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.