most think. Many people just think it’s a simple hoax that was taken too far but this simple joke can lead to indelible emotional and physical scar that could hunt students for life eventually lowering their self-esteems and even ruining their lives. Schools and teachers have failed tremendously at stopping this.

An average bullying session lasts about 37 seconds; an adult intervenes in the problem about one in twenty-five times (Bullying Facts). Bullying is seen as aggressive and unwanted behavior between two or more people (Aspa).  Most people who are not involved in the actions going on do not really know it’s happening.  Most parents do not even know when their child, or children, are being bullied (Bullying Facts).  Bullying can be prevented if the right consequences take place.  Parents and schools have the rules about bullying prevention, but these do not prevent the bullying from continuing their ways.  People who bully often should receive bigger consequences because eventually the problem could escalate and the bully will continue their

The bullies in schools never think they will get severely punished, so they don’t stop. They think that they won’t be caught and that bullying isn’t a huge deal, but it is. Bullying causes students to not go to school, to feel alone, and to leave their school feeling worthless. If the bully were to be suspended, he/she would learn quickly that what they are doing is wrong in so many ways. They will realize that bullying can be the reason they don’t get into their dream school or do something they love. On the other hand, victims of bullying don’t come forward and voice that the have been taunted, teased, and tormented because they don’t think the school will help them. 67 percent of students feel that their school doesn’t hear about their bullying and doesn’t do anything that will prevent it (Soard). A great number of bullies in

As stories like Moniques and other people demonstrates, there are policies out there that just simply do not work.. One is called zero-tolerance policies, and while these succeed at sending the message that bullying is not tolerated, there are several problems with them. Nora M. Findlay believes, “ One of the most serious problems inherent in zero tolerance is that it treats dissimilar problems in a similar way” (6). Secondly, “Students and teachers may be less likely to report and address bullying if suspension or expulsion is the consequence” (United States Department of Health and Human Services). Two other policies that are used but never works is called peer-mediation, and conflict resolution. The United States Department of Health and Human Services stresses, “Conflict involves antagonism among two or more people. Whereas any two people can have a conflict (or a disagreement or a fight) bullying only occurs when there is a power imbalance-where one child has a hard time defending himself or herself” (“Myths about Bullying” sect. 1). This difference is very important to be aware of because these strategies can make the people being bullied feel even worse. Not only that, but it sends the message that all children share equal blame, which is definitely not an appropriate message. The message to the person being bullied should be,

‘’over 3.2 million students of any kind get bullied.’’ As a parent you don't know what to do but go to their school. Then you got teenagers. ‘’Approximately 1600,000 teens skip school.’’ Then goes there education. Therefore , they won't be able to participate in school events. ‘’ By age 14 less than thirty percent of boys and forty percent of girls will tell there peers about bullying.” this is an example that schools don't do much to solve it. Also, because maybe the students are scared to. “90 percent of students report being bullied in eighth grade.”

In most cases 64% of students do not report being bullied and only 36 % of students report it. Moreover, having an adult intervene on behalf of the student being bullying has been effective in reducing the hostile behavior against the other student being bullied by more than half of the bullying situations by 57%. Programs against bullying have shown to decrease the percentage of children being bullied by up to 25%. Above all, students have reported to be bullied the most because of appearance by (55%), body shape by (37%), and race by (16%). Cyber bullying (online bullying) has become common among students and 19.6% of children become victims. From those children who are being cyber bullied 90% report being bullied in person as well. However, children who have a disability have a higher chance of being bullied two or three times more than children who are not disabled. Children who identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) were also bullied because of what they identified themselves with in regards of their sexual orientation. For that reason, 81.9 students from the LGBTQ community were bullied. Overweight students were victims of bullying and 64% were reported. Lastly, being a victim of bullying elevates suicidal ideation by 2.4 attempts more, and 3.3 more times likely to prepare a plan and proceed to commit suicide. In conclusion, children need interventions such as positive reinforcement and cognitive therapy to overcome the effects of bullying (Pacer,

Bullying prevention policy has been gone about in many different programs, a couple of the important ones include Steps to Respect, which focuses on schools in California, and Positive Action which targets schools in the Chicago area. Bullying is not an uncommon occurrence, and unfortunately, it is not uncommon for children to be affected by it. “Bullying occurs at all ages. “In 2010–2011, “6th graders being bullied at a rate of 37 percent, 8th graders at a rate of almost 31 percent, 10th graders at a rate of 28 percent, and 12th graders at a rate of 22 percent.”It takes place in a crucial stage of development so being victimized, whether emotionally or physically, can take a major toll on them and shape them very drastically for the

In the past ten years there has been an increased stress on schools to recognize bullying an issue. Some schools are implementing anti-bullying programs and schools are hoping the programs will be effective. Schools, teachers, staff, students and parents need to realize that bullying is not going to go away over night, but each program students learn will help them become more accepting and empathetic. Anti-bullying programs are effective in schools and give students lessons they will reference to their whole lives.

For example there was a workshop at West Allegheny Middle School in Imperial, Pa. that had students share extremely personal information with the other students. Some of the questions that the students were asked were “Do either one of your parents have a drug or alcohol problem?", or “Do you have financial issues at home?” (Lowenberg, 2016, Pg.1). By participating in this workshop the students were scared and humiliated in front of their peers. Even though there are flaws in the bullying prevention plans, there are still effective ways to prevent this serious situation. In fact, “63 percent of students had been bullied at school in the past, only 40 percent were bullied in the current school year. Fifty-nine percent reported that the bullying situation at school had improved this year” (Dalton and Wilkins, 2011, Pg.1). That 59% of students show that there are effective ways to prevent bullying, but schools just have to find the right ones. Schools are doing an immense amount to prevent

One of the easiest ways in order to eliminate the frequency of bullying would be to implement very strong anti-bullying programs in schools, this is the place where many children spend most of their days aside from home, these programs should be effective on a various amount of cases. Michael Morrow did research on elementary school anti-bullying programs and wrote the article “Consultation in Bullying Prevention: An Elementary School Case Study.” This article looked at the various research that has been done on anti-bullying programs and the papers that have been written about it. “Multiple prevention programs have been developed and utilized around the world to address bullying in schools and many employ a schoolwide or whole-community approach. While these programs share similar features, they also vary in numerous ways, most notably in their specific components” (Morrow, 2015, p. 87). There are programs that are implemented that may

Many people do not realize how serious bullying has become. If you look at statistics suicides due to bullying have increased over just a few short years. This has become a very big problem for not only the victim but the bully as well as it affect both of them. School bullying is mentally destructive to not only the victims, but bullies because of the harmful words, harassment, and physical violence involved as well as the consequences for the bully.

The bullies in schools never think they will get severely punished, so they don’t stop. They think that they won’t be caught and that bullying isn’t a huge deal, but it is. Bullying causes students to not go to school, to feel alone, and to leave their school feeling worthless. If the bully were to be suspended, he/she would learn quickly that what they are doing is wrong in so many ways. They will realize that bullying can be the reason they don’t get into their dream school or do something they love. On the other hand, victims of bullying don’t come forward and voice that the have been taunted, teased, and tormented because they don’t think the school will help them. 67 percent of students feel that their school doesn’t hear about their bullying and doesn’t do anything that will prevent it (Soard). A great number of bullies in schools go unnoticed because of this which will in turn, make them continue to do these hurtful things. Punishments that bullies receive are not harsh enough and need to be reconsidered if we want a change in our lives.

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