Bullying In The Schools And The Best Way To Tackle This Sensitive Issue (Essay Sample)

RENSON OMUMU
HOW TO PREVENT BULLYING IN SCHOOLS
Bullying is cruel: it is not confined in schools alone nor associated with children alone. Anyone, anywhere, can be a bully or a victim. Ensuring that schools are safe for children is the primary goal of any parent who takes his/her child to school. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports that violence in the workplace is increasing, this report considers violence to be ‘any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work’ (Varnava 24). A school is also a workplace and teachers unions have publicized the increasing number of assaults on their members by parents, relatives or other adults. This paper will focus on bullying and how it can be prevented in schools.
Brief therapy a unique type of therapy seeks to help students who are bullied to reframe their situation and to learn to deal with bullying by visualizing it differently and reacting in ways that are assertive rather than aggressive (Varnava 24). This therefore helps the affected pupils in developing techniques that help overcome the torment of the bully, and which show bystanders that they are capable of withstanding attempts to disempowering them. Unfortunately this approach cautions using against provocative victims as they lack the social skills and imagination required to benefit from the technique (Varnava 24).
Involvement of peers in prevention and response to bullying forms a natural part of a school in which students are invited to contribute to decisions at various levels including teaching and learning issues as well as formulation policies. It is crucial to note that, by possibly witnessing bullying and knowing the participants, supposedly non-involved pupils are important in creating the social context that negates or nurtures it. Therefore the ultimate responsibility for developing, permitting and supporting interventions and addressing the bullying itself lies with staff. This simply means that students can only become active participants if they are allowed to do so (Varnava 24).
Another alternative is the bully courts, where those who seek to resolve bullying issues look to the criminal court system and replicate elements of it. These courts not only create systems that deal with bullying, but also create a climate of fear that prevents bullying. Regarding students being formally given increased authority in schools, long before the subject of school bullying became a more open one, there had been experimentation with pupils having the power to censure through courts (Lee 13). This concept has been adopted and advocated by others, for example, in one middle school not only was a court set up, but also legalistic language was used to structure procedures. A lot of individuals agree that endorsement bully court sh...