Anti Bullying

Abstract

                Every academic school year, schools are faced with bullying amongst students.  Forms of bullying could range anywhere from verbal bullying, physical intimidation or bullying through electronics (cell phones or computers).  The amount of bullying that occurs throughout the country pushes boundaries of how far a student can go without getting caught.  Also students who are victims either become very distraught from emotions; students can become depressed or have emotional breakdowns that lead to bodily harm.  This paper will address various was teachers can help minimize the amount of bullying within the school walls, bring to light the causes of bullying will.  My hope is that some of the information (if not all) could turn into an article that can be read and acknowledged by teachers and staff throughout school districts.

Introduction

            We can define bullying as, “Bullying is repeated forms of aggression toward another individual.  It can take many forms.  There is an imbalance of power where the victim/target cannot defend themselves (Anti-Bullying, 2012)”.  Bullying can be in any form towards others which include verbal, physical, psychological and verbal which all can be devastating to the victim (Sullivan, 2011).  A main question that comes to mind since this seems to be a current trend within schools across the country is that, Can schools really put an end to bullying within schools as well as outside the school walls?

Forms of bullying

            According to Keith Sullivan (2011) there are three forms of bullying; physical, psychological and verbal (Sullivan, 2011, p 11).  The following lists types of bullying that fall within the three categories which can be found in Keith Sullivan’s book The anti-bullying handbook:
Physical bullying includes:  biting, chocking, kicking, punching, pushing or any other physical attacks.
Psychological bullying includes:  intention to harm the individual under attack.  This is more of an indirect form of bullying.
Verbal bullying includes:  abusive phone calls, using abusive language, as well as name       calling.
            With the various forms of bullying and the types of bullying that fall within the three forms, can schools really get a handle on putting an end on bullying?  If schools put an anti-bullying policy into place will it be enforced during school hours?  The biggest form of bullying in recent years that is still being used today would be cyberbullyiing.  With cyberbullyiing, it may be hard for school administrators and staff to properly handle this form of bullying.  This is one form of bullying that has been an issue in recent years.

Statistics on Bullying

            In 2010, it was found that bullying is a crime that is not going away anytime soon (Bullying statistics, 2010).  According to the Bullying statistics website, “there are 160,000 children who miss school in fear of being bullied” and that “cyberbullyiing activities have increased since 2010 (Bullying statistics, 2010)”.
Taking from the bullying statistics website the following statistics are from bullying that occurred during school hours (Bullying statistics, 2010):
Over half, about 56 percent of all students have witnessed a bullying crime take place while at school.
A reported 15 percent of all students who don’t show up for school report it to being out of fear of being bullied while at school.
One out of every 20 students has seen a student with a gun at school.
There are about 282,000 students that are reportedly attacked in high schools throughout the nation each month.
            The statistics can go up and down year after year regardless of how terrible the form of bullying was.  What would be interesting is to see a lot of these statistics go down as years go by with the help of the school staff, community and parents.  Bullying will continue to be a growing problem throughout the country if there is no way to fully put an end to ii.

Facts on Bullying

            The attitudes and actions of the role of bully and victim are learned behaviors (Wagner, 2010).  How do those who are labeled as bully and victim learn these behaviors?  A few assumptions can be made in how these students can develop these attitudes and actions.  Hypothetically those labeled as bully or victim may learn their roles from issues occurring at home, what they learn in the community or what they see in movies or on television.  If those who are labeled as bully or victim, is there a way for them to unlearn the behavior they have actually learned?
            In a book by Meline Kevorkian, she had mentioned approximately 100 facts that we should know about bullying.  This book was a potential breakdown on what research tells us and offers ideas to help minimize the bullying within schools.  One of the myths that Kevorkian used in her book was, “We can allow children to resolve bullying because children who bully will outgrow the behavior” (Kevorkian, 2008).  Kevorkian followed up by using this fact, “A lack of adult intervention reinforces bullying behavior”.  As adults we should not taking bullying lightly when approached by a student who appears to be victimized.  By brushing any sort of accusations of bullying aside is showing the victim that it is okay that they are being bullied.  Those who are bullying other students may not outgrow their attitudes and actions if those actions are not acted upon.
            What do we really know about the types of bullying out there?  We know that physical bullying can be harmful.  What causes bullies to become physical with their victim?  Does the physical contact become physical after the verbal bullying has been exhausted?  Many questions lie between many types of bullying.  Teachers, administrators and school staff would have to determine what causes the physical abuse that is determined to be bullying.  School staff will have to sift through all categories to determine if a particular instance was actually a result of bullying or is a form of bullying.  School staff would need to sit down to determine what they consider as bullying and how to handle it.  The school staff should include the school psychologist as well in the event the psychologist would need to intervene on the student’s behalf to get to the root of the problem.

Physical bullying

            Physical bullying can be categorized as pushing, pulling, punching, scratching, biting, etc.  The physical bullying can be done anywhere at any time and usually unexpected to both the victim and those who may be exposed to the physical altercation.  Does any sort of bullying have to become physical to the point where the victim is in a state of fear of coming to school on a daily basis?  In many cases, it comes to late where the physical bullying has gone so far that the victim is in that state of fear not wanting to attend classes.  In other cases that fear becomes worse and the school become unsafe for the victim and they wish to transfer to another school.
            School officials have to become aware that some of the physical altercations between students are actually a form of bullying.  Once the fight is broken up and students involved are summoned to the principals (or vice principals) office to discuss the matter, neither student will come out and say “I was bullying him/her” or “I was being bullied”.  No student will come out and say that to a teacher or another person within the school.  Both will more than likely “agree” that it was over something that happened or make up some excuse that will not label them fully as breaking the zero tolerance policy regarding fighting.
            How can school staff determine if physical fighting is just a random fight or if it is actually bullying.  To a staff member it may be difficult to determine if there is nothing to really go on other than the fighting that might have occurred.  Students may not come out and say it had to do with bullying.  Staff members within schools need to be trained to deal with any sort of physical altercations that may be potential in the area of bullying.

Verbal Bullying

            Verbal bullying can come in many forms when it comes out a person’s mouth.  Verbal bullying includes but not limited to abusive phone calls, abusive name calling, taunting others, abusive language towards others and name calling.  This is just a short list of what bullies tend to use towards their victims.  There are times where verbal and physical bullying occurs at the same time on the victim.  By using both forms of bullying at once, it tends to bring down the victim emotionally and mentally.
            By using verbal bullying on victims, it tends to bring down the victim down emotionally.  The victim may not show that much emotion during the verbal abuse caused by the bully but may show behind closed doors at home or after school in the bathroom.  There may be times when victims get emotionally drained from the verbal abuse that they tend to hurt themselves or even worse events could happen to the victim because of the verbal abuse.

Cyber bullying

            Cyber bullying is the most recent form of bullying within schools.  Schools may have a difficult time to control the bullying that is done over cyber space outside of school but can control it during the school day.  As Jing Wang points out, “cyber bullying can be defined as a form of aggression that occurs through personal computers or cell phones” (Wang, 2009).  Regardless if the person sends a message through email, instant message or text to their victim, it is still considered bullying.
            The way that the schools can control the issue of cyber bullying during the day is to have a zero-tolerance rule of having no cell phones during school hours.  Students will have to leave their cell phones or other devices that can be utilized for cyber bullying at home or in their car.  This will in a sense limit this form of bullying within the school hours.  Obviously it will be hard for school officials to control the cell phone policy once the student steps off of school grounds.
            As far as students utilizing computers at school, school officials can limit where students can access on the internet.  The computers at the school computer lab and the libraries can have their settings changed to block non-educational websites through the internet.  Websites that students normally frequent at home can be blocked at school to minimize any form of cyber bullying.  Students can be banned from going on to MySpace and Facebook while logged onto their username and password.
            Schools should issue students username and passwords to log on to the computers at school.  This will be able to monitor what the students are doing on the computer while logged in.  If it appears that are doing something not for educational purposes, they can be called down to the principal’s office and talked to regarding inappropriate usage on school computers.  This can be part of the school’s zero-tolerance policy and students can be held accountable for their actions since they are abusing time that should be spent on their learning.

What can people surrounding students do to prevent bullying?

            Staff members in schools as well as at the board of education can do a lot to help minimize the bullying that happens within schools.  Bullying may not fully go away but by at least minimizing it within the school walls, students (victims) can feel better about coming to school instead of staying home in fear.  Staff members can be trained to deal with bullying and how to prevent bullying from starting or going any further.
            Parents can also play a part in preventing bullying from starting.  Parents can become more involved in their child’s life.  By being an active part of their child’s life, the child will have the feeling that parents actually care what’s going on in their lives.  This allows both parent and child to make an emotional connection in order to air out what’s really going on in the child’s life.  Parents should become actively involved in their child’s life by having conversations daily, help with homework and spend as much time with them as possible.  If the child is bullying it could mean that they may be filling a void within them that they are not getting at home.
            The community can also be actively involved in the students life as well but may not take a strong role like a parent or teacher.  Although the community can shape a person who he or she may become but this can happen in a positive way.  Within the community, there can be ways to take the students mind off of possibly verbally or physically hurting another person.  In a community, there can be town events that can occupy a student’s time.  This can be a township football or soccer team, students can become active in scouting or in service events.  There is so much a community can give a student in order to have a positive role in the student’s life.

Bullying as a whole

            Bullying can be also be tied into hazing students as well.  Although hazing has its own problems within itself but the idea of verbal, physical, psychological can be tied into it as bullying does.  For example, there can be underground activities done to those who are part of athletics.  There can be a group of people within a particular sport who may target those who are new to the team.  The group of people can create verbal threats to new team members as well as being physical to new players when staff members are not around.

Anti-Bullying Policy

            Schools can create an anti-bullying policy to crack down on bullying that will remotely put a stop to bullying in schools.  The policy can cover verbal, psychological, physical and cyber bullying.  The policy must have clear concise wording in what is determined as bullying.  By having clear wording in what would be considered bullying will allow no room for mistake when determining reprimanded.  This policy that will be created can be a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying other students.
            Any state department of education can create anti-bullying bill of rights to abide by within the schools and school districts.  In having an anti-bullying bill of rights act allows schools throughout the state to strengthen ways to prevent, report, investigate and respond to various forms of bullying that occurs on and off school grounds (NJDOE).  Although some of the off school grounds issues may be restricted due to limitations the school may have in reprimanding students involved in bullying outside of school.
            Within the policy, the department of education must determine what is classified as a conflict between students and actual bullying.  According to New Jersey’s Department of Education, a formal definition regarding conflict is a disagreement, an argument or fight which is part of the human development (NJDOE).  Having clear word usage in the policy will allow teachers or other staff members to determine what is construed as bullying and how to possibly deal with it.

Anti-Bullying Week

            Schools can create an anti-bullying week during the school year (preferably during the beginning of the school year) to help students to break down any walls they may have.  During the week of anti-bullying week, there can be schedule events at various times of the day.  These events can be guests’ speakers, videos, team building exercises, getting to know someone within your own grade that you may not know, etc.  This will allow students to come to terms of what can happen when you are bullied and what to do when bullied.  Students should be made aware the effect of bullying has on them emotionally.