The Blame Game- Who Is Responsible for the Bully

Bullying is a controversial issue that is often dealt with on a daily basis. Bullying is not only seen as misguided and harmless actions towards another, but is also seen as a violation of human rights. Whether it is serious or not, bullying can be found just about anywhere, primarily in places such as schools and daycares. But even though many people can brush off something like bullying, this hurtful act can actually take a toll on the victim, especially since most victims are children that can easily overreact to emotional and physical harassment. These individuals are usually embarrassed, as well as intimidated from being bullied, which in turn can make them do something that they might eventually regret. In other words, children that are

According to the article, Meet the New Sheriff by Suzanne McCabe, “One out of every five students are bullied or are bullies themselves.” This one piece of ground-breaking evidence is enough to destroy our society, and our children’s lives forever. Bullying is a highly discussed topic that American children face every day and it’s near impossible to stop. There are also topics within bullying, like how students become bullies, or how to stop bullying, also which is worse being a bystander or being a bully. And you can’t deny that bullies are almost like mad serial killers, they go around and they don’t stop even if they get into trouble. There are so many topics on bullying that you can’t even count them all. “Everyone has been bullied for

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

How many of you know someone that has been a victim of bullying? or have been victims of a bully? Statistically schools students have a one in seven chance of being on the receiving end of a bullies rage (NBNBD). In the United States, there is an estimated 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students (NEA), but what are the contributing factors in school violence? What and why do bullies to want to inflict pain on someone? We need to find the many sociological factors in a bully that causes them to do harm to others and contribute to violence in schools.

Bullying is defined as the prolonged malicious act of harming peers by abusing their own--or an existing imbalance of--power, and has become one of the most common sources of trauma among adolescents. One report shows that one of three children were victims of bullying during some point in their life, and that 10-14% of all adolescents were victims of chronic bullying for at least six months prior to participating in the survey. Children who were victims of bullying are also found to be at a higher risk of diagnoses for anxiety disorders and depression during young and middle adulthood. These victims are reported to be more likely to have lower levels of general/physical health, and lower educational acquirements than young and middle-aged adults who were not bullied (Wolke & Lereya, 2015). Because bullying is such a prominent problem, citizens, policymakers, and social scientists alike, should feel or have some social and moral obligation to address, and hopefully avert bullying. The state of bullying, and how it is enacted, is constantly changing and adapting to social frameworks. Because bullies can adapt to social changes and regulations, we, as a society, should be equally adaptive in how we perceive, address, prevent, and punish bullying.

A teacher is obligated to defuse classroom conflicts that could turn into a bullying situation due to bullying overlapping with harassment in some states. In Texas, the terms are used separately, but this is only a distinction in law, with no model policies in place for the schools to use as a guideline on how to resolve conflicts such as bullying. The implementation of anti-bullying policies and how they are handled are ultimately left to the school district to decide. Despite the policies being left to the districts, the teachers still have an ethical obligation to reasonably protect the students from an environment that is harmful to their learning, or health and safety. Due to this obligation, reporting to the principal is used and the

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.

According to students, schools respond inadequately, if at all, to reported incidents of bullying. When Frank Barone, principal of Amsterdam High School in Amsterdam, New York, asked hundreds of eighth graders if they had ever been bullied, more than half (58.8 percent) responded in the affirmative. Yet when he asked their teachers how many students had been bullied, they put the figure at 16 percent. Clearly, adults don't recognize the extent of bullying that children face every day. This shows that administration can easily miss important warning signs that point to school violence.

Yet the notion that bullying may have caused the massacre at Columbine High School is a chilling one, as it lessens the blame of the attack on the perpetrators themselves and further increases it on the students who actually bullied them as well as on the school officials who did nothing to discourage it. Elysa R. Safran writes in the Journal of Emotional Abuse:

In a high school in Colorado two senior students Dylan Keloid and Eric Harris made an extensive plan to attack and kill students and teachers. Through their actions 12 people were killed and 24 were injured. In the end both students committed suicide. After this shooting much thought was but into why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Idea such as movies and video games were brought into the forefront of discussion (Ross 2014). Bullying was also in question but many pushed it aside saying that the bully’s had graduated the year before (Ross 2014). These people who did not believe that bullying was a part of the cause did not take into consideration the mental effect bullying has nor the amount of bullying that goes unknown to others (Ross 2014). Students told authorities that the two boys had been harassed by many students and athletes throughout high school (Ross 2014). Authorities also found out that the school was notorious for turning a blind eye to bullying (Ross 2014). Though there were many other influences in the decision the boys made bullying was a major contributor to their mental health and view of the

Furthermore, since there are no federal laws that address bullying, “bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment when it is based on race, national origin, color, sex, age, disability, or religion.”(Federal Laws 1) After the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, forty-eight states put anti-bullying laws into place. All of their laws state that a hardcore investigation must take place, along with reporting it, followed by strict punishment. A victim has to report it happening from the same person or group repeatedly before anything is done about it, in order to suspend or expel the bully. Not many students in school are willing to report any bullying activity, they fear that they too will become bullied, for being a “snitch” or “tattle tale”. Students know that if the bully discovers who told on them, then it will make them more hostile and escalate them to find more cruel way to punish their victim. Even if the bully is expelled from school there is other means of torturing someone.

Bullying is a subject I totally take personally. There have been many occasions in which I found myself a victim of this epidemic, because that’s exactly what it is, an epidemic, a silent war, that no one seems to understand or even want to face alone, this issue that have swept under the rug all across this nation for a very long time, for far too long. The buck stops here! While reading through my Sunday morning paper over breakfast, I happened to run across a story that really tugged at my heart strings, and this is not the first story like this I’ve read. A young woman in high school here in my town kills herself because of continual bullying initiated by someone else at school. The question that runs through my mind is, why? There are

Lawmakers, activists, and parents have all been working to institute laws to help reconcile the bullying that has invaded the schools. It has not been a speedy process, only nine states require the schools to report bullying to the local authorities (Garby, 2013). New Jersey has the stiffest anti-bullying law thus far, by suspending or

Not only are bullied children anxious, depressed, and underachieving during the months and years of their torment, but even years later, they have lower self-esteem as well as painful memories. 7 The picture is somewhat different, but often more ominous, for bullies. Contrary to the public perception that bullies are actually insecure and lonely, at the peak of their bullying they usually have friends who abet, fear, and admire them, and they seem brashly unapologetic about the pain they have inflicted, as they often claim, "all in fun." But their popularity and school success fade over the years, and especially if they are boys, they run a high risk of ending up in prison. In one longitudinal study done by Olweus, by age 24, two-thirds of the boys who had been bullies in the second grade were convicted of at least one felony, and one- third of those who had been bullies in the sixth through the ninth grades were already convicted of three or more crimes, often violent ones. International research likewise finds that children who are allowed to regularly victimize other children are at high risk of becoming violent offenders as adolescents and adults. 8 Unfortunately, bullying during middle childhood seems to be universal: it occurs in every nation that has been studied, is as much a problem in small

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.