Essay about Bullying in Schools

More than obesity and health care is wrong with America. Not only does the health care system warp people's mind, but it creates an issue with the way children are taught and how they learn. A large stance has already changed many people’s lives—bullying. Children bully for many reasons including sexual orientation, weight, religious/philosophical beliefs, and some reasons unknown to all. Children bullied for their weight often times feel insecure and worthless about their bodies—scaring them in the process of always wanting to be in the same physical state and leading more obese children to lead obese adult lives.

Issue: If you or your child have ever been a victim of bullying then you know how horrible one can feel. There are many emotions and fears associated with bullying, and no one should have to be subjected to it. Bullying can have a lasting effect not only in one’s present life but their future as well. Bullying is very prominent in schools today, and there has been an increase in school shootings, which is the extreme reaction to being bullied. Children need to consider each other’s feelings before they decide to bully or pick on each other.

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.

Bullying at school is a big problem that is found in all the schools in the United States and across the world. Since the late 1990s there have been several fatal school shootings committed by victims of bullying that have brought bullying major media attention. This has resulted in an increase of awareness about the harmful effects on the kids being bullied as well as the bullies themselves. This has brought a large amount of local, state, and nationwide programs designed to try to prevent bullying or to at least try to contain the problem. “In an effort to adequately address the problem, many schools are taking a proactive approach through prevention and intervention, but how do we know if and when such intervention is effective? First and foremost, we must have an accurate understanding of the dynamic and complex phenomenon of bullying across development and as it spans the multiple levels of the social ecology” (Casper, Meter, & Card, 2015, par 2). Many psychologists, sociologists, and school administrators have been publishing research on school bullying. Bullying is a significant threat to many children because it causes psychological problems not only for those who get bullied but also those who do the bullying. Even though bullying is a significant problem the are few solutions that can help prevent or significantly reducing bullying like reporting bullying, know the characteristics, and passing laws.

The first common theme is non-response. Notar and Padgett noted that bullying often got worse after nothing was done about it. The authors stated that parents may not be aware how to respond and were often dismissive of the situation when their child discussed being bullied. As for teachers, they often underestimate the intensity of bullying at their schools. One alarming statistic found that school staff thought that less than ten percent of the student body was being bullied, yet thirty-three percent

Bullying is bound to happen anywhere at any time but occurs mostly within school limits. Kathleen Winkler defines bulling in her book, Bullying, as “...any kind of ongoing physical or verbal mistreatment, done with the intent to harm, where there is an imbalance of power between bully and victim” (Winkler 14). Bullying has an extremely important impact on one’s everyday life and can affect their life negatively getting to the point where they can no longer take the blow. To try and prevent bullying from taking place in schools, one needs to know how bullying effects a person, what the role of each person involved in the situation is, and have knowledge of specific methods on how to prevent it. Bullying in schools is a serious problem and a handful of school do their part to prevent it; others, not as much, which means there is room for improvements.

One important cause for the state or federal government to put laws in school to prevent bullying is make children safer in school. Temkin (2003) writes about the intention of the Senator Bob Casey want to introduce the Safe Schools Improvement Act. The time to pass this bill is now for making children feel safe and empowered in school. The U.S Department of Education showed that shown to be effective in reducing bullying. It is known that the horrible effects child abuse can have on a child’s current and future well

Students who are victims of bullying force themselves out of bed every morning with an overwhelming sense of despair because they know one foot stepped inside the institution interprets into a new day and a new game for the oppressor. Even though there has been a nationwide policy adopted by many Institutions in the efforts of putting a stop to bullying, many victims stay unnoticed due to failure of acknowledgment, failure of anti-bullying programs, and failure of catching early discerning behavior. Nonetheless, Bullying has gotten to be such an overused word that those who are in dire need of assistance aren’t receiving the attention needed to eliminate the issue from the start, however, there are solutions that could solve the epidemic

Media attention has brought the issue of bullying to the forefront. America is suffering from a bullying epidemic. Bullying is a national issue that has cost many lives within the past few decades. More than 160,000 children refuse to attend school due to fears of falling victim to bullying. There are several types of bullying and they all have been the cause and effect of many lives. Bullying can go anywhere from a cyber-setting, verbal, and the one we all know the traditional physical bullying. Bullying is intimidating because there are so many different methods of bullying. Many victims cannot defend themselves and do not believe reporting bully actions will help them or keep them protected, because they worry about retaliation, shame or the reputation of “snitching”.

According to the Journal of School Health, 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school (“11 facts”). Bullying is widespread epidemic and it is one of the most unreported safety problems that occur on school campuses across the nation. People take days away from school to avoid being terrorized, see their academic performance decrease, experience depression, and in extreme cases take their own lives, or kill some of their schoolmates due to the fact that they were constantly burdened with people bullying them. Can you imagine seeing your own child apprehensive about going to school because they are haunted by the memories of constantly being called names, having false rumors spread between their peers, or even, battered? I have noticed that bullying is often dismissed by people because they believe that it is just

Bullying is often unnoticed and unacknowledged by adults, which causing school officials to limited understanding and skills on how to address behaviors (Branes, Cross, Lester, Hearn, Epstein, & Monks, 2012). Bulling prevention programs will help inform teachers, schools, and parents on how to notice students are bullies or bring bullied. A bully behavior can negatively affect the person that they are targeting. Schools must inforce consequences for students are labeled as bullies, and teachers will need to intervene when the behavior is displayed. Therefore, effective school policies and strategies are important for teacher and staff members to understand to prevent and reduce bullying (Branes, Cross, Lester, Hearn, Epstein, & Monks, 2012).

Further, schools face a difficult situation when handling such bullys. In some cases, a school may develop a repuatation as an environment of fear and disrespect (Olweus2). Students also perceive that teachers and staff have little control, consequently believing that they do not care about them. It also affects students' learning abilities as well as feeling secure in school. School bullying is more frequent due to the lack of awareness right adults have (Smith2). The subject of bullying is brought to the attention of all because of it's harmful consequences. Many have taken their own lives because of constitant harassment and neglegance. No human being should have to suffer like that because of somebody else, thus reitterating the importance of teaching kids young the importance of not bullying others, and to implent these programs for those who are.

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.

It is only in the recent years that attention has turned toward the widespread problem of bullying, especially in schools, and that bullying is identified as a serious problem that merits intervention and research (Coy). Therefore, relatively little effort has been made to overcome or address the problem, which still remains a widespread social vice. This paper purports to illustrate how, despite efforts made to rectify the situation, bullying still remains rampant, and is getting worse.

 “Bullying is one form of violence that seems to have increased in recent years,