Are School Enforced Anti-Bullying Policies Enough?

ditch-the-label-stats With one in six children being bullied regularly, and suicide being the number third leading cause of death among young people, it is time to recognize the severity of bullying and take immediate action. As contemplated suicide rates reach an alarming 14 percent in high school students, and attempted suicide rates reach 7 percent, it is clear to see why 4,400 people die each year as a result of suicidal actions. Based off of the correlations Andrew discussed in class, bullying abuse and suicide rates share a direct correlation, therefore we can conclude that bullying is a direct cause of suicide. But can bullying be treated effectively by the schools alone, or should we consider more legal intervention?Question-3-Transp-BG

To boil down this issue, one must first define the term “bullying”. According to StopBullying.gov, bullying is defined as, “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.” From this definition, we can break down a bully’s actions into three separate categories to better determine why more disciplinary action must be taken.

First, a bully’s behavior is “unwanted and aggressive”, and ultimately results in a lack of power or weakened state of mind for the victim. Any behavior that is able to escalate to aggression or become threatening is clearly not being addressed appropriately, and preventative actions must take effect. Secondly, there is no excuse for such behavior to become routine or repetitive. After this behavior is recognized, assuming it is recognized after the first offense, the bully should immediately receive appropriate punishment to deter him from acting similarly in the future. And third, bullies leave permanent impacts on their victims. Any person who inflicts a lasting and negative impact on another person as a result of bullying, regardless of whether the impact is physical or psychological, should receive more repercussions than a trip to the principal’s office or a couple days of detention.

But now that we have seen the statistics, established the problem, and even recognized a bully’s tendencies and how these tendencies can be corrected, do you really think schools alone are doing enough to address the problem and actually produce change? Well, we can go back to our statistics to answer that question, and the answer is no. Bullying is at an all time high right now, and the ramifications of bullying are still relatively ignored by school officials. Although more than 40 states have enacted various laws that make bullying illegal, the statistics conclude that bullying is still occurring at dangerous rates. So how do we solve this ever-growing issue? I believe people should be legally responsible for bullying if it results in the victim’s death. Although in some states bullying is a criminal offense and bullies can be held civilly liable, these charges are not enough to offset the loss of a life. If a student is brave enough to cause disruptions or inflict harm on others, then he should be brave enough to accept the consequences. And at the end of the day, a teacher’s job is to teach, not to enforce the law. So let’s let the math teacher teach math, and avoid bullying by taking punishments to a higher level.

 

 

One thought on “Are School Enforced Anti-Bullying Policies Enough?

  1. Caroline Gail Stacks

    Hi Emily!

    I completely agree with what you said about schools not doing enough about the bullying problem. I knew far too many people in high school that were affected by bullying, but received little to no help from the school. I found here that one out of every four students reported bullying during the school year. With numbers this high, it is imperative that the schools improve the way they handle bullying, and I don’t think they have done much to fix that yet.

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