COMMUNITY PROBLEM REPORT
Abstract
Bullying has always been an issue in schools and even work places for adults. It has never been given the proper attention or importance it needs. There are several different effective solutions to stopping bullies. It takes communication, patience and understanding to fully make the change. You need to understand the bully and provide help for them because there’s always a reason why they may be bullying also. Stopping bullying takes a lot of effort from different people in the community and can be accomplished if everyone does their part.
The Harmful Effects Bullying Has
Bullying is a very dangerous social topic that is not given enough importance. Not only does it cause mental harm to the victims but it also causes physical harm by either the bully or the victim themself. Others don’t realize the harm they are inflicting on their victims. There are many solutions provided for this topic, some in particular are increasing awareness and becoming more involved. Both these solutions are important because the more the people in our communities know about bullying the greater the chance of them wanting to go out and make a difference.
Different Faces of Bullying
There are several different forms of bullying. There are verbal bullies, bullies who try and get you down mentally by saying hurtful or rude comments. Physical bullies, who may push you around and try to start physical fights with you and cyber bullies, who do all their work hiding behind the computer screen. All are equally harmful in the way that they pick at their victims until they get what they want.
Statistics on Bullying
One out of every four teens are bullied, one out of every five kids admit to doing some form of bulling (Alexander, 2011). Bullying is done way more often than people realize, it is said that a child is bullied every seven minutes. There is only a four percent adult intervention, eleven percent peer intervention and eighty five percent of the time there is no intervention at all (Alexander,2011). Fifty eight percent of the children getting bullied have not, and will not tell their parents of their problems with the bullies from fear of it worsening. Which should not be the case.
Effects of Bullying
“Although Americans sometimes dismiss bullying in school as a childhood rite of passage, this form of aggression may have long-lasting psychological ramifications for victims as well as for bullies.” (Miller, 2009) Children who are bullied are more likely to suffer from depression than other kids. They will also try and come up with every excuse in the book to try and stay home from school to avoid the bullies. People don’t realize the damage they’re causing, they think of it as a “rite of passage” which isn’t of course how the victims see it. They take it, like any other would, as a personal attack which is exactly what it is. “Victims of chronic childhood bullying are more likely to think about suicide as adults compared to those who aren’t bullied, while former bullies are more likely to be convicted of criminal charges.” (Miller, 2009). Not only does it effect the victim while they’re going through it, it goes on and haunts them throughout their adult life. ("Effects of bullying," 2010) “A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. In twelve of fifteen school shooting cases, the shooters had a history of being bullied.” Not all kids who are bullied attempt to shoot of the school or the place where they receive most of their bullying but a large portion of shooters admit it is because they were bullied. Sometimes a bully can either catch them on a bad time or maybe take it a bit too far and make the victim snap, which is not unusual. There are also long term effects bullying can cause. When a bully causes physical harm to you that may only hurt you temporarily, but the words they speak to you can haunt you for as long as you allow them to. “The physical wounds will heal; it's far more difficult to heal the damage that can be done from years of emotional and psychological abuse”(Kravitz, 2012)
Solutions Provided
Preventing bullying in schools can come from many different aspects, bullying goes beyond the bully his or herself and the victim. The solutions suggested require assistance and also patience from the parents, peers, and educators of the school. (Peplar, 2000) “Unless the adults in the school change their attitudes and behavior, the students will not.” (pg. 12) Peplar is making it clear there needs to be a strong foundation in order to change to occur. The adults need to realize the problem and bring it to everyone attention how dangerous bullying really is. Everyone has their own personalities that you need to deal with separately, when you’re an adult trying to intervene with a bully you need to first find out why the child feels the need to bully. Bullying tends to be learned behavior from home. Menesini (2012) states,
In relation to bullying behavior, Patterson (3) underlined how older siblings tend to victimize younger siblings and how the more submissive behavior of younger siblings can reinforce older siblings’ attacks. However, at the same time, younger siblings’ exposure to aggression promotes aggressive behavior that often generalizes to children’s behavior with their peers.
More than likely a bully is a bully because that’s how they get treated at home and that is all they know so that’s how they are going to treat others. To fix this Kuther (2010) suggests parents supervise sibling relationships more closely to make certain there is no bullying amongst them. Kuther (2010) also suggests parents spend more time with their children and always make sure they feel secure and loved so they never feel the need to have to take control or bully other students.
The figure above states “The Silent Threat” reason being unless someone takes action or speaks up about their issue no one who can be of aid will find out. If you want to stop bullying you need to take a stand, standing up for yourself physically will never be the answer. By standing up for yourself you need to tell an instructor or a parent or just someone who has authority to put a stop to the bullying for you. “Targeting young people will change the way the next generation treat each other and themselves” (Rowe, 2009) is another solution we can work on. If organizations and schools continue to raise awareness of this social issue and make it as big a deal as it should be they can stop bullying before the younger generations grow up. If all elementary students right now knew the effects bullying can cause and understood it they could put an end to it.
Conclusion
Bringing awareness to any social topic and providing solutions is the fastest way to put an end to things that should not be happening. If schools and parents could cooperate and present the issues at hand to their students and children the community could be a lot more comfortable for the victims of bullies. Making a difference all comes down to the community, there are many organizations who are more than willing to help in situations like these and people should not take this for granted. It takes one person to stand up and make a difference for all those who don’t believe they have the voice to do it themselves. In the end its up to you to decide how you want your kids to grow up, because you never know if your child also may be a victim of bullies.
References
Alexander, J. (2011, February). Bullying starts with me. Retrieved from http://2011bullyingprogram.weebly.com/bullying-statistics.html
Effects of bullying. (2010, March). Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov/at- risk/effects/index.html
Kravitz, K. (2012, October 18). Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kayley-kravitz/high-school-bullying_b_1964352.html
Kuther, T. (2010). Understanding bullying. Retrieved from http://www.aaets.org/article175.htm
Menesini, E. (2012). Is bullying learned at home?. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/home-environment-impacts-bullying/
Miller, M. (2009, September). School bullying has long term effects. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/school-bullying-has-long-lasting-effects
Peplar, D. (2000). Making a difference in bullying. 12-14. Retrieved from http://psycserver.psyc.queensu.ca/craigw/Craig_Pepler_2000_REPORT_Making_a_Diffe rence_in_Bullying.pdf
Rowe, J. (Performer) (2009). Positive solutions anti bullying video [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMh4dxXjbg
Bullying has always been an issue in schools and even work places for adults. It has never been given the proper attention or importance it needs. There are several different effective solutions to stopping bullies. It takes communication, patience and understanding to fully make the change. You need to understand the bully and provide help for them because there’s always a reason why they may be bullying also. Stopping bullying takes a lot of effort from different people in the community and can be accomplished if everyone does their part.
The Harmful Effects Bullying Has
Bullying is a very dangerous social topic that is not given enough importance. Not only does it cause mental harm to the victims but it also causes physical harm by either the bully or the victim themself. Others don’t realize the harm they are inflicting on their victims. There are many solutions provided for this topic, some in particular are increasing awareness and becoming more involved. Both these solutions are important because the more the people in our communities know about bullying the greater the chance of them wanting to go out and make a difference.
Different Faces of Bullying
There are several different forms of bullying. There are verbal bullies, bullies who try and get you down mentally by saying hurtful or rude comments. Physical bullies, who may push you around and try to start physical fights with you and cyber bullies, who do all their work hiding behind the computer screen. All are equally harmful in the way that they pick at their victims until they get what they want.
Statistics on Bullying
One out of every four teens are bullied, one out of every five kids admit to doing some form of bulling (Alexander, 2011). Bullying is done way more often than people realize, it is said that a child is bullied every seven minutes. There is only a four percent adult intervention, eleven percent peer intervention and eighty five percent of the time there is no intervention at all (Alexander,2011). Fifty eight percent of the children getting bullied have not, and will not tell their parents of their problems with the bullies from fear of it worsening. Which should not be the case.
Effects of Bullying
“Although Americans sometimes dismiss bullying in school as a childhood rite of passage, this form of aggression may have long-lasting psychological ramifications for victims as well as for bullies.” (Miller, 2009) Children who are bullied are more likely to suffer from depression than other kids. They will also try and come up with every excuse in the book to try and stay home from school to avoid the bullies. People don’t realize the damage they’re causing, they think of it as a “rite of passage” which isn’t of course how the victims see it. They take it, like any other would, as a personal attack which is exactly what it is. “Victims of chronic childhood bullying are more likely to think about suicide as adults compared to those who aren’t bullied, while former bullies are more likely to be convicted of criminal charges.” (Miller, 2009). Not only does it effect the victim while they’re going through it, it goes on and haunts them throughout their adult life. ("Effects of bullying," 2010) “A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. In twelve of fifteen school shooting cases, the shooters had a history of being bullied.” Not all kids who are bullied attempt to shoot of the school or the place where they receive most of their bullying but a large portion of shooters admit it is because they were bullied. Sometimes a bully can either catch them on a bad time or maybe take it a bit too far and make the victim snap, which is not unusual. There are also long term effects bullying can cause. When a bully causes physical harm to you that may only hurt you temporarily, but the words they speak to you can haunt you for as long as you allow them to. “The physical wounds will heal; it's far more difficult to heal the damage that can be done from years of emotional and psychological abuse”(Kravitz, 2012)
Solutions Provided
Preventing bullying in schools can come from many different aspects, bullying goes beyond the bully his or herself and the victim. The solutions suggested require assistance and also patience from the parents, peers, and educators of the school. (Peplar, 2000) “Unless the adults in the school change their attitudes and behavior, the students will not.” (pg. 12) Peplar is making it clear there needs to be a strong foundation in order to change to occur. The adults need to realize the problem and bring it to everyone attention how dangerous bullying really is. Everyone has their own personalities that you need to deal with separately, when you’re an adult trying to intervene with a bully you need to first find out why the child feels the need to bully. Bullying tends to be learned behavior from home. Menesini (2012) states,
In relation to bullying behavior, Patterson (3) underlined how older siblings tend to victimize younger siblings and how the more submissive behavior of younger siblings can reinforce older siblings’ attacks. However, at the same time, younger siblings’ exposure to aggression promotes aggressive behavior that often generalizes to children’s behavior with their peers.
More than likely a bully is a bully because that’s how they get treated at home and that is all they know so that’s how they are going to treat others. To fix this Kuther (2010) suggests parents supervise sibling relationships more closely to make certain there is no bullying amongst them. Kuther (2010) also suggests parents spend more time with their children and always make sure they feel secure and loved so they never feel the need to have to take control or bully other students.
The figure above states “The Silent Threat” reason being unless someone takes action or speaks up about their issue no one who can be of aid will find out. If you want to stop bullying you need to take a stand, standing up for yourself physically will never be the answer. By standing up for yourself you need to tell an instructor or a parent or just someone who has authority to put a stop to the bullying for you. “Targeting young people will change the way the next generation treat each other and themselves” (Rowe, 2009) is another solution we can work on. If organizations and schools continue to raise awareness of this social issue and make it as big a deal as it should be they can stop bullying before the younger generations grow up. If all elementary students right now knew the effects bullying can cause and understood it they could put an end to it.
Conclusion
Bringing awareness to any social topic and providing solutions is the fastest way to put an end to things that should not be happening. If schools and parents could cooperate and present the issues at hand to their students and children the community could be a lot more comfortable for the victims of bullies. Making a difference all comes down to the community, there are many organizations who are more than willing to help in situations like these and people should not take this for granted. It takes one person to stand up and make a difference for all those who don’t believe they have the voice to do it themselves. In the end its up to you to decide how you want your kids to grow up, because you never know if your child also may be a victim of bullies.
References
Alexander, J. (2011, February). Bullying starts with me. Retrieved from http://2011bullyingprogram.weebly.com/bullying-statistics.html
Effects of bullying. (2010, March). Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov/at- risk/effects/index.html
Kravitz, K. (2012, October 18). Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kayley-kravitz/high-school-bullying_b_1964352.html
Kuther, T. (2010). Understanding bullying. Retrieved from http://www.aaets.org/article175.htm
Menesini, E. (2012). Is bullying learned at home?. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/home-environment-impacts-bullying/
Miller, M. (2009, September). School bullying has long term effects. Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/school-bullying-has-long-lasting-effects
Peplar, D. (2000). Making a difference in bullying. 12-14. Retrieved from http://psycserver.psyc.queensu.ca/craigw/Craig_Pepler_2000_REPORT_Making_a_Diffe rence_in_Bullying.pdf
Rowe, J. (Performer) (2009). Positive solutions anti bullying video [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMh4dxXjbg