The Everlasting Bullying Pandemic

The Everlasting Bullying Pandemic     

            The following account is from a recently graduated High school student and how he managed to stop a situation where he witnessed bullying.

 “One day in grade school I had heard my name being called, this was by one of my short lived friends Connor. As I had looked over all I had seen was my so-called friend pulling a kid’s shirt over his head. This was not by any means up to my morals. Then moments later I realized this wasn’t any boy, this was one of my true friends, a boy named Jimmy that I went to preschool with. I was immediately disgusted because my friend Jimmy had autism. I rushed over and pushed Connor away and broke up the situation. This was because even at a young age I knew this wasn’t right even though I was a confrontational person, so I stepped in. Later I learned what I had done was being an up stander”.

 What would you do in this situation?

The victims of bullying endure many injustices that stick with them much longer than the bully realizes and simple precautions can stop bullying at the source. Instances like the previous paragraph are what inspire many to do something about bullying because most students hear about bullying often during their time in school but don’t take it seriously. The E-Book  https://www.heinemann.com/products/e04356.aspx states that “A vast majority of bullying happens from the time students enter kindergarten to the day they graduate high school”. This shows that there is still an area of need in bullying education and prevention.

With that being said, in today's day and age it is getting even harder to contain bullying with the introduction of cyberbullying. With some further education however some if not a large majority can be stopped at the root of the issue. One way cyberbullying can be prevented according to https://www.stopbullying.gov/ is having parents monitor children's digital use and behavior, in short it sounds very simple but very few parents keep up with it regularly. Another way is parents having a sit down conversation with kids explaining how online speech is different than in person because it lasts forever and anyone can see it. 

Also parents and teachers should make kids aware that they shouldn’t be afraid to come forward with concerns or questions regarding bullying because it's normal. One thing that should be kept in mind is that every situation with bullying is different and with cyberbullying many different factors come into play. 

Let alone the prevention methods; parents, teachers, and peers so be on watch for the warning signs of bullying to stop it before it’s too late. What is mean by this is that studies by the U.S. center of disease control show that suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents in the U.S.. A majority of these suicides were caused by bullying. Some signs of cyberbullying are Increased/decreased electronic device use, emotional outbursts while using devices and attempts to hide the screen of the user’s device. 

Some other signs are social media accounts being banned or shut down, and new ones are downloaded. Lastly some other signs are the victim avoiding social gatherings, and the victim being withdrawn/ depressed. Other signs unrelated to cyberbullying are contusions to the body, self harm (cutting, hair pulling, etc), and lack of appetite.  If any of these signs are suspected to be seen they should be looked into or passed on to someone that can. Even if the parents, teachers, or peers can’t get to the bottom of a situation a specialist or counselor can be notified.

One thing that is commonly overlooked is the amount of bullying types, this includes Physical bullying (physical harm, forcing others to do what they don’t want to, taking others property and harming it, hair pulling, etc.), verbal bullying (name calling, threats, spreading rumors, racist remarks, insults of intelligence levels, intimidation), relationship bullying (refusing to speak to someone, ruining someone’s reputation, embarrassing others, using negative body language) and lastly cyberbullying (demoralizing texts, emails, photos, social media site posts, web pages, and chat rooms). This shows that bullying happens not only in schools but it can happen virtually anywhere.

In General, a large factor that controls bullying is bystanders, most will say that they see bullying but either don’t care enough to do something about it or are too scared to. If there were less bystanders, the progression of bullying would slow very drastically. One thing to be kept in mind is imagining if you were in the victim's place and how you would feel. Also, a lot of victims don’t speak up because they are in fear that nothing will be done about the issue, or it will worsen. So if you or someone you know sees it or suspects react to it and be an up stander and educator!