Frances Mix
SOCI 200- D03
November 11, 2013
Current Event Paper

Bullying in Schools
Rebecca Sedwick Suicide On September 10, 2013, in Lakeland, Florida, twelve year old Rebecca Sedwick jumped to her death after enduring months of bullying initiated by her former friend. The bullying was alleged to have begun because of a boy that both Rebecca and her former friend had dated. According, to a CNN Justice report, authorities reported the former friend also recruited and encouraged another former friend of Rebecca’s to join her. It was reported that there was at least one physical attack, as well as cyber bullying, which was accomplished via messages on Facebook.
On the night before Rebecca jumped to her death she messaged a boy she had befriended online, stating: “I’m jumping, I can’t take it anymore.” On the following day Rebecca climbed a ladder, which was attached to a pair of silos at an abandoned concrete plant and jumped to her death. According to a news report, prior to Rebecca’s death she had cut her wrist in December 2012, in an apparent attempt to commit suicide.
From a sociological perspective, bullying is a social problem that impacts both genders, all races, ethnicities, and many cultures. There is usually no justification as to why some individuals are targeted by bullies while others are not, except for the bully’s own personal prejudices, and motives to control.
Bullying can start at a very young age, and most often will occur in the school setting. Their behaviors in the classroom, not only affect those that are being bullied, but also the other students in the classroom as well. Bullying is very hurtful and it can have a lifelong effect on the victim. Bullying victims may develop poor self-esteem along with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, which can be overwhelming. Tragically, the case of Rebecca Sedwick and others turn to suicide as an only means for escape.
Researchers have found that children and youth who bully others are sometimes aggressive towards adults, including parents and teachers. They have positive attitudes towards violence and use bullying tactics as a means of solving problems. These individuals are also more likely to commit crimes during adolescence and continue into adulthood.
Finally, research shows that bullying is more common among boys than girls, and physical bullying occurs most often among boys. Their female counterparts often use indirect methods of bullying, such ostracizing from social groups, spreading rumors by word-of-mouth and more recently, through social media manipulating friendships.
Symbolic Interactionism Analysis
The Introduction to Sociology, page 45, tells us that symbolic interactionism theory alerts us to the importance of effective communication among people so they can understand each other’s perspectives. Furthermore, various individual’s definitions of a situation are related to their definitions of what constitutes a problem. Symbolic Interactionism is the sociological theory that best analyzes this situation, recognizing who was responsible for Rebecca’s suicide. First, looking at the parents, a twelve year old is not a responsible age to handle an unmonitored social media account. Once this account was recognized as becoming a problem and distraction for Rebecca, it should have been shut down. Secondly, she should not have been allowed to date, at such a young age. As a result of both of these aspects, in addition to Rebecca taking the situation and negative comments on herself, should have spurred the decision to seek to counseling, especially since she had attempted suicide before. There was more going on with Rebecca than just the bullying and all of this information should have been considered. Rebecca herself, made a decision to continue to open and read all the negative comments. She had been physically removed from school and was being home schooled. Because, these girls continued to bully Rebecca after her removal, in conjunction with bullying being an inappropriate behavior, they violated against school policy. When the parents were made aware their girls were participating in this type of behavior, the girls, social media accounts should have been shut down and they should have been held responsible for their actions, with consequences set into place for the rules broken. The school and both set of parents should have put a plan of action into place. There is not much information in the article about the role the school played in this situation. Given the fact that a physical fight had occurred, some interaction was needed directly to diffuse the situation. Neither the boy, who was the object of both Rebecca’s and the bully’s affections, nor the provider of the social media site, played a part in Rebecca’s suicide; therefore, they bare no liability in the case.

References http://www.CNN Justice .com, October 10, 2013
Basirico, L, Cahion, B, Eshleman Introduction to Sociology 5th Edition, BVT Publishing 2012