Bullying in the United States School System Term Paper (Term Paper Sample)

Bullying in the United States School System
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Bullying in the United States School System
Bullying is one of the most significantly highlighted issues within the American community and bullying the American education system has become even more prevalent. According to various media coverage, there are untold bullying cases, most of which have unpleasing endings. Suicide rates related to bullying are presently higher than any other period before. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among American youths, averaging at 4,400 deaths annually, with more than half of these deaths attributed to some sort of bullying. Research also indicates that there are 100 suicide attempts for every one successful suicide performed. Today, bullying is affecting more school children in manners that most seniors may not comprehend. Laws are being enacted to combat bullying phenomenon but the effective of the measures being put in place is questionable. Bullying in its different forms has become a growing significant issue for parents, school administrators, and teachers and it affects American society at large.
A bully can be defined as a person who is habitually cruel to others who are weaker through the use of force, insults or threats. However, bullying is best understood within the context of its various forms. The first type of bullying is physical bullying which entails the use of force to gain control over victims. Physical bullying tends to be stronger, bigger and more aggressive than their peers and they bullying them through things like hitting, slapping, punching, pushing and shoving (Hong & Espelage, 2012). The victims of this form of bullying are usually defenseless and end up in physical injuries some of which have permanent effects. Unfortunately, this type of bullying have been practiced for ages and virtually all American adults have undergone it at some point or another, though the degree of severity may differ.
Another type of bullying practices in the education system is verbal bullying. Verbal bullying entails the use of statements or words to garner power and control over a victim. According to Olsen, Kann, Vivolo-Kantor, Kinchen, & McManus (2014), verbal bullies often use unyielding insults to demean, humiliate and belittle another person. Such bullies select their victims based on the physique complexion, behavior or the way they act and it is common for them to target children with special needs. Limber (2010) asserts that verbal bullying is very hard to identify since it often occurs when school caregivers like teachers are not around. Moreover, many adults perceive that things that children say do not matter significantly hence they end up telling the victim to just ignore it. Contrarily, studies have shown that verbal bullying has detrimental consequences and may leave deep emotional scars.
Another type of bullying practiced in the education system is relational aggression. Relational aggression tends to be an insidious form of bullying which often goes undetected by parents and teachers. Olsen et al. (2014) state that relational aggression entails social influence where children and teenagers try to hurt their peers or sabotage their social standing. Relational bullies tend to ostracize peers from a group, spread propaganda, manipulate situations and degrade confidence which an aim of enhancing their own social standing. It has been found out that girls tend to use rational aggression more than boys particularly between fifth and eighth grade (Messias, Kindrick, & Castro, 2011). A victim of this bullying is likely to be insulted, intimidated, excluded or ignored.
Furthermore, cyberbullying is the newest form of bullying that is taking place within the education system. Cyberbullying entails the use of technology such Internet and mobile phones to harass, embarrass or threaten another person. It is perpetrated through acts like posting hurtful images, making online threatens and spreading hurtful texts or emails. Among all the forms of bullying, cyberbullying is the hardest to abolish since the risk of being caught is miniature (Messias et al., 2011). Cyberbullies usually say that they do not have the brevity to say face-to-face because technology gives them anonymity and detachment from the situation. Consequently, cyberbullying is usually mean and cruel and it can get the victim virtually everywhere. As a result, the consequences of online bullying among the school children are significant.
Moreover, prejudicial bullying is another form of bullying that school children still engage in. According to Donegan (2012), prejudicial bullying is based on predispositions teenagers have toward individuals of various races, sexual orientation, and creeds. When this kind of bullying occurs, children target others who are different from them and single them out. Juvonen & Graham (2014) posit that occurrence of this type of bullying severe and can result in hate crimes hence cases of prejudicial bullying should be reported immediately. Prejudicial bullying was widely practiced during the Civil Rights Movement era where Blacks where segregated even form schools and today some of the school shootings such as “Columbine and “Virginia Tech” in the U.S. are engineered by hate towards school children of another race.
On the other hand, there is no single reason for bullying in the school system. However, research shows that most school children become bullies because of stressful situations that are compelled to deal with. A child who is a victim of bullying can also turn to bullying others for revenge. However, most of the bullying is nurtured by things that children constantly grow seeing. For instance, children that grow witnessing their parents regularly fighting and insulting each other could grow up believing it is acceptable behavior. Further, some bullies are products of being picked on by their older siblings (Abreu, Black, Mosley, & Fedewa, 2016). According to Hong & Espelage (2012), some of the children who feel inferior at home because their siblings are older or stronger than they go to school to find weaker targets that they start to bully.
Moreover, bullying can also be caused by poor academic performance. According to Olsen et al. (2014), most of the endemic bullies are children who fail to make good grade and have untold struggles with studies. As a result, they get frustrated and they start to build up anger. It is even more critical when brighter children start to cajole them and create a feeling of being a dummy in them. When a bully is jealous of another person, they are more likely going to bully them out of spite. Therefore, some of the cases of school bullying are as a result of retaliation for being unable to deliver satisfactory academic performance.
Moreover, some of the children bully others because of their personality types. Most bullies come off as strong and confident individuals but that is not it at all. According to Limber (2010), bullies like a sense of authority that they exercise over other kids since that could be the only thing they hold any significant power in. most bullies take their feeling of insecurity out on other children then causes the children they bully to be insecure. Messias at al. (2011) argues that it is such a shame that some children bully others because of their feelings insecurity since the cascading effect of this behavior are far-reaching and detrimental to the society as a whole.
On another hand, bullying is most common among children between the age of nine and fifteen, who are in the phases of late childhood and early adolescence and happens most in middle and elementary schools (Donegan, 2012). It has been discovered that as kids mature, the form of bullying they practice tend to change. According to Olsen ety al. (2014), younger school children tend to use physical bullying and verbal bullying while older school bullies tend to use sexual bullying to harass their targets. Further, Juvonen & Graham (2014) assert that older bullies have adopted technology and now widely practice cyberbullying. Due to the proliferation of bullying in the school system, there are many direct effects it causes.
Bullying in schools disrupts classroom activities through having students’ ability to learn at school and this has shown to lead to drop out and truancy. Schools with high bullying cases have a dropout rate of 29% above the national average while institutions with low bullying rates have a drop put rates 28% below the national average (Donegan, 2012). The feeling of distress, fear, and intimidation created by bullying is not conducive to learning and it may take a toll on student performance. The fact that anti-bullying programs have been found to improve the overall school performance insinuates that prevalent bullying undermines educational endeavors. In addition, victims of bullying suffer from psychology disorders such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness. They also tend to develop somatic symptoms like fatigue, sleeping disorders among others. Moreover, some of the victims have reacted by carrying out highly publicized school shootings targeting their oppressors like the infamous mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. Moreover, bullies are vulnerable to suicide and alcoholism and are substantially more likely to participate in delinquent activities. Research shows that by t...