The Future of Bullying

Bullying continues to remain a major issue within schools today. How it will progress over time, and what we will have to do to help stop it, will be challenging as children learn to use new technology and find better ways to hide their behaviors. The stronger grasp we have on understanding this social problem, the better off we will be to help diminish this behavior. While it would be helpful to predict the future of school bullying, we all know this is not possible. However, looking at the history of this problem, how it has progressed, and what is being done to help the issue, we may be able to steer ourselves in the right direction. 

Understanding what the future holds for issues of school bullying would allow us to act proactively to stop this issue by implementing programs and directing our efforts to the areas which need the most attention.  Because the future cannot be predicted, we have to rely on what history has shown us about bullying, along with being familiar with where the issue currently stands.

Over time, we have seen issues of bullying, especially school bullying, greatly increase. In the 18th century bullying was not recognized as an issue and was viewed as a regular and unavoidable part of growing up. It was not until the late 19th and into the 20th century where peer-on-peer harassment was first widely recognized as not only an issue, but a major social problem that needed to be fixed.  Currently, due to research, we now hold a better understanding of what this problem entails. Instead of just realizing bullying is a problem, we can now identify who these perpetrators are and why they are bullying others. We can also predict possible correlations between the home environment and the person who bullies others;  and use that information to explain their behaviors. We also now understand who victims of bullying are, and others who contribute to this issue. With a combination of these findings, we may be able to more effectively address the issue of bullying among adolescents.  

History shows that school bullying continues to increase, including, both the amount of people who are affected by bullying, and the severity of the methods being used. These aggressive behaviors are becoming more violent than ever before. Recently to address these actions, legislation began to fight against these violent behaviors through establishing new laws that prohibit bullying within schools (Smith, 2012). These new laws have forced schools throughout the United States to establish policies within their districts that address bullying among children. However, just when school administrators may have thought school bullying was at its worst, a new dynamic was thrown into the mix.

There has been a major shift taking place regarding how kids bully others. Many of us thought face-to-face bullying was bad enough, yet perpetrators of bullying have taken it to the next level by using the internet to prey on others. Whether kids are using popular social media sites, such as Facebook or YouTube, or texting and sending pictures through their cell phones, bullies are now using technology to socially torture their victims. According to Feinberg and Robey (2008), children who are bullied through the internet may suffer more psychological harm then those who experience face-to-face bullying because, “…the hurtful information can be transmitted broadly and instantaneously and can be difficult to eliminate…” (p. 11). Because cyberbullying has become so widely used, some schools have also made laws to address how students are using the internet. Feinberg (2008) suggests that one of the steps schools can take to help this problem diminish is to incorporate cyberbullying laws into school policies that specifically address bullying behaviors. Another important aspect some schools are looking into is holding all parties surrounding each incident of bullying accountable. In the past, only the bully themselves would be punished, yet lately some schools are setting up stricter guidelines that will also hold bystanders and witnesses of bullying incidents accountable.

Marty Mathiesen, Principal at Nevada Union High School, recently shocked his students by equally punishing all parties involved in a violent attack on an innocent school boy. In the locker room, at Nevada Union High School, a smaller sized boy was psychically beaten up as others sat back and videotaped and encouraged the fight (Massie, 2012). Yet, after Mathiesen got wind of this incident, he made it clear that not only the bully, but the students videotaping this fight would be reprimanded (Massie, 2012). This is exactly what all schools need to do. People who watch these violent acts are the ones fueling the fire. Holding bystanders accountable for these actions along with the bullies, may help stop incidents like these from happening at school; however, parents need to closely watch and be held accountable for what their children are doing outside of school.

By understanding where the issue of bullying currently stands, along with what has already been done to help stop it, we can now try and predict what the future for bullying holds. Taking a glance over history and how bullying has progressed, it seems that this issue will continue to expand. With the new technology that is underway, along with what is currently booming, attempting to stop children from harassing others seems impossible. What makes catching these behaviors so difficult are the many venues that are used to pick on others including, “…email, text, chat rooms, mobile phones, mobile phone cameras, and web sites (Campbell, 2005, p 3).   Trying to keep up with current technology, let alone trying to identify bullying behaviors, can be very overwhelming. That said, the more that administrators go searching to find what their students are up to, the more these behaviors will be hidden. One of the unintended and unidentified consequences of trying to put pressure on kids who bully others is that they will just use other means to harass their peers.

Looking at the major groups of kids who are bullied today we see that many of these children are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual. As time goes on, these findings may diminish because people are becoming more excepting of individuals who identify as such.  People within legislation know that in order to make a positive difference in schools, they must look at these issues with a rested pair of eyes so they can clearly see what areas to target to obtain the best results. Yet, even with the intervention programs or educational guidance they are giving to students and parents, it does not address the issues that trigger this behavior in the first place. What administrators should do in addition to their current efforts, is pay more attention to not just the victim of bullying, but the bully themselves. Victims of bullying need to be attended to, but in order to truly help stop this behavior from happening in the first place, we have to understand why these children are acting out. This will take some critical thinking, but to pull together a constructive way to address issues that may be taking place in a child’s home, may ultimately help solve issues at school and in their families. When a child receives this kind of support they will have the tools they need to help them make better decisions and handle difficult situations that they are faced with (Feinberg, 2008, p. 10)

All in all, it would be naive to say that school bullying will completely stop. Even with the collection of programs, laws, and efforts to stop this, bullying will always be a major issue within our school systems. However, the most important factor to help the bullying issue among adolescents is for administrations to strictly enforce anti-bullying rules while gaining all the support they can get from the communities. With schools taking ownership of this growing problem and persistently pushing forward to make a difference, they will be moving in the right direction to help bring  peace and safety back to the school yards.

References:

Campbell, Marilyn A. (2005) Cyber bullying: An old problem in a new guise? Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 15(1), pp. 68-76.

Feinberg, T., Robey, N. (2008, September). Cyberbullying: Whether it happens at school of off-campus, cyberbullying disrupts and affects all aspects of students’ lives. Principal Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/principals/Cyberbulling%20NASSP%209-08.pdf 

Massie, K., (2012). Grass Valley students disciplined after posting fight on YouTube: New10/ABC. Retrieved from http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=110769

Smith-Ferrell, F., (2012). Tackling the Schoolyard Bully: Combining Policy Making with Prevention. National Conference of State Legislature. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/human-services/tackling-the-schoolyard-bully-combining-policy-ma.aspx.