According to stopbullying.gov, “Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.”
In recent years we have seen an outpouring of stories of how bullying is impacting so many young lives. Each tale tells the tragic story of how a child has been bullied so much until he or she fears and loathes going to school, some have even been made to feel that there is no other solution but to end their young lives. One life lost is one too many.
Many people find themselves asking, “What can I do to stop bullying?”. The simplest and most obvious answer is that parents and educators need to work together and take immediate action in order to stop bullying. However, it is not only up to parents and educators, it is up to all of us. We must all take action and continue the trend of speaking out against bullying; we need to have an open discussion, in which everyone feels comfortable and safe to talk about their views on bullying in order to inform children, parents, educators, etc. on what it is and how much it can negatively impact those individuals who are the victims of bullying.
As a parent and/or educator you should ask your children/students if they have ever been the victims of bullying or if they have participated in bullying another child. Let them know what bullying is; perhaps your children/students may have bullied someone else without realizing how harmful their actions were. Or you might find that your children/students are currently being bullied but are too afraid to speak up or simply do not realize that they can ask for help in order to make it stop.
We want school to feel like a safe environment for children and for them to feel comfortable and safe enough so that they can learn. Bullying makes school feel like an unsafe place, it lowers victim’s self-esteem, it makes them nervous and anxious, it brings on depression, and it makes students unable to focus on school and learning.
Bullying is also a way for those who are doing the bullying to cry out for help. Most bullies also suffer from depression, they have low self-esteem, and some even have a tendency of thinking about suicide. Bullying is a real problem and it needs to stop now.
Unfortunately there are many of us who have had personal experiences with bullying, and although our tales of woe might be minor compared to others, they were still significant and we would have all been better off without these harsh experiences.
Share your stories on how you were bullied and what you did to overcome it. Share a story of how you helped a victim of bullying by speaking up. Or share ideas on how to eliminate bullying. Let’s begin talking about bullying and how to eliminate it.