Bullying in school is harmful and can lead to devastating effects. Most bullies have high self-esteem and need to dominate others. Students should talk to parents or trusted adults, maintain composure, and stick together in groups. Punishing individual bullies is ineffective, and anti-bullying programs should involve constant supervision, clear rules, parental involvement, and awareness raising. Parents must act immediately if they suspect their child is being bullied.
Bullying in school was once considered almost a right of way; the harassment of the weak or “different” student by his peers was seen as nothing more than a consequence of youth. In modern times, such thinking has been shown to be harmful. Studies show that most bullies don’t engage in belittling or abusive behavior to hide their lack of self-esteem. In most cases, the bully is confident and has high self-esteem. Instead, he needs to dominate others and maintain personality traits of high aggression and low impulse control.
A student who is bullied in school has several options. At the very first experience of bullying, the child should first talk to parents or trusted adults and explain the situation. The best thing a student can learn is to maintain calm and composure in the face of a bully, as such individuals thrive on creating fear and humiliation. The student can simply tell them to stop, then walk away and ignore the bully. This can be an effective technique if the confrontation is non-violent.
Students should also realize that there is safety in numbers. Bullies will less often pick on a group than they will on an individual, so it’s good for groups of friends to stick together during breaks, lunch periods, on a bus, or when walking to and from school. While retaliation should be a last resort, it is the wise parent who enrolls their child in self-defense classes. Sadly, there aren’t always adults present to protect a child who is being violently bullied by their peers. In such a scenario, the child who knows effective self-defense techniques usually fares better than those who don’t.
Many attempts have been made to design programs that eliminate bullying in schools. Punishing an individual bully is almost never effective, and can in fact lead the perpetrator to become vindictive, retaliating himself with even more aggressive and violent behavior. An anti-bullying commitment needs to be school-wide. It should involve constant adult supervision, clear rules for students, teachers and all school staff, parental involvement and constant, consistent awareness raising.
Research has shown that nearly half of all students experience bullying at one time or another. These children may be victims of verbal, physical or cyberbullying abuse. Therefore, bullying in school is something that cannot be tolerated in any way, shape or form. The immediate fear of being bullied is bad enough, however, the results of such treatment can be devastating and last well into adulthood. Children who are bullied in school are more likely than non-bullied students to contemplate suicide and often suffer from depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.
If a parent suspects their child is being bullied at school, they should open a dialogue with the child and encourage open communication. Parents must therefore act immediately, learning as much as possible from the circumstances and the parties involved. The next step for the parent is to contact school officials, go to administrators, school board members, or even the police if the faculty and staff seem compliant or uninterested. Bullying in school won’t stop on its own, and more commonly it will fall on the parents’ shoulders to start the ball rolling.
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