Bullying : The Place That Should Be Safe

In 2015, roughly one out of four students (22%) reported being bullied (National Bullying Prevention Center). These students develop social withdrawal, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and physical complaints throughout their primary and secondary educational years (B.B. 77). Sometimes, it does not stop there. Students that have been bullied are 2.4 times more likely to report suicidal ideation and 3.3 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than their peers who report not being bullied (National Bullying Prevention Center). Measures need to be taken so that these statistics aren’t as high and alarming. Bullying is a problem, but it is a problem that can be resolved.

No matter what type of bullying, it should not happen to anyone. No one deserves to have fears about going to go to or to work because they are afraid of being threatened and bullied. Bullying is a well known problem in the US yet little had been done to prevent the problem. Everyday, in schools, a placed where security and shelter was promised, young children and teenagers are physically threatened, publically embarrassed, and exploited on social media all because of bullies. If bullying happens in schools, people believe it is the children’s responsibility to address the problem themselves which is not the case. Yes, some of the responsibility is on the children, the victim, the bully, and the bystanders, but the other half is for the adults

Bullying is the cause of many suicides and deaths (Home n. pag). In McCormack’s article, he explains how many students are bullied each day and harassed to the point where they question their own self-esteem. They are no longer

Bullying is all over the world. Each year there is over 3.2 million victims being bullied. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month in a year. To many within a school semester. Since 2002, fighting behaviour has increased, especially in grades six to eight. Boys are more likely to start bullying because of being bullied in their past. Girls are most likely to cyberbully. Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. According to Gale, cyberbullying is the use of the Internet, smartphones, or other electronic communication devices to spread harmful or embarrassing information about another person, such as talking about people, telling other people’s

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.

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:

Bullying is a wide spread epidemic in our country. Almost everyone will be bullied at some point in their life. Bullying happens for many reasons and can have fatal consequences if it is not handled.

Bullying in American schools has become an underrated topic to converse about. It is a worldwide problem that can have negative consequences for the general school climate and for the right of students to learn in a safe environment without fear. Throughout Elementary schools, students are taught about bullying more than any other grade school. 282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month. As generations have evolved, kids in all schools get bullied rapidly and are afraid to report it. They feel they have no one to go to and situations like this can ruin a young life. Students can start bullying at a young age and stay consistent through until they graduate. Young people commit suicide due to being bullied in American schools. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year according to the CDC.

Bullying is no longer a phenomenon for just teens, preteens and parents. An article in Psychology Today defines bullying as a “distinctive pattern of deliberately harming and humiliating others.” It is now a major concern for seniors and their families. The fastest growing segment of the population is people over 84! Many of them use senior centers or live in senior communities. Bullying among seniors in these situations has been an issue for some time but unfortunately is on the rise. Close to 20% of seniors who use or are in facilities face some type of bullying, harassment, social manipulation, controlling behaviors or ostracism by their peers.

The issue of bullying became a concern in the United States after researchers found that many school shootings were a result of students wanting to get revenge for being a victim of bullying. It first appeared that they were loners or individuals who set out to hurt others for their own satisfaction, but they were actually finally standing up for themselves. Bullying can cause students to lose their identity and feel useless. Students who are victims of bullying become depressed and may suffer from psychological issues. Many students that are being bullied suffer from low levels of self-esteem, anger for not standing up for themselves, or hopelessness. The behavior of bullying can destroy another

Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times mere likely to consider suicide than non-victims according to studies from Yale University. About 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 1600,000 children around America stay home from school every day because they fear or experience bullying. Over 14 percent of high school Students have considered suicide and almost 7 percent have attempted with most succeeding. Bullying causes mental and physical harm to others and can even mean someone's life.

There are countless issues that have risen from people being anonymous. Some of these issues like have led people to end their life. We bring up the issues and leave them floating in the air like pollen in the summer. We have to stop anonymity so our citizens can feel safe when they use the internet. Anonymity leads to issues like cyber bullying of teenagers, our women being attacked online, and even Catfishing.

According to the online dictionary, a bully is someone that uses superior strength or influence to intimidate another person typically to force the bullied person to do what the bully wants them to do. Bullying, whether in person or in the cyber world, has become an extremely large issue in society. I live in a very small, rural community where life is very laid back and everyone knows each other, but bullying still exists. I find it very interesting that each public school in Pennsylvania has an anti-bullying system that is practiced, anti-bullying is consistently taught in media and in religious institutions but it doesn’t seem to have impacted the rate of bullying issues. Most teenagers, whether they are the bully or the bullied, think the programs that they must participate in are a joke, and the media plays on the stories of those that

Bullying has become an increasingly widespread social phenomenon. It is defined as a way of seeing aggressive behavior occur within someone that intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying may take place in the form of physical contact, verbal use, or even psychologically. There is a major difference in bullying and normal conflict between people. It does not only occur in children, but also in adolescence. Zielinski (2014) suggests that the effects of bullying in childhood can last a lifetime, both for the child who’s bullied and their tormenter. Harassment falls into the same category and effects individuals in similar ways to those of bullying. Girdwain (2016) explains several factors that constitute bullying in old age. This paper examines Zielinski (2014) and Girdwain (2016) relation to other research articles to show the brutal side of bullying and how to fully understand the effects of it on children adolescents even the elderly.

Bullies might not always be aware of the severe consequences of their actions but this cannot condone the sorrow and pain they inflict upon the victims. Bullying often evokes psychosomatic illnesses. Victims complain about headache, heart diseases, dizziness, nausea and sleep disorder. Bullying becomes the dominating part of their whole life; they cannot do anything without thinking of the horror of the next workday. Weakened as they are, victims become an even easier target for people who want to harm them. It is a vicious circle, hard to break out for those terrorized by bullying. Many of them think of committing suicide as the last way out.