Verbal Bullying

Abstract Bullying may give particular students self-confidence, but school bullying must be stopped. Being the victim of bullying can lower a victim’s self-esteem, cause psychological problems, and have many other long term effects. This research represented ways individuals can see the short term and long term effects of being a bully or the victim. There are many demographics of bullying. Suicide and school violence is on the rise. Victims of bullies can often get severely depressed and have low self-esteem.They start thinking of how to take care of the problem themselves. The outcome can take innocent bystanders lives. School is starting for the tri state area kids. Parents are excited, kids are bummed, and teachers are preparing for the new school year. One Subject that parents and teachers have been focusing their attention on is bullying. They have got to prepare to act quickly and know when a student is bullying or being bullied. Parents and teachers are watching for si gns of their children being bullied or doing the bullying.Bullying may give particular students self-confidence, but school bullying must be stopped because being the victim of bullying can cause psychological problems, there are different types of bullying and they have many different short-term and long- term effects. According to Bullying Timeline(2008-2009), bullying is not something that has just surfaced in the past ten years, earliest categorized act of bullying behavior is dated all the way back to 1897. Dr. Dan Olweus conducted the first research on bullying in 1970.In 1978 the first book was released, â€Å"Aggression in the schools: Bullies and Whipping Boys. † Dr. Dan Olweus proposed a law against bullying in schools in 1981. In the mid-1990’s, Olweus argument led to legislation against bullying by the Swedish & Norwegian parliaments. This was the first proposal of an anti-bullying law. April 20th, 1999, was a revolution for the states, two teenage schoolbo ys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, whom was persistently bullied, went on a shooting spree wounding twenty-three, fatally shooting thirteen, and taking their own lives.Children, parents and school officials around the country were shocked, and no one could deny the need for more pro-social and accepting school environments and a way to combat bullying among students. (The history of bullying in schools,2008-2009) The Free Online Dictionary’s definition of a bully is, â€Å"a person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people. † Bullying hasn’t really changed over the years, what has changed is the technology involved in bullying. Research and attention have become more focused on bullying since early 1970. Free Online Dictionary, 2012) The four types of bullying that are a significant focus. Verbal and physical are the most associated with bullying. Social and cyber bullying is an increasing rise, to focus more on. Verbal bully ing is the most common form of bullying. (Teenage Bullying,2009) Growing up we have all heard the saying, â€Å"sticks and stones may break my bones but words cannot hurt me. † As untrue as that saying is, name calling, rude comments, constant taunting, threats and teasing can be the breaking point for an individual. Words are painful as well as very affective on one’s life.Forgetting something that was said is not always that easy. Verbal bullying is most common among girls. It is easier to bully a girl with words than it is to physically bully a girl. Social bullying is also found typically amongst girls. (Being left out is worst form of bullying according to research,2011) Spreading rumors that are highly embarrassing, untrue, which can make the person feel ashamed about, who they are. Leaving someone out of a group or discussion on purpose, making the victim feel alone and uninvited to participate.Bullies can glare to intimidate their victim for saying something to someone else, or even being present when the bully is around. At times they give the silent treatment because they are mad or jealous of the person. (National Foundation for educational research,2011) Physical bullying appears to be the most obvious kind of bullying. Physical attacks such as: kicking, pushing, tripping, and spitting to show that they are in charge. Rude gestures like, pounding their fist to their hand resembling they will hit their victim. It is a powerful act to intimidate the weak and show who is in charge. Physical bullying is most common in young boys.They tend to use violence to demonstrate power. With the new technology cyber bullying is one of the prime methods in this day and age for a bully. Cyber bullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. Facebook, MySpace and other forms of social networks are not the only forms of cyber bullying. Surprisingly, 42 percent of kids have been bullied while online through e-ma il, texting, chat rooms, forums, and instant messaging. (Cyber bullying Statistics: Statistics and Tips, 2004) Based on 2004 i-SAFE survey of 1,500 student’s grades 4-8, â€Å"35% of kids using the internet have been threatened online.Survey showed 21% of kids have received mean or threatening e-mail or other messages. While 58% of the kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. Significantly, 58% have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online. On the other hand survey showed 53% of kids admit to having said something mean or hurtful to another person online. †(2004) (Cyber bullying Statistics: Statistics and Tips, 2004) Cyber bullying has changed how persistent bullies can be. When bullying was just at school, kids had home to go to after school and weekends.They only had to deal with bullying on the school grounds. There is no escape for victims whom are targeted at school currently. They ar e being targeted at home by internet bullying and texting. According to a research done by Stop Bullying,(2011) strangely enough there is no federal law directly addresses bullying, â€Å"in some cases, bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment when it is based on race, national origin, color, sex, age, disability, or religion. When bullying and harassment overlap, federally-funded schools have an obligation to resolve the harassment.When the situation is not adequately resolved, the U. S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U. S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division may be able to help. † (Federal Law, 2011) Forty-nine of the fifty states in the U. S. have approved school anti-bullying legislation. In 1999, Georgia was the first to be approved. (Georgia house bill, 2012) Montana is the only state without anti-bullying legislation. (MT-Senate bill 198, 2012) Local tri-state area anti-bullying laws are in affect. In 2007, Iow a jumped on board to create a state law and policies at schools for bullying.Wisconsin joined in 2010, with both school policies, as well as a state law, while in 2007 Illinois only has an anti-bullying law, but no school policy. (Bully Police, 2012) Oddly Illinois is ranked the 3rd most bullied state for k-12. (Top 5 States, 2011) Bullies are often mistaken as loners with low self-esteem. Bully’s naturally have an easier time making friends. It is easier to be a bully’s friend than to be bullied by him/her. A bully’s self-esteem is average or above normal. They are known to come from homes with limited supervision by parents, harsh or physical discipline at home ay have a role model with bullying engagements, and a one parent household. Children who participate in bullying often bully more than one individual. Their characteristics are often but not limited to: being impulsive, having a lack of empathy, as well as, becoming easily frustrated. They also have a t endency not to listen to authority. Generally, they do not like to follow rules. Some can look at violence in a positive way, and can often be found erratic. Kids who bully have a liking to find other friends who are bullies. Together they can become positive to violence. Children who bully, 2011) What are the signs to look for in children that are bullies? Bullying can be a sign of serious antisocial violent behavior. A victim at home can be a bully at school. Children who bully other kids are more likely to pick fights, be injured in fighting, vandalize property or steal from others, drink alcohol at an early age, smoke cigarettes, do recreational drugs, become absent from school or stop attending all together, and may carry weapons. If you ask a bully about weapons, majority own or have access to. Short term effects of being a bully are feeling the powerful use of anger.Control bullies have over other kids, and fear that was present when they are nearby. At the same time bullies are respected because it is easier to be friends with a bully then be bullied by the bully. The false happiness bullies think they are aiding by hurting others. Long term effects of being a bully. Becoming a criminal in later years of their lives, is a probability. Self- esteem and empathy never mended. Some feel they have reputations to live up to and feel they are invincible. Consequences never fear bullies in the long term effect because they do not care what happens next.For parents to recognize if their child is doing the bullying often have a strong need to dominate situations to get their own way and have the power over the household. Antisocial or criminal behavior at a young age can demonstrate that they are hanging out with the wrong kids. Children with aggressive behavior to rule a parent and not listen to what they have to say, and can become abusive toward their parents to dominate the situation and be in charge. (Children who bully, 1998-2012) Teachers are trained to w atch for signs of bullying. Children can be bullied in many ways physical, verbal, and emotional.Crick & Grotpeter (1995) discuss how there are more ways than just directly bullying; they can include indirect behaviors that cause a child to feel socially secluded. † Examples of this type of bullying could be leaving the student out of activities, spreading rumors, making him/her feel uncomfortable or scared, telling nasty stories, not allowing the person to speak to other children or be spoken to. This is also called relational aggression, which is primarily, but not exclusively associated with girls' bullying strategies â€Å"(Crick ; Grotpeter, 1995).Girls are more commonly responsible for the indirect behavior. Boys like to demonstrate their aggression and cause physical damage. In most cases, children are bullied because they are different and stick out in some way or another. Sometimes it is because one is smaller or bigger than the other kids. Age could be a factor in o ther cases. Being a specific gender, male versus female, or even a person’s sexual orientation could be a cause for bullying. A victim could be bullied because of economic status such as being rich or poor. Race, religion, beliefs and interests could be different from the bullies.There are many demographics for one to be a victim of bullying. Recognizing signs children being bullied can be more difficult than signs of your child being the bully. Children who are being victimized by bullying have one or several behaviors at home. They may come home with bruises, cuts, or other physical appearances without an explanation of how they got there. They do not want to go to school anymore or start taking a different route to and from school. Acting sad, depressed, irritable, and suddenly have temper outburst. May start to isolate themselves from others and become a loner.Schoolchildren who are bullied may suffer from different short-term effects. Anger along with frustration may bec ome collective feelings. Intention is that they want to retaliate, and have the desire for the bully to stop picking on he/she. Some frustration and anger come from not understanding why they are being the victim of bullying. Several start becoming afraid and concerned of what will occur next, and start developing anxiety. Victims from time to time can become depressed and feel it is their fault and begin to think; they hate life, hate themselves and hate existence.Low self-worth may play a part of short term bullying in which can cause illness. Some students may start to be absent from school, start to become a loner to avoid being bullied. Long term effects for the victim of being bullied are far more serious then short term effects. Severe depression is more than just a feeling of being down. Depression is a severe mood disorder in which feelings of unhappiness, along with other symptoms, can interfere with a person’s normal everyday activities for a long period of time.If severe depression is not treated swiftly, selected number of victims may get to the point of hurting themselves, thoughts of suicide, attempting suicide, or considerations or actions of hurting others. The worst case occurrence through bullying is when victims come back and retaliates the best way they feel is gratifying. Human instinct is to hurt someone who is hurting us. Making someone feel the way they have made us feel, becomes the only precedence some have. With that being said, there are school shootings and suicides on the rise.It is no longer just hurtful words, excluding someone from a group or event, giving each other silent treatment, or fist fighting. It has become a fatal concern on the rise. According to Bullying Statistics,(2009) the alarming figures are on the rise. * Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide att empts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University * A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying * 10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide, according to the study above * According to statistics reported by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying. Bullying Statistics,2009) In conclusion, being the victim of school bullying can have extreme long term effects on both the victim and the bully. Today’s technology has changed the way kids are getting bullied. Parents are watching for warning signs if their child is the victim of bullying or is the bully. There are many short-term and long-term effect s bullying can have on kids.Teachers are particularly watching interactions between kids. Some schools have created bully awareness days or weeks. School violence and suicide are on the rise, distinguishing bullying and being able to solve the problem proficiently, will be the best way to reduce an ongoing problem in the future. Preventing bulling is possible with enough contribution.