The Time Is Now To Take Action
Bullying has only became a hot new topic within the last few years. Maybe no one wanted to face the facts that there was a real issue at hand or maybe some felt that it was part of growing up. In any case, it has been revealed that many deaths of young children and other long term psychological and emotional effects on children are due to bullying. We can not look back and think about what we could've, should've, and would've done. Now, is the time that matters. What we do now—to prevent this abuse from continuing to happen—is the most important thing that matters.
Anti-Bullying
I found this great blog on anti-bullying called Stop Bullies Blog founded by J. Richard Knapp. He is the CEO of Stop Bullies. I must say that I've come across many blogs but this one really caught my eye based on how genuinely personal it seems to be. The bait for me was the post called Sharing Knowledge—with this one read I was hooked. It wasn't about straight forward knowledge or dictated information. It was just a plea. A plea for those who felt that the information on the page was important to just share it. That's it—a post about sharing. Share for those who want to make a change for the children who are getting abused. I was truly touched. This is not just a plain informational blog. It's more than that—it's personal.
J. Richard Knapp discusses in his blog a wide variety of topics relating to bullying such as the mental effects of being bullied on children, bully prevention training, ways in creating happy kids, a message for parents to teach vital core values to their kids and more.
Recently, his post called Critical Bully Prevention Components gave some real sound advice for a prevention plan against bullying. I really thought this plan was a wonderful idea. He puts forth that there are three steps that need to take place in order to really put a stop to bullying:
- The first component is to provide the school and its staff with appropriate training and curriculum to promote both preventative and reactive strategies in bully prevention.
- The second component targets the community as a whole. This includes strategies that reach the general population, businesses, churches, clubs, police, social services, recreation groups, and more.
- The third component is the education of the parent.
In my opinion, I believe that he is totally on target with this prevention plan. In order for any kind of preventative measure to be enacted all three must be addressed and stand on common ground. The school, community, and parents must all unite in response to bullying. One step will not work without the others. If one negates on its view, then all will crumble and the plan will fail. It is with the support of all on this common stand point against bullying that a powerful message will be sent to children—bullying will not be accepted nor tolerated.
Let's Make a Difference
I wanted to add that it's not enough to just tell the children that bullying is not good and it shouldn't be done. One must set good examples at home, work, and school. For example: Children are at school about 8 hours a day for five days every week. Therefore, teachers should set good examples for the kids in school. What I mean is that if a teacher bullies another child or adult, for that matter, and the kids see this—How do you think they will behave? There is an old proverbial saying, "Actions speak louder than words". In order for a powerful message to be taken seriously, we all must behave accordingly and not bully anyone ourselves.
Back on Track for More Information
A few weeks ago I made a post called The More You Know. This post focused on the statistics section of School Bullying on Wikipedia. I made revisions to the original page and now I'm back to see if the page on Wikipedia is still the same or has been changed.
Was my revision of the Wiki page changed?
Sadly I must say that the Wiki page has been changed. Please see below.
Bullying is a common occurrence in most schools. According to the American Psychological Association, approximately "40% to 80% of school-age children experience bullying at some point during their school careers".[16] Regardless of the grade level, socioeconomic environment, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, bullying can happen to anyone. However, various studies point out that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more bullied than students from higher socio-economic backgrounds.[17] Most children experience bullying at some point in their academic careers. The following is a list of statistics that illustrate the severity of bullying within classrooms:[16]
- 20–40% of bullying victims actually report being bullied
- 7–12% of bullies are habitual and pose a serious threat
- 23% of 9th graders have carried a weapon to school recently[18]
- 5–15% of students are constantly bullied
- 27% of students are bullied because of their refusal to engage in common sexual practices
- 25% of students encourage bullying if not given proper education and support in anti-bullying techniques[19]
This was a survey conducted by the NICHD where a results on what student did in a school. "The children were asked to complete a questionnaire during a class period that asked how often they either bullied other students, or were the target of bullying behavior. A total of 10.6 percent of the children replied that they had 'sometimes' bullied other children, a response category defined as 'moderate' bullying. An additional 8.8 percent said they had bullied others once a week or more, defined as 'frequent' bullying. Similarly, 8.5 percent said they had been targets of moderate bullying, and 8.4 percent said they were bullied frequently. Out of all the students, 13 percent said they had engaged in moderate or frequent bullying of others, while 10.6 percent said they had been bullied either moderately or frequently. Some students-6.3 percent-had both bullied others and been bullied themselves. In all, 29 percent of the students who responded to the survey had been involved in some aspect of bullying, either as a bully, as the target of bullying, or both." [20] According to Tara Kuther, associate professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University, "...bullying gets so much more sophisticated and subtle in high school. It's more relational. It becomes more difficult for teens to know when to intervene, whereas with younger kids bullying is more physical and therefore more clear cut".[19]
Because of the low numbers of students who actually report incidents of bullying, teachers need to have a certain level of awareness that will thwart any potential problems. This awareness starts with understanding bullying.
I am quite surprised that my revision was actually changed back to its original post. I am not completely sure why it was reverted back but I've rationalized that it's possible that the information that I posted may not have been cited correctly. This is just speculation, for I really don't understand why it was changed. My revision listed chronologically the yearly statistics taken on bullying in schools. This chronological order made it easier for the reader to follow. Also, I've explained that the statistics listed above were not taken on a fair playing ground amongst other schools in the same geographical area. The statistics only concentrate on one school, therefore
providing information that may be viewed as inaccurate. For more information, please see my previous post The More You Know.
Because I feel that the information above can be presented slightly more thoroughly, I am attempting to revise the Statistics section of the "School Bullying" page in Wikipedia once again. Please see below for the revised section:
Statistics
2000
In 2000 a survey by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found that 6% of the young people had experienced some kind of harassment such as threats or horrible rumours and 2% suffered from distressing abuse.
2004
ABC News reported on a 2004 survey, in September 2006, of 1,500 students between the grades 4 through 8 which displayed :
- 42% of kids have been bullied online. One in four have had it happen more than once.
- 35% of kids have been threatened online. About one in five had it happen more than once.
- 21% of kids received harassing e-mails.
- 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once.
- 58% have not told their parents or an adult about the harassment ocurring to them online.
2005
The Youth Internet Safety Survey-2, conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in 2005, found:
- 9% of the young people in the survey had experienced some form of harassment. The survey was a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,500 youths between the ages of 10 to 17 years old.
- One third reported feeling distressed by the incident, with distress being more likely for younger respondents and those who were the victims of aggressive harassment.
Hinduja and Patchin completed a study in the summer of 2005 of approximately 1,500 internet-using adolescents and found:
- over one-third of youths reported being victimized online.
- over 16% of respondents admitted to cyber-bullying others.
While most of the instances of cyber-bullying involved relatively minor behavior it was found:
- over 12% were physically threatened.
- about 5% were scared for their safety.
Notably, fewer than 15% of victims told an adult about the incident.
According to a 2005 survey by the National Children's Home charity and Tesco Mobile of 770 youths between the ages of 11 and 19 found:
- 20% of respondents revealed that they had been bullied via electronic means.
- Almost three-quarters (73%) stated that they knew the bully.
- 26% stated that the offender was a stranger.
- 10% of responders indicated that another person has taken a picture and/or video of them via a cellular phone camera.
2007
In 2007, a Stanford University student,Debbie Heimowitz, created a film based on Stanford accredited research called Adina's Deck. She worked for ten weeks in three schools to learn about the problem of cyber-bullying in Northern California. The findings determined that over 60% of students had been cyber-bullied and were victims of cyber-bullying. The film is now being used in classrooms nationwide as it was designed around learning goals pertaining to problems that students had understanding the topic.
Additional research by Hinduja and Patchin in 2007 found that youths who report being victims of cyber-bullying also experience stress that is related to other problematic behaviors such as running away from home, drinking alcohol, or using drugs. The authors acknowledge that both of these studies provide only preliminary information about the nature and consequences of online bullying, due to the methodological challenges associated with an online survey.
2008
In 2008, researchers Sameer Hinduja (Florida Atlantic University) and Justin Patchin (University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire) published a book on cyber-bullying that summarized the current state of cyber-bullying research. (Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying). Their research documents that cyber-bullying instances have been increasing over the last several years. They also report findings from the most recent study of cyber-bullying among middle-school students. Using a random sample of approximately 2000 middle-school students from a large school district in the southern United States they found:
- about 10% of respondents had been cyber-bullied in the previous 30 days.
- while over 17% reported being cyber-bullied at least once in their lifetime.
While these rates are slightly lower than some of the findings from their previous research, Hinduja and Patchin point out that the earlier studies were predominantly conducted among older adolescents and internet samples. That is, older youths use the internet more frequently and are more likely to experience cyber-bullying than younger children.
2011
The National Crime Prevention Council reported in 2011 that cyber-bullying is a problem that affects almost half of all American teens.
All information provided above was found on the psychology wiki site. I believe that the revised statistics section provides detailed information of the bullying incidents listed chronologically starting from the year 2000 through 2011. This gives the reader a clear view of the trend in our society. These statistics shows a steady rise of the bullying incidents, whereas the previous wiki did not provide enough data to display this continuous growth throughout the years. Also, the statistics now displayed are not solely based on a single school, rather the statistics are based on a number of schools throughout many years.
Just a note:
We as a community need to come together and send a message to our children that it is not alright to bully and it is not going to be tolerated. Unfortunately not enough is being done to put a halt to this upward trend in our society. We are the adults and it is time that we do something about this.
KIDS
WILL BE KIDS
What
has the world come to?
The modern day
notion of "Kids
will be kids" truly knocks me off my feet. This is the beginning of the
battle grounds for bullying. I am a single mother who has been fighting for my
daughter’s right to attend school in a safe environment for the last 5 yrs. I
can't tell you how sick it makes me feel to hear those words "kids will be
kids". Its a cop out.
My daughter is ten
years old and for someone who is so young, she has been through so much. The
very first bullying incident that she was subjected to was when she was five
years old in kindergarten. (The first of the many.). It started with one girl
who verbally abused her and continued on for the next few years. As a parent we
want to teach our children to stand up for themselves and learn how to handle
different situations. So my first reaction, was to tell my daughter that she
should answer the girl back and not let her get away with it. If all fails tell
a teacher. This was my advice.
Needless to say, the
bullying only got worse. On top of verbal abuse there was physical abuse by the
kids. It's funny how life is, for it's bad enough that there was just the one girl but now we had a group of girls constantly abusing my daughter. The one girl who began bullying my
daughter ended up gathering more girls together to join in on the fun. Surprisingly, the administrative staff also played a
part in the bullying on to my daughter and myself as well.
The situation was a
mess. I was in the principal's office every single day. My daughter didn't have
the confidence to tell the staff what was going on because they made her feel
uncomfortable and always sided with the bullies. It seemed like the kids were
running the school. Nothing was done for the first four years. Everything just
got swept under a rug. No OORS reports were ever made by the school. No
investigations were ever conducted. All they gave me was lip service. I even
approached the parents and they too fed me nonsense of how sorry they were. The
fact was that nothing was being done to stop the children's behavior to my
daughter. Third grade was probably one of the worst years. It was happening
every single day. The kids would always either hit her or harass her verbally
when she was alone. The principal liked to call this the gray area. Since no
one else was around to see it, there was nothing he could do. Her teacher at
that time even instigated a fight between my daughter and one of the bullies.
Can
you imagine this?
A teacher telling a
child that she should not be friends with another child. It's unbelievable, but
it happened and the teacher admitted it to me. Even the assistant principal
verbally harassed my daughter at school. One day she screamed at her in the
morning, after I dropped her off , and sent her home to
change shoes. My daughter was terrified. As I'm driving off, I see
my nine year old daughter crying and running out of the building. Anything
could have happened to her! Once a child is in school, they are responsible for
the safety of that child.
Just
in case you wanted to know:
There were no
repercussions for the teacher's or the assistant principal's abusive actions.
After I complained to the principal, I followed up with him regarding both
incidents and all he said was that he talked with them.
It was very hard to
get him to take action. He was so concerned with the fact that they were little
girls. I went all the way to the top of the chain and contacted the
superintendent. I informed her about the bullying incidents and the principal's
incapability to put an end to the children's behavior for the past four years.
I also let her know that one of the assistant principal's also expressed that
his HANDS
WERE TIED AND THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO.
I felt that the
administrative staff of the school was bullying me. It was not the school's
finest hour. In the end the bullies were finally removed from the class.
This was no easy
task and I always told my daughter that she was not alone. I stood by my
daughter every step of the way, never faltering, and fought against what seemed
to be a never ending nightmare.
Advice:
My advice to anyone
in this type of situation is to always keep a log of everything that goes on.
Keep track of names, dates, and incidents. This is your proof!
Remember:
Upon receiving a
complaint, the school must issue OORS reports and conduct investigations as
required by the Chancellor's Regs. Please tell someone about what
is going on, for you do not have to deal with this on your own. Life will not
always be like this.
