The Pros And Cons Of Bullying

Bullying has been recognized as a risk factor in improvement and personal growth of children and adulthood. It is a form of hostile conduct in which an individual engages to cause another individual harm or distress (Kirves, & Sajaniemi, 2012).. Therefore, it is vital to be able to detect signs of bullying in order to stop further consequences, such as self-harm, and suicide. Children who have experienced bullying become hopeless, anxious, have low self-efficacy, and have recurrent negative thoughts (Kirves, & Sajaniemi, 2012). Research in bullying has also concluded that children who bully other children are more prone to become anti-social and engage in criminal activity (Kirves, & Sajaniemi, 2012).

Bullying is a very touchy subject for people to talk about. It deals with a lot of mental, physical, and emotional damage. Bullying is violent and unwelcoming behavior among various different aged children in school that involves a lack of power for one kid and a lot of power for another. The behavior of a bully is repeated numerous times over time and becomes more aggressive as the path goes on. The bully has an imbalance of power over the one being bullied. They bully uses their power for giving out embarrassing information, control, physical strength, popularity, and harming others. Kids who are being bullied and bullying others have serious lasting problems throughout their lifetime. Bullying is becoming a major issue in today 's society and somebody needs to make a stop to it.

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among people of all ages, but mostly school-age children. Society has been aware of bullying since around 1693, but it was not viewed as a real problem until the 1970s. “While overall incidents of school violence, such as assault and theft, have declined in the last decade, bullying is on the rise.” (qtd in Tyre) The percentage of middle and high school students that have been victimized by bullying went up from 14 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in 2009. (Tyre)

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.

What is bullying? Bullying is where people make fun of someone or something because themselves also because they think different from other people. Bullying kids with special disability is also illegal, because of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with disability act of 1990.

In 12 of 15 school shootings in the 90’s, the shooters had a history of being bullied (Effects of Bullying). Depression, anxiety, dismal and basic biological needs are a result of bullying. According to 11 Facts About Bullying, over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year and approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying. Bullying can lead to self harm, isolation, and loss of interests. The factors that contribute to the behavior of bullies is their home life, the way they think, and external events around them.

Every day parents send their children to school, assuming they will be safe. Although many are safe, there are also many that are bullied on a daily basis. In reviewing the definition of the word “bullied,” it fundamentally is unwanted aggressive or harmful behavior with a perceived power imbalance that is directed onto those individuals that are weaker to intimidate them to gain something they want (www.stopbullying.com, 2012).

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.

A general problem that happens throughout the United States in schools, neighborhoods, and even in homes is bullying. Furthermore, a plausible cause for most school shootings is intimidation and is an intense public awareness. A bully-involved shooting at a high school in Littleton, CO, and other victims across America have in some cases resulted in suicide. All in all, bullying affects how the social setting in a school causes fear and thought provoking anti-civil attitude.

Andy Biersack once said, "When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sandpaper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless." As children, our parents try to teach us how to handle certain situations we might get into, but who teaches us to deal with bullies? Bullying is any type of unwanted aggressive behavior done to a person constantly (“Effects of Bullying.”). The administration at schools usually are the ones that have the authority to implement the laws and regulations against bullying. As I recall from high school most of the students have to participate in the awareness campaign but as they play the videos for us to watch most of the student body would just fall asleep. With laws such as Title IX, there should be less bullying happening around the younger generations. There are three ways to try and help our younger generations stop bullying through implementing the law Title IX, teaching the parent and students the signs of bullying, and by holding the parents accountable for their child’s actions.

With school-aged children, bullying more frequently happens while they are at school, or afterward when the students are not being supervised by their teacher in places like the cafeteria, bus, lockers, playground or neighborhood. Now that kids have access to online technology, bullying can also happen on the internet. With this in mind, teachers must now research and understand what bullying is, and develop methods to help fight against bullying. Bullying is the aggressive, unwanted behavior that occurs between kids of all ages. Children that bully are using the power they believe they have over other kids to try to control and harm them. Bullying can happen via verbal, social, or physical abuses, such as name-calling, threats, spreading rumors, isolation, embarrassment, spitting, hitting, destroying personal things, etc. In order to be considered bullying, these bad behaviors are repeated over time.

What if you were terrified to go to your school every day? 160,000 students miss school everyday because they get bullied and are scared of what will happen (“Bullying Statistics”). Bullying has been a major problem in schools for too long. Students should not be scared to go to a place that is supposed to be safe and where they can express themselves. Students that bully never get the punishment they deserve which causes them to continue to act. When you go to school, you should know that if you are getting treated in a horrific way, the people who were treating you that way will get punished. Students who bully should be suspended from school.

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.

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)

Many people do not realize how serious bullying has become. If you look at statistics suicides due to bullying have increased over just a few short years. This has become a very big problem for not only the victim but the bully as well as it affect both of them. School bullying is mentally destructive to not only the victims, but bullies because of the harmful words, harassment, and physical violence involved as well as the consequences for the bully.