Bullying and School Violence
School Violence is not something new to us; we hear about it more and more these days where there are shootings in schools, or kids being bullied and the parents are seeking help. The number of children who are becoming victims to this violence is growing. According to the National Center for Education Statistics “During the 2009–10 school year, 85 percent of public schools recorded that one or more of these incidents of violence, theft, or other crimes had taken place, amounting to an estimated 1.9 million crimes. This figure translates to a rate of approximately 40 crimes per 1,000 students enrolled in 2009–10. During the same year, 60 percent of schools reported one of the specified crimes to the police, amounting to about 689,000 crimes—or 15 crimes per 1,000 student’s enrolled.” http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=49. That is a lot of school related crimes and those are just the ones that are being reported.
What do I consider a violent act? When I think of violence I tend to only think of the actions that produce physical harm to a person. But the definition of violence” is an extreme form of aggression, such as assault, rape or murder. Violence has many causes which include frustration, exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighborhood and a tendency to see other people’s actions as hostile even when they’re not.” American Psychological Association; Violence; http://www.apa.org/topics/violence/index.aspx. When I think of school violence and where it happens I would believe it to be of what happens in schools classrooms, hallways and any part of the school building but in fact it expands to all school property. So when our children are riding the school bus or walking to and from school it is considered school time. Bullying occurs in different ways at home, at school, trough the social media, video gaming and gang related.
As parents we believe that school should be a safe place for our kids to go to learn to make friends and build their social skills, not knowing that they are seeing some type of school violence. There are many different aspects that lead to someone being able to bully a person. The entertainment media allows children to bully over text, computers, and even video games. These children say and do anything to hurt the other person sometimes leading to the child that is bullied to kill themselves in the case of Amanda Todd who was found dead by her parents due to bullying. Bullying occurs in different ways at home, at school, through the social media, video gaming and gang related. I believe that the violence beings at home and effects the child when they leave to school.
We don’t know what occurs in each and every child’s life when they are home. Many children are bullied at home by older siblings whether it is an older brother/sister or cousin. Most children that have older male siblings are most likely to be victimized and more boys than girls do the bullying if they have younger sisters and brothers. These children bully because it gives them a position of authority; the sense that they are in control of someone and something.
When children bully their siblings they are most likely to bully their peers at school as well as those that are bullied are victims of being bullied at school. Many children also don’t have the proper care and love from their parents because they work to maintain the home, or because their parents are substance abusers. Children are influenced by what they see and hear and what they are exposed to will often have the lasting effect on them as they get older. Many children do bully or act out because of what is happening at home. If a child witnesses a parent behaving badly such as yelling or hitting another person the child would most likely copy the parent’s behavior because they feel there is nothing wrong with it if their parent did it.
There are many acts of school violence that occur in at school; some are reported and some are not depending on the extent of the crime. From personal experience some bullying is never taken seriously and that is really sad. I have a 13 year old son who has always been big for his age height, and weight; he has always been picked on by older kids and has been called fat. At such a young age of 7 my son tried to cut his wrist because of these kids making fun of him. The school did not understand that these kids were teasing and bullying my son and I had to speak to his teacher of what was occurring and they were very helpful to look after him when they were outside or doing different types of activities.
There are many reasons why children bully other children. I believe that 1) “they have a deep troubling need of their own” because of issues that are going on at home they may feel they have to make themselves better by picking on someone else. 2) “They feel cool to bully” showing off in front of their friends or others. Most bullies are good students they may be athletes; they are the kids that seem to have everything going on for them but something within them makes them bully others. Just because one seems to have everything going for them there can still be a lack of praise, love and care from their parents that allow these kids to act in such a way.
The entertainment media is a big problem when it comes to bullying and school violence. Almost 95% of kids these days have Facebook and Tweeter accounts that allows them to post anything they want without any regards to the others people feelings. Once posted its in cyber world and even though it can be removed sometimes it’s too late; because many could have read it already. There is a lot of bullying done by Facebook, being able to post any comment of a person and others being able to see these posts is embarrassing to many children. Many children have been victims of these hate post.
The effect that social media has on our children is big, there have deaths behind the social media like Amanda Todd. At the age of 15 she was found dead in her home due to bullying that was done online and in person. This girl was tormented for her looks, personality and singing ability by other kids it even went as far as being slapped by a classmate for no reason. There is no way to get away from bullying if you think about it now days, unless you take the computer, cellphones, and anything that allows you to connect to the internet.
Video gaming is not just playing a game where you try to beat the other opponent, you can now bully through a game. How? Many computer games allows you to create an avatar (your character) in which you will be playing in these games; you interact with other avatars around the world. In the game Minecraft there are bullies called “Griefer” which go after your avatar and destroy all their work, it allows you to single players our and pick on them like you would in person.
Then we have the gang activity which leads to many acts of school violence and bullying. Many kids think that being in a gang is cool, really not knowing what they are getting into. They feel that being a part of the gang is being part of something, but in real talk they are just pretending to be something they are not. What kids learn about gangs comes from what is shown on TV. Many of these kids join gangs to prove themselves that they are not to be missed with. Being in a gang makes you act and do things that they know is wrong but because they are in a gang they must do what is being asked or there are consequences.
There are many adults who that don’t see bullying as a crime because these parents are quick to say kids are just being kids, or that saying “kids say whatever comes to mind” with no regard to others. Then there are the schools that say they want to help but when you come to them with situations they act like it’s out of their hands or they act like they don’t have time to help. So what do you do?
In conclusion I believe that schools should offer the students resources that can help them from being bullied or help the kids that are bullying change the way they react to things that occur in school and outside school. Having mentors come into the school to speak to the kids or spend time with them after school will help change their life around for the better. Some kids just need attention that they may not be getting at home. There are many different programs that the school can offer them outside of school to help them better themselves; even if it’s just having a counselor sit with them and listen to them speak and not judge them but correct them. It could help.