Blocking Bullying In Middle School

Bullying is a situation where one person abuses power over another. Bullying is about power, control and abuse. Bully’s come in all shapes, sizes and forms. Bullying occurs throughout a human’s life span. The most-critical development stage of one’s personality is adolescence. Bullying during adolescence has been a major issue in every community. Bullying can happen in three known forms; direct, indirect, and cyber. Both gender and sexual orientation are associated with all forms of bullying. Bullying affects self-esteem and family cohesion.

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.

According to the American Psychological Association, “Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions” (Bullying, 2013). People bully each other for several reasons and there are different outcomes that are a result of those reasons. People can be bullied physically, emotionally, or verbally. Bullying can take place at school or online. Bullying should be a considered a crime, but kids get away with it all the time; furthermore prevention can be used in order to keep kids safe from bullying.

Formerly thought to be just a normal aspect of growing up, bullying in schools is increasingly being recognized as a serious social problem that should be met with organized preventative efforts to downsize it. Bullying commonly deals with three aspects such as the nature of its occurrence, the frequency it takes place, and the effects it can have on a person. While each instance is different for each person, one constant is that this is a uncomfortable situation for anyone to deal with. Bullying can be described as a negative form of behavior or hostility. Many times bullying doesn 't take place one time on numerous occasions. It also may occur in a wide range of other forms of abuse and assault against children, for example, as physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse. This may be perpetrated by peers, by known adults and by strangers. For all intents and purposes, every type of bullying represent a abuse of influence, a negative use of power in order to dominate another, suppress, control and humiliate another individual or persons that may not be able to stand up for themselves (because of fear).

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)

Bullying behavior, broadly described as intimidating or harassing another person through physical or verbal assaults and insults, can begin at any age, but it seems to be a particular problem among children and adolescents. Although bullying is usually a one-on-one behavior, it also has a broader social impact. Victim may feel

Bullying had always been a part of my life. It first started when I was in elementary school and it usually started with little things, such as the fact that I wore glasses or how many people thought I was weird for reading books and being a loner most of the time. Then, it followed me to middle school. People would look at me, point, and proceed to say rude things about me. People would make fun of my clothing and it affected the way I saw myself.

School should be a place where students learn social and emotional skills as well as academics lessons but bullying has become a prominent issue in schools and it’s even occurring online. Bullying can be direct or indirect and it can affect every student in the school. Bullying undermine children’s safety, senses of belonging, feelings of value, and it also hamper their ability to learn. It can also create a climate of fear and disrespect that spreads throughout the school and even extends to the community. Bullying is different from conflict, fights, or disagreements. According to (Boston Public School), Bullying is a form of emotional or physical abuse that has three defining characteristics:

Bullying is a form of social interaction that is shaped by social norms of youths and adults as well schools and broader society. Bullying used to be thought of a playground hazard, perhaps even an essential rite of the passage. Most of the time have changed and there is increasing recognition that bullying can affect anyone, of any age, from childhood to adulthood, and that it makes lives miserable and unpleasant. Online and offline bullying are often related. A bullying relationship in school often extends to technology devices. Offline bullying is more prevalent among middle school students, where cyber bullying is more common among high school students. Youth involved in bullying whether they are the perpetrator or the victim tend to have

Bullying affects more and more people each day. I beg you to take this issue seriously. There is no excuse for someone in your home, classroom, or on your team to be bullied or to be bullying someone else. It’s not kids just being kids. Middle school and high school is such a hard time for a

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious ever lasting problems.

Horton (2011) defines bullying as “a group’s collective aggressiveness towards an individual or group of individuals who provoke or attract this aggressiveness” (p. 268). According to Brank, Hoetger, and Hazen (2012) there are four main types of bullying: physical, verbal, relational (or social), and cyber bullying. Physical bullying is characterized by acts of aggression such as punching or hitting. Verbal bullying is characterized by name calling or teasing. Deliberately leaving someone out of activities and/or starting rumors characterizes relational or social bullying. Cyber bullying utilizes technology such as texts, email, or social media to express aggression toward others (p. 214). Regardless of the form of bullying, a common thread amongst them is there is a power imbalance between the bully and the person being bullied. Being able to physically or verbally hurt others, being more confident, having superior manipulative or social skills, and

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involve’s a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems. The types of bullying are listed below.

Bullying is known as the use of strength and intimidation to get a desired action or object from a person. There are many different forms of bullying. Name-calling, hazing, and starting rumors are a few examples of modern bullying techniques. Although bullying is prevalent in many aspects of today’s society, most attention is being turned to bullying in schools. Bullying in schools has been a leading cause of depression and suicide. Because of this, many schools have begun to implement new anti-bullying programs to discourage bullying and offer support to victims. Despite these efforts, teens are still harboring depression and committing suicide. Bullying it still prevalent in today’s youth community, despite

School bullying and bullying as a whole has become a growing concern. The need for more intervention is more recognized, as incidents of bullying and inappropriate acts towards others occur in places outside of the classroom. This literature takes a closer look at bullying in schools. Olwesus (2013) states “the field of bullying research is to some extent plagued by problems, disagreements, and unresolved issues” (p.752). Whether if anyone will agree on the root of bullying, the fact remains that bullying has to be examined at its very core to remedy the matter before it becomes a bigger concern. There is a dire need for intervention based programs to be set in place to address the fact the act of bullying has lasting effects on the bully and the victim. When intervention programs are put into place to address bullying, the act of bullying decreases due to the gained understanding of the effects.