Bullying And Ostracization In School

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.

Throughout all of education’s history there has always been issues with one particular trait that some students or children carry. Bullying. Bullying over the course of the years still plays a role in the education system. Although the form of bullying has changed from the past to now, it still has an effect on students within the school systems. In the past there was the physical form of bullying where “jocks” would push the “nerds” into lockers or their books out of their hands. Another typical term used by bullies that anybody can recognize is, “give me your lunch money,” but bullying has evolved over the year. I believe that bullying now has more of an emotional impact on students and it’s mostly verbal. Social media plays a huge role in bullying as well, so what can teachers do in order to stop cyberbullying or bullying in general?

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

Most kids say that they don’t see bullying around school. In just Minnesota alone there is talk about bullying and how to prevent it. Sen. Franken states, “Nine out of 10 LGBT kids are harassed or bullied in school. One-third report having skipped school in the last month because they felt unsafe” (Shah 14). Kids should not feel unsafe to go to school. School is supposed to be a safe place to go and if someone needs help there are supposed to be people there to guide them. Franken adds, “But the sad fact is that our federal laws are failing” (Shah 14). Laws have been made to try to stop bullying, but bullying continues to exist. This shows how out of control bullying is becoming.

Over the past couple of decades, schools all across the nation have noticed a significant rise in the amount of bullying taking place among their students. “Two decades ago, bullying was often seen as a rare occurrence, where small groups of parents sought protection for their children with the school district”, stated by Vikki Healy Ortiz, writer of the article “New inclusive approach helps schools fight bullying”. However, the same cannot be said for our society in today’s world. Our modern world has advanced tremendously over the past few decades and there are even more opportunities for children to be susceptible to feeling isolated from others because they are simply unique. In today’s society, children have the potential to bully each other outside of the classroom as well.

To expect greatness in any field of life, it all starts from a place of quality education and that's what America has constantly strived for. School is the place where everyone is given equal opportunity to learn and shape himself or herself into contributing members of society. At the same time each individual’s academic success defines what it means to have a good life. Unfortunately, schools face lots of problems trying to do the right thing. Among major challenges that schools face, bullying has a strong attribution to the poor academic experience among student victims. Today, students still risk being bullied everyday. This paper studies bullying in secondary school with

Schools around the world offer educational opportunities for their students; which offer many opportunities for social cooperations for the youth. These social opportunities likewise offer many opportunities, one being for children to become victims of bullying.

The public school system has been governed by landmark cases and school law throughout history. One of the early cases was Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 where the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional for states to have separate public schools for black and white students (Hubbard, 2014). Since 1954, the public school system has had a series of landmark cases which effect educational law such as Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), New Jersey vs. T.L.O. (1985), Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), and Individuals with Disabilities Act (1990). The State and Supreme Courts have ruled on everything from Freedom of Speech to Special Education.

Bullying in the United States has become epidemic, but some schools are resistant to instill anti-bullying programs, because they fear the program will be ineffective. The article, Creating An Anti-Bullying Culture In Secondary Schools: Characterists to Consider When Constructing Appropriate Anti-Bullying Programs, researchers Joseph R. Jones, and Sharon Murphy Augustine address the issue of bullying head on. Research indicates that students who are from a low socioeconomic background, students who are racially diverse, students who have a learning disability, and student’s sexual orientation has the largest effect on bullying rates in the United States (Jones &Augustine, pp. 74-76). In a recent survey, twenty five percent of students reported that they are bullied on a daily basis and that cyber bullying is at an all time high (Jones &Augustine, p. 74). Due to the increased rates of bullying, there is an increase on teen suicide and school shootings. (Jones

Teasing and playing around are all part of growing up; however, what happens when it happens over and over. The Hernando County Code of Conduct defines bullying as:

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

The reason bullying is such a wide spread epidemic is because the bullying is never handled properly even though there are many ways to intervene the situation. At the school level it can be handled with disciplinary approach, strengthening the victim, restorative practice, support group method, and shared concern method (Ken Rigby). Each method works in a different way to target and stop bullying. For example, the support group method uses an approach where you talk to the victim, convene a group meeting, explain the problem,

Bullying has changed and become a more frequent trend over the years. Adolescents get bullied through social media and in person. In some cases there are not many people who speak out and help the person being bullied. While there might be some peers who hesitate to speak up, “[i]f no one speaks out against the bully, the bystanders interpret the lack of response as an acceptance of the behavior” (Finkelstein). When no one stands up for the victim, silence is an encouragement for the bullying to continue. Students don’t realize how speaking up for someone can make a great difference, even if it’s only one person. While children are mostly aware of what bullying is, they don’t completely understand it “[b]ullying can take many forms, including

“Does anyone have any questions?” Ms. Smith, the counselor, asked. She was making the rounds around the middle school gathering each class and made sure to know what bullying and abuse was. She wanted everyone to know that we are safe at school and could talk to her. We were all silent in response to her question. Me especially. Looking around my seventh grade home economics class with all of the students gathered around the front of the class, and thinking ‘someone else in here has experienced that’. Not the bullying, the abuse. My palms were sweaty and my face turned red with worry. I first thought ‘that sounds like what I go through at home. I thought all parents did that’. Then my mind raced to ‘What if I were to tell the school?’,

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.