A little over a year ago a young man in our community took his own life. It was the devastating result of having been a victim of relentless bullying by his peers. His parents tried to address the issue through the school system, attempted to engage in discussions with the parents of the other kids that were harassing their son. They tried to resolve the issue using every resource they could think of, and then finally removed him from public school to do homeschooling. The bullying didn’t cease with this change. Through emails, social media, and texts their son was still being harassed. Since this very sad and unfortunate outcome of bullying, there has been a lot of emphasis on anti-bullying in our town. There have been articles in the local paper, and an anti-bullying campaign in our local schools.
Bullying is a real life issue that affects many people. It is aggressive behavior that can have detrimental effects that can have a lifelong impact, or in some cases the victim may choose to take their own life to escape the torment that bullying can cause. Since the dawn of time bullies have taken a toll on their victims, though before the onset of the internet the bullying took place in one designated space such as school or at work. The victim would be relieved of the destructive nature of the bully once he or she was safely out of school or home from work. These days a bully can reach their victim via the internet, using email or social media sites to harass their victim.
About 56% of students have been witness to bullying in school(http://www.bullyingstatistics.org). There different types of aggressive behaviors that are considered bullying. To begin with and most obvious, would be any sort of physical violence. This could be hitting, pushing, tripping, or any other physical act with the intent to scare or hurt another person. There is also verbal bullying which is depicted as name calling, harassment, or even making violent threats. There is also cyberbullying which is bullying but in the form of texts, emails, or abusive use on a social media site. This type of bullying can be violent threats, verbal abuse, or sharing of information with the intent to embarrass the victim.
Though bullying may not cease to exist, there are measures that can be taken to lessen the impact it may have on the lives of our children. To begin with parents can take an active role in teaching their children to be respectful of others, to have empathy and to not make fun of those who may be different from themselves. In addition, parents can encourage open communication so that if a child is a victim or a witness to this type of aggression he or she will feel comfortable confiding in a parent or another adult such as a teacher or the school nurse. If a child is the bully, offer rehabilitative options such as counseling or a class to help manage aggressive behavior. Parents can also monitor their children’s use of the internet from home, as well as content being shared on their cell phones. This way a parent can keep an eye out as to whether their child may be a victim or the bully. In addition schools can change their policies in order to reduce the negative effects that bullying has on students.
References
Statistics for bullying retrieved on November 2, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics-2010.html
Schneider, F., Gruman, J., Coutts, L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.