The Trauma of Bullying in School System

The Trauma of Bullying in School System

How would you feel when you’re beaten for frivolous excuses? Or would you rather endure being treated badly by bullies? Or would you keep quiet watch people experience bullying and suffer the dramatic effects it has on its victims?

Bullying In Schools

It’s no news that violence has been a prevailing issue in school systems in the United States. It is so unfortunate that about nine out of ten students are in one way or the other victims of bullying. The belief of many people is that bullying is one of those things to pass through while they grow, and some kids who grow to be victims of bully become bullies themselves. Bullying is an act that intentionally causes physical and or mental damage to victims, and could possibly affect them for the rest of their lives. There had been reported cases of bullying leading to self-inflicted injuries as well as suicides in America. According to statistics from the National Education Association, over 160,000 children skip school every day due to possible attacks or intimidation from other students. For this reason, every act of bullying must not be condoned in the school systems anymore, but strict disciplines and enhanced security must be put in place to fight against bullying.

Older and stronger students bully their peers or younger kids through verbal communication. An important aspect of bullying is the use of verbal communication which includes the use of words in calling names, belittling other’s ability, making hostile jokes, investigating one’s religion, financial status, race, ethnicity, and skin color. (“Types List, 2013”) The major frustration with this type of bullying is the fact that the ill effect of this verbal misuse may probably not show proper feelings immediately, but gradually, it would build and then lead to something detrimental to the victim’s academic and social abilities.

No one loves to be insulted; neither does anyone feels good with unpleasant teasing. Apparently, verbal bullies usually have a low self-esteem, and have more tendencies to bully others in order to increase their social standings and feel great about themselves. This category of bully is also common among teachers; some teachers communicate irrationally and insult school children unnecessarily perhaps because they hardly grasp what they are being taught.  However, this has a major effect on the victims. A victim of verbal abuse starts feeling like there’s something wrong with him; he could assume he’s selfish, crazy, or too sensitive. Also, he could start having difficulty making decisions, communicating confidently, go through low self-confidence, self-doubt, poor academic performances, and lose enthusiasm.

Bullies attack their victims physically, and directly deform or injure them. According to a New York Times, there was a reported case of some teenagers charged after one of their classmates committed suicide. The suicide occurred when a freshman, named Phoebe Prince had been physically threatened by a cluster of her fellow students. It was also reported that she had been abused several times in school, on the internet, and through text messages. Through various investigations, it was found out that she was sexually harassed too. Physical bullying is very deadly; it involves physical force, spitting, kicking, punching, and shoving. Many victims of this category of bullying are always smaller in strength to the aggressor.

The most annoying fact is other students take fun in watching the way these victims are treated by the bullies. Sometimes, they plan to fight outside the school premise, or behind the school yards. More also, physical bullying starts from the basic verbal communication, then aggravates into a fight and in most cases, leads to serious injury, or even death. This is because the aggressor may use any kind of object against the victim and cause the victim his life or a lifetime injury. Other acts of physical bullying relates to how an aggressor destroys another student’s book, property, or school uniform.

Some groups of school children alienate their peers causing serious frustration on the victim. Alienation refers to treating a child as an outcast at school; also implies the withdrawal of people from roles, norms of the social order, and statuses. Among school children, it takes two forms. First, the alienation causes the child to grow been upset and filled with anxiety ridden over painful, frustrating, and unfair features of the school. Second, alienation causes the child to withdraw energy from every school activity. (Musick, 1995) Bullies alienate their victims by urging other students not to allow the victim participate in school activities, groupings, games, and other social activities. Such isolation creates a form of mental degradation to the child and could affect him from forming good relationships with others, which can result in separation in the later stage of his life.

Bullies take their actions against their victims through text messages, instant messages, and mails. Cyber-bullying is one of the major aspects of technology that helps bullies utilize the internet to perpetrate their evil plans. It is a saddening to see that as much as the U.S government monitor our conversations on phones, and gather data through internet communication against terrorism, but do not take cyber-bullying among school children because the belief is that “it’s part of growing up.” It must be stressed that cyber-bullying harasses a child and could lead to suicide. Researches and statistics put together by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that suicide is the third leading cause of death among children in schools, with approximately 4,400 deaths annually. In addition to this, at least 100 children attempt suicide every year. (“nobullying”)

It is frustrating to see that the alarming rate of the cause of bullying is increasing on a yearly basis; there hadn’t been any solution to these issues. According to studies, stories of cyber bullying have been really not good to hear. Megan, a 13-year-old girl hanged herself in a bedroom closet because of cyber-bullying. She got herself chatting with this boy on the internet whom she thought feels she’s pretty. The story shows that Megan had struggled with attention deficit disorder, but after some weeks, the boy, Josh started saying he wasn’t interested to be friends with her anymore, and started sending very cruel messages. The concluding part of the message was that “The world would be better without her.” This cyber-bullying escalated to her classmates, and also friends on that social network with very hurtful messages and bulletins. It was then she took the decision to hang herself. After thorough investigation, it was observed that the boy was not real; it was a girl who used to be Megan’s friend. The case was of course taken up by regulatory bodies, but of course, the deed was done. If better measures are not taken to stop these occurrences, it will continually aggravate beyond control.

As a matter of fact, social aggression is one of the biggest demonstrations of bullying against the emotions of its victims. Emotional bullying is synonymous to verbal bullying. According to America’s Mental Health Channel, emotional bullying causes a child to have long lasting memories about sad events, such as when a child is teased and mocked until he cries, or calling a child bad names, threatening, lying against the child, gang against, torment, or humiliate the child. Why would this reoccur and there seemed to be no one to correct these actions? It is impossible for the school system to pretend these issues do not exist. A story of a third grade named Felicia Flores, she was tormented for two years by her friend. She was called bad names, such as a jerk, liar, Miss Prissy Perky Piggy. She couldn’t bear this and she cried for help. In a letter her mom found, she writes: “I hate my life, I wish I were dead since no one cares or understands me, My friends were the only people I can talk to, but now I can’t. Lately, I’ve thought about killing myself. Nobody cares except my mom.” (“abc news”) This is an unforgettable experience for her mother. Emotional bullying kills faster than anything else. Bullies do not know the gravity of the words they say to younger people.

Furthermore, it is very unfair to see teachers who also inflict pain on children. Fosters observed that minority child can regularly suffer alienation from racist teachers, as well as teachers who feel pain, anxiety, and frustration. In addition to this, some teachers wouldn’t take full investigation into the cause of a child’s action before causing them pains. For example, a teacher who tore up the paper of a child and gave an excuse that the child copied the content out of a book, when the child didn’t even do that, or that teacher who embarrasses children in front of the class. (Dillon & Grout, 1976) Teachers are supposed to be motivators and one of the major factors a child should be interested in coming to school, but some of them are consequently the worst reason child desist from coming to school..

Additionally, the worst experience of children or students at school is seeing their teachers pick on them. Teachers are one of the administrators of the school system, and should play more important roles. According to Pam Wright, it is unfortunate that this is not an uncommon situation. It occurs mostly in middle school and high school. And most of the time, such teachers are allowed to remain in the school because the administration or superintendent hardly sees the behavior as an issue. (“Wrightslaw.com) How can the quality of American system be improved without tackling such violence? Parents have played their parts, ensuring such actions are put to stop, but different jerks continue to emanate on a daily basis. Some teachers are fond of kicking students out of the classes unnecessarily, holding such to frivolous excuses.

Basically, we know some children are naughty, but there should be a better approach to attend to such cases. Teachers have to understand the emotions a child could go through if they are treated hurtful. At least, they were once kids too, and in one way or the other have been jerked or picked on before. There have been worst cases in the past where school teachers have not only beaten students, but also injured or killed them. Teachers have to be watchful with their temperaments, they have the power to impose punishment on students, but they also have to be monitored by the administration and concerned regulatory bodies. Sports coaches are not left out. Parents have reported cases where their children are slow learners and teachers/coaches are not patient with such children, they beat them and punish them severely for slowly grasping what they teach them. The painful part of these issues is that these teachers/coaches turned some of the other teachers against victims like this, and this wouldn’t get better for the child. These effects stay for a lifetime. Children often remember every single act of bully imposed on them as they grow, and if teachers do not watch their acts, they may lure a child to his or her early death or frustration for the rest of their lives.

Bullies, who try to defend themselves, argue that their victims are the cause of their actions. According to live science Rachael Rettner, kids who do not find their expertise in sporting activities are victimized because they do not meet the expectations of others. This is an irrational reason to pick on victims. For the fact that a child is not good at an activity doesn’t allow anyone to treat that child in a bad manner. Not every child will be skillful at every activity they find themselves. And therefore, bullies don’t have the right to treat their victims the way they wish. Furthermore, bullies argue that their act is a form of socialization. CNN Carrie Goldman stresses this further and declares that bullies assert that kids who do not meet up with society’s expectations will bring troubles to themselves. And when a child ends up being bullied, he begins to find a way to fight back. Additionally, bullies believe that their social appearance and status is improved when they act this way. They feel they would be respected and feared when they pose to be dangerous in school. Other bullies pick on victims they assumed to be gays or lesbians. Intuitively, those who find it hard to manage their emotions, learn to solve problems, or work things out find it easier to bully others. And those who establish a social hierarchy place themselves in this bully position and thus, mount this act on their victims.

Conclusively, it is a known fact that the school system is struggling to tackle these traumatic effects of bullying, but they have not taken other measures to help reduce these acts. The consequences of bullying are brutal; it can be short-and-long-term for both the aggressors and the victims. The chronic victims of bullying go through psychological and physical problems than their peers who are not harassed by other students. (Liber & Nation, 1998) As much as the victims experience severe pains, bullies are also at high risk for negative outcomes of their acts. When will these be stopped? When will children have the confidence to come to school without a worry of being picked by a student or teacher? When will there be peace and tranquility in our school systems? It’s high time the administrations of schools and the government rose up to place more emphasis on the security of children at every level of the school system, it’s high time they gave the best information and education to children on how to deal with such acts. There should also be strategies to put great fears into the minds of anyone who tries to pick on a student in one way or the other. A high disciplinary will impress fear in their minds and the consequences and high statistics of injuries, suicides, and deaths will reduce by a very large percentage. This implies that more attention has to be established in the anti-bullying initiatives put in place in U.S. schools. Everybody has to promote anti-bullying in our school system, and every student must bear in mind the safety this will bring to our future and our lives.

Also Study: Teen Bullying Types and Statistics

References:

• Bully Facts & Statistics. (2009). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org/facts_new.html
• Dillon, S., & Grout, J. (1976). Schools and Alienation. NASSP Bulletin, 76(8), 481-489. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1000305?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
• Eckholm, E., & Zezima, K. (2010, March 29). 6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmate’s Suicide. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/us/30bully.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
• Effects of Verbal Abuse on Children, Women and Men – HealthyPlace. (2012). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/verbal-abuse/effects-of-verbal-abuse-on-children-women-and-men/
• Emotional Bullying Scars Grade Schoolers. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=128025&page=1
• Goldman, C. (2012). Why telling bullying victims to ‘just fight back’ doesn’t work – CNN.com. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.cnn.com/2012/10/31/living/bullying-fight-back/
• Limber, S., & Nation, M. (1998). Bullying Among Children and Youth. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.ojjdp.gov/jjbulletin/9804/bullying2.html
• Musick, D. (1995). An introduction to the sociology of juvenile delinquency. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Rettner, R. (2010, August 26). Bullies on Bullying: Why We Do It. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.livescience.com/11163-bullies-bullying.html
• Revealed: Shocking Bullying Statistics 2014! (2014, February 9). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://nobullying.com/bullying-statistics-2014/
• The Top 6 Unforgettable Cyberbullying Cases|NoBullying|. (2013, April 23). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://nobullying.com/six-unforgettable-cyber-bullying-cases/
• Types List. (2013). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://typeslist.com/types-of-bullying/
• Why Do Kids Bully | Why Kids Bully | Empowering Parents. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/the-secret-life-of-bullies-why-they-do-it-and-how-to-stop-them/
• What do I do if the teacher/coach is a bully? (2010). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.bullybeware.com/faq/bullying/148-what-do-i-do-if-the-teachercoach-is-a-bully.html
• Wright, P. (2010). The Wrightslaw Way. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/?p=3668