Bullying

Bullying

Introduction

Currently, most of the learning institutions are faced with not only financial or economic problems, but also social problem.  The social problems are attributed to social decay amongst the students, which has resulted to bullying. Over the past decades, bullying has been linked with the rampant violence and strikes that has been taking place in schools. With this peculiar scenarios and characteristics in schools, the society has failed to address the issue because it believes that bullying is an ordinary phase in an individual’s growth stage. According to Espelage and Swearer (2009), bullying has been defined as hostile behavior demonstrated by an individual with an aim of causing harm to other individuals. Bullying occurs frequently and entails imbalance in power. The main intent of bullying is to lower an individual’s self-esteem, rendering him/her useless, and humiliating the victim through exposure of ones private life. Although bullying may be regarded as a ‘rite of passage’ in the learning institutions, it causes social and psychological effect on an individual.

Historical Events

The first historical event is the dreadful events that marred World War II, which demonstrated the adverse effects associated with bullying in the society. This can be proved from the eviction and torture that millions of Jewish individuals faced in the course of war. Adolph Hitler orchestrated the whole episode claiming that the Jewish were not supposed to be in German. Though bullying was not perceived in learning institutions, the atrocity that Jewish faced demonstrated the adversity of the act.

The government showed laxity in defining their stand on the issue, especially in the course of holocaust. In addition, it failed to address the issue of bullying in school systems in order to disembark the historical concept of bullying in schools. It is predicted that the history is going to repeat itself if the Jewish people would be allowed to be bullied by Muslims concerning a significant historical event—in this case, the Holocaust.

Secondly, with the increased bullying in the learning institutions—denoted by the historical trends of these acts—the U.S courts have stepped up in order to mitigate the effect of the act. For instance, the federal court is currently issuing stern warning to schools and participants who engage in bullying, and, upon being confirmed of the crime, they can face charges including being jailed or fined (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). The most recent perpetrator of the bullying act was Michigan School where the federal court ordered the school to pay $800, 000 to the student who claimed that the school did not offer enough protection to him while he was subjected to bullying acts.

Finally, numerous campaigns and strategies have been developed in U.S.to end bullying in schools. Bullying Presentation Program (BPP) is common program used in the U.S. The program is utilized by schools with an aim of preventing students from bullying each other. The strategy has enabled most of the schools to minimizing the adversity by close to 42% (Rigby and Slee, 1999). Implementation of the program is relied on the work of the committees. Phasing out historical prejudices and bullying acts can be a sure way of reducing the molestation acts across many schools.

Social Psychology concept of bullying

Though bullying can be attributed to child’s growth, the psychological and social effects have left them in a compromising situation. First, victims of bullying have been rendered unsociable and others do not have friends. With the imminent low self-esteem and high level of anxiety that characterizes bullying, it is difficult for them to have friends whom they can trust. As such, they tend to feel isolated and lacks believe and morale in whatever they undertake. The effect is not only felt by those bullied, it is also felt by the friends of the ones that have been bullied. They tend to avoid the bullied children as they believe that if they associate with them, they will also be bullied.

Secondly, bullying is known to cause mental disorder and body dysmorphic disorder. In the case of the latter, it involves a disorder that incorporates physical anomaly, neurotic, and painstaking preoccupation. Finally, extreme bullying cases have resulted to suicide. Most recent is the death of Tyler Clementi, a student at Rutgers University, where he killed herself because of sexual humiliation by other two students. Since then, the society has failed to analyze the cause of an individuals’ death as they purport it to be depression that led to suicide. Ideally, depression is preceded by an activity —social, economic, or physical (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008).

Challenges facing individuals and law enforcers

Some of the challenges that individual face in combating the atrocity is lack of parental guidance and support of their children. Teachers are supposed to work with psychologists and parents in order to instill morals among the students. In addition, teachers are faced with the task of ensuring good performances and meet the required standards set by the employer, and not necessarily to focus on students’ moral behavior. It is a challenge to the teacher as one would not be able to balance between performances and instilling morals to students. Finally, there are no plans set aside by the school administration on the disciplinary actions to be imposed on students who bully others. In addition, until recently, the law enforcement agency had not implemented laws that restrict individuals from bullying act; whether a minor or of the age of majority.

Agreement on Author’s Statement

According to Rigby and Slee (1999), bullying is an act that should not be tolerated in schools. It has led to decline in performances of various schools. I agree with the authors statement as performance of an individual should begin at its foundation. The lower classes, where most of them are victims of bullying, are the foundation of education. As such, it has led to decline in school’s performance. In addition, the author purports that students should be subjected to severe punishment upon being caught bullying other students. This is quite practical as it will minimize the adversity of the situation.

Disagreement on Author’s Statement

However, Espelage and Swearer (2009) posit that teachers are to be blamed for bullying in schools. This is haphazard, as teachers are subjected to numerous activities, and they were solely employed to administer educational services to students. In addition, the issues of psychologists being employed in schools cannot be a prudent idea, as the number of schools across the globe are numerous (Espelage and Swearer, 2009). It is illogical for the government to deploy psychologists to schools, while the society is faced with overwhelming number of individuals who have mental problems. Not only bullying requires the services of psychologists, other problems such as mental disorder, family issues, economic problems, and health issues are a priority.

Solutions: Individuals and Criminal Justice sector

Parents and teachers should educate their children on the effects of bullying. They should cooperate with the teachers and not support children who bully other students. School disciplinary committee should enact rules and penalties in order to minimize the adversity of bullying in learning institutions.

Though it is not the work of the criminal justice to prevent bullying in schools, law enforcement body is the only remaining strategy that will instill fear to students who perpetrate bullying. The criminal justice should articulate on delinquency charges on the individuals involved. There is a tendency that the students uses the ‘minority’ concept to avoid justice, but with the current legislation, young boys and girls can be charged for either violation of an individual’s right, disturbances, statutory rape, criminal harassment, stalking and assault. Stringent measures and educative programs should be provided to schools on penalties and results of the students’ activities. In courts of law, ignorance is no defense, and therefore, they should acquaint themselves with the information and rules provided by the criminal justice.

Conclusion

Bullying has been engrained in the culture of Americans. Students are ever practicing the atrocity with minimal concern on the effects it will have on other students. Since time immemorial, bullying has been a normal activity in most schools. The same case has been evident in government officials where they have discriminated other communities and religious groups. However, bullying is a disgraceful act. It has left students with psychological problems, mental disorders, body disorders, and others have committed suicide after they were discriminated and humiliated in public. With increased traumatic conditions and deaths amongst students, the criminal justice has taken a strategy to minimize this adversity in the society. It has stipulated rules and policies that should be articulated by the society; regardless of age disparity. In the near future, it is believed, that bullying will be a thing of the past.

 

 

 

References

Espelage, D., &. Swearer, S (2009). Bullying in American schools: a social-ecological perspective on preven­tion and intervention. Retrieved from Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 24(1): 659-660.

Rigby, K., & Slee, P. T. (1999). Suicidal ideation among adolescent school children, involvement in bully-victim problems, and perceived social support. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 29(2): 119-130.

Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. (2008). Online communication and adolescent relationships. The Future of Children, 18(1), Retrieved from http://140.234.17.9:8080/EPSessionID=e8bdf326b7d3eefecf6df508 ffd832a/EPHost=muse.jhu.edu/EPPath/journals/future_of_children/v018/18.1.subrahmanyam.pdf

 

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