Record it, Report it, Don’t Support it -Reem Ezziddine 9B

“Life is a fight, but not everybody is a fighter because if they were bullies would be an endangered species.” This quote portrays that if everyone stood against bullying, then bullying would disappear. But, since not everyone stands against bullying as fighters then bullying will complete hurting everyone forever. Bullying does have solutions that reduce its effects that are due to different causes. In fact, there are various physical and social causes for bullying that lead to drastic psychological and academic drawbacks on the students that, if taken into consideration, have solutions.

Physical differences, if pointed out in a disdainful manner, can lead to an increase in the feeling of sadness and loneliness. To start with, a viral cause of bullying is being obese. Obese students are often teased because of their shape and body, in a recent national survey of overweight sixth graders, 24% of the boys and 30% of the girls experienced daily teasing, bullying or rejection because of their size. The number doubles for overweight high school students with 58% of boys and 63% of girls experiencing daily teasing, bullying or rejection because of their size. As most obese students faced bullying, Dr. J. Ryan Fuller, a psychologist, stated that often 70.6% of obese students suffered from loneliness and sadness at the age of 11-14 years. Yet, this percentage dramatically increases where, at the age of 15-16 years, reaches 99% of obese students. Dr. Fuller claims that these children suffer from complete depression and would become extremely sensitive due to sadness. Another cause for bullying is being disabled or physically challenged, as disabled students are claimed to be too “inferior” to mingle with the “elite”. So, they often face bullying from other students. Ninety-five percent of 6- to 21-year-old students with disabilities were served in public schools in 2013. However, children with special health care needs may have difficulty getting around the school, trouble communicating and navigating social interactions, or may show signs of vulnerability and emotional distress. These students couldn’t get along other peers as they were attached to previous bullying experiences. After having the courage to share his feelings, William, a disabled student, shared his experience with bullying “I would be laughed at most of the times, and other children would make me their server as they oblige me to do their homework and bring them food every day. They would sometimes hit me as I didn’t do their homework perfectly, or because I gave them food that is too substandard to what they eat. After that, they would leave me alone drenching in tears trying to live another day saying that at least I have people around and that it would be better the next day.” As an effect, his mother says that she was obliged to take him to a psychologist after his status worsening “ He didn’t get out of his room for several days, and his health was starting to get worse” she said “ I then knew that he was being bullied, so I thought of taking him to a psychologist since he wasn’t interacting even with his cousins whom he love a lot.”

Moreover, social distinctions can form an instigator for bullying which leads in turn to a deterioration in the scholar results. To begin with, socio-economic status (SES) which is the social and economic status of someone, if being too mediocre leads to bullying. 14 studies were made in 6 different countries. The results have shown that students with low SES often suffered bullying (65.8%) while those with high SES were often the bullies (58.9%). These studies have also shown that among low SES students, some were bullying others as revenge for being bullied. Almost 89% of the victims agonized from a drop in their grades. Some were scoring complete B’s or C’s and started failing due to bullying. Although only 3% of the victims were scoring A’s in some subjects, yet even those students’ grades dropped to D as they are poor or wear unfashionable clothes. Gender discrimination is another cause of bullying. Amanda Sparkles, a school counselor, after being interviewed said “Gender discrimination is a very toxic kind of bullying, although physical differences lead to sadness, yet gender discrimination is a real threat to the students’ grades. A 13 years-old group of girls were known for always scoring A+ grades, yet their grades suddenly fell to C’s and D’s. I tried my best along with the homeroom teacher to find the cause of this drop as it was unexpected from such good students. After trying and searching, we found out that they were bullied since they were “girls.”  We then solved the problem yet found out similar cases among different students where they were being bullied for being girls. This discrimination was fatal, and I do know that even the slightest word can make a huge impact and that there is a long way to pave as a counselor to prevent bullying”

To prevent or reduce bullying, noteworthy measures must be taken. To initiate, bullying must be taken into consideration as a big threat that needs to be solved due to the perilous upshots. When asked about the solutions of bullying, Dorothy Espelage, a child psychologist, said “To prevent youth bullying, prevention efforts must teach children and adolescents individual emotion regulation skills, how to foster peer acceptance and ways to counter any detrimental effects of exposure to violence in their homes and communities. We must recognize that schools play a critical role in reducing these behaviors.” “prevention of bullying in schools requires a number of components. Simply focusing on individual youth without attention to the larger social environment that is contributing to these behaviors is short-sighted and is simply a Band-Aid approach. Indeed, the most rigorous review of bully prevention programs across the world identified the types of things that must happen to reduce bully perpetration among children and adolescents. These include parent training/meetings, improved playground supervision, non-punitive disciplinary methods, classroom management, teacher training, classroom rules, whole-school anti-bullying policy, school conferences, information for parents and cooperative group work among students. The more of these components that a school adopts, the greater the reduction in bullying. So, it is not surprising that schools in the U.S. are not seeing the level of reductions in bullying that some other countries are enjoying. Approaches need to target individual student skills, peer interactions, classroom- and school-level factors. Only when we create safe spaces for youth who engage in these behaviors to learn more prosocial ways of managing conflicts among peers and at the same time create school environments that are not tolerant of mean and cruel behavior will we witness reductions in bullying. This problem is bigger than an individual child or adolescent who engages in”

Bullying, a viral current issue, results from various physical and social factors that lead to a myriad of psychological and academic drawbacks that can be solved. Every bully should know that his/her bullying others won’t solve any problem they are facing. If approaching the problem from another perspective, they might be able to solve their problems. Before talking, they should always taste their words, since the power of words can break an innocent heart and change the life of someone upside down. After all, “Blowing out someone’s else candle won’t make yours shine any brighter.”