Attention Getter for Bullying: the Urgency to End Bullying

Bullying relates to a situation when a person is being hurt or abused by actions or words, feels so unhappy about it, and, most importantly, experiences difficulty stopping what's happening to him or her. Bullying can take place on the way to school, online, in your neighborhood, or either at school. Bullying is a topic that I feel everyone should take seriously because no one should experience something like that. Bullying people can affect you in the long run, mentally and physically.

People that experienced bullying before have either killed themselves about it or either cried to their parents about what they're dealing with at school.

Understanding the Origins of Bullying

What can you get out of bullying? There is no way where you could just suddenly start your day off bullying. Just because you are going through something in your personal life doesn't mean that you have to solve those problems by bullying. You may never know what that other person that's getting bullied is going through at home, so for them to come to school to experience way worse issues is just not right. As me being a teenager that has experienced bullying before, I am very concerned about this topic. I am also concerned about why it is happening so. Therefore, I can look into the reasons behind the bullying and who is also to be blamed for it. Now here is my opinion and experience on bullying.

Addressing Bullying: A Collective Effort

When it comes down to bullying that's an issue that needs to be under control; there are many solutions that teachers and parents could do to help keep their child or student away from bullying issues or to stay away from things that could help alter them to start bullying other kids. One solution that teachers could do is start putting counselors in schools so that instead of solving their issues by bullying other kids, they can go to their counselor to solve their problems by talking things out that are bothering them and coming up with solutions to fix them, in the article "Bullying: How counselors can intervene." by Aida Midgett. She discusses that "Approximately 25 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 report being bullied at school. Therefore, it is important for counselors to be intentional about addressing bullying at school and when working with clients" (Midgett 3). Most counselors are more helpful than they think they are, and that's one solution teachers can do to keep bullying under control in schools.

One thing that parents can do to keep their children under control when it comes to bullying is to keep them away from violent video games, Tv shows, and movies. Those are the three things that can push a child to do things that they were not used to doing before. In the article "The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research." by Rowell Huesmann. In his article, he discusses that "For better or worse, the mass media are having an enormous impact on our children's values, beliefs, and behaviors" (Huesmann 2). Nowadays, the things that kids watch or play on their tv will impact them so much to the point where if they were to try to do something like what they see on tv or play their video games, they would suffer major consequences. If you see your child watching or playing something violent, then remove it from them.

Taking Bullying Seriously

I was reading this article called "Recognizing and Preventing Bullying." by Elizabeth Shellard. One part of the article that I truly agreed with was when she stated, "To build safe and effective schools, it is important to understand and take the dynamics of bullying behavior among school-aged children very seriously" (shelled 2). This quote explains how she feels about the issue of bullying, and if these teachers or anyone, in general, don't take this issue seriously or understand it well enough to do something about it, then this issue will keep happening.

A way that this can be prevented is to start reporting the issue of bullying so these teachers can start doing something about it. Another way this issue can be prevented is by being more strict with the students because the more you give these students leeway about the issue that they caused, the more they are going to keep doing the same thing thinking that it's okay to keep doing it, but it's not. If being strict with the students doesn't help, then the consequences are going to have to get stronger, and it should teach them it's not okay to bully other students, especially if you wouldn't like the same thing. The more you stay on top of the students, the more the bullying behavior should stop.

Personal Experience: A Glimpse into Bullying

One of my experiences of getting bullied was when I was in second grade. One day I was in class, just minding my business and sitting by myself doing my work, of course. So this girl and this boy that was in my class were sitting in front of me. Realize I don't know these kids at all. So as I was doing my work, I heard the girl tell the boy to "hit that girl in the face" So, in my head, I was thinking, what girl are they talking about at the time? There were tons of girls in this class. Next thing you know, the boy came up next to me and hit me so hard on the side of my face. I wanted to cry so bad, but I couldn't because I was just so shocked, thinking wow, he just punched me.

So when I told the teacher, she didn't do anything about it, of course. So I got mad and took it upon myself to push the table over. I never saw myself that angry before. The boy and the girl started laughing like it was cool for them to punch me in the face like that. I walked home and came home crying because my feelings were hurt so badly. My cousin and her husband were the first two people that saw my face like that, and my cousin flipped out to the point where her husband had to calm her down. My cousin flipped out because she couldn't believe that my face was looking like that, and truth be told, I didn't know that my face was going to be looking that bad, either.

My cousin went up to the school and asked to talk to the dean because something needed to be done about that situation. When my cousin talked to the dean, the principal came in, too, and so we ended up talking to both of them at the same time. When we were talking to them, it sounded like they were trying to take up for the boy that punched me, and I was so upset because, for one, I was just minding my business and doing what the teacher told me to do, and that was my work there shouldn't be any reason as to why they should take the boy side. The dean was telling us since the teacher didn't see anything, they couldn't do anything about it.

Understanding the Motivations Behind Bullying

The only thing they gave that boy was detention. That's a small consequence for something major that he did to me. Back in elementary school, we only had to be in detention for 3 hours. So in my head, I was just thinking, y'all are going to give this boy 3-hour detention for bullying an innocent person like me that didn't do anything to him, nor did I do anything to that girl. I was so hurt leaving the dean's office, and my cousin was so upset because we both knew that the boy should've gotten in trouble for even listening to that girl punches me in the face for no reason at all.

My experience of bullying is something that a lot of individuals can relate to as well. One thing that my experience of bullying reminds me of is when I read this article called 'Some Bullies Just Want To Be Loved' by Joan Trossman Bien. This one particular quote that he quoted in his article was that 'some bullies are motivated by a need for affection and to gain status in the eyes of others' (Bien 4). In my opinion, I agree and disagree. I agree because most kids bully other kids at their school to feel accepted, or it's just a way for them to make friends easier. I also can't entirely agree because nowadays, kids bully other people just because and feel the need that it's okay to do it. We have to do better with teaching kids that bullying is not something that you should do to feel accepted by people.

Cyberbullying: A Modern Challenge

The number one thing that I see the most that involves bullying is cyberbullying. Teens these days have a terrible habit of talking about other people on the internet and think that it's cool to do that. Teens my age only cyberbully other people because, for one, they don't have anything else to do, and for two, they are probably jealous of that next person. No one deserves to get cyberbullied in front of people on social media that they don't even know, which causes them to be overwhelmed because it's like if cyberbullies are targeting you, that is crushing, especially if a lot of kids involve themselves in the bullying. At times, it can feel like the whole world knows what is going on.

Furthermore, cyberbullying can also cause a feeling of disinterest in life. They can lose interest in things that they once enjoyed and also spend less time interacting with family and friends. Also, in some cases, depression and thoughts of suicide can set in. That's the main thing that teens think about when they feel like they are getting bullied so much in this article called 'Cyberbullying.' by Amanda Lenhart. The one part that she mentioned in her article was when she stated: 'About 32% of all teens who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities such as receiving threatening messages, having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent, having an embarrassing picture posted without permission, and having rumors about them spread online' (Lenhart 1). Teens nowadays don't care about what they say or do online. They feel as if cyberbullying is a way to catch people's attention and have people join them; then, they are going to continue doing it.

A form of bullying that I see often, as well as sexual bullying. Sexual bullying consists of harmful and humiliating actions that target someone's sexuality. We live in a world where people discriminate against other people, either gay or lesbian. This situation brings back to the book 'When We Rise' and how Cleve Jones was talking about all the hatred that the LGBTQ community got based on their sexuality. That was the main thing that he wanted to stop: the more hate they were getting, the more the LGBTQ community felt a certain way about themselves.

Addressing Racial Bullying

Last but not least, another form of bullying can be racial bullying. Racial bullying is being called racist names, and it can also mean being left out or treated differently, or excluded from something. Racial bullying is another important thing that I have seen a lot lately. Sad to say, but yes, I have experienced that as well. Back in elementary school, my skin color was very dark, and It's still is to this day. So the kids in my class would call me a "burnt biscuit" and thought that it was so cool to do that because they just wanted to show out in front of everybody else. Don't get me wrong, when they first called me that, it was a little funny, but when they took it overboard, my feelings were starting to get hurt because now I'm starting to feel like now y'all are starting to make fun of me based off my skin color and that was something that I didn't play about. So every time I walked into school or class, they would know me as a burnt biscuit based on the color of my skin. Being racially bullied is not cool at all.

In conclusion, bullying is not a cool thing to do. I have experienced or seen experiences of how people can get bullied so much, and it affects them in the long run. However, I do feel as if bullying can come from what that person deals with at home, and so for them to let that anger out, it takes bullying other kids to solve their problem. Something that will always stick with me is when my mom will always tell me to 'treat people how you would want them to treat you.' If you wouldn't like the feeling of being bullied, don't do it to other people, so the bullies that are out here bullying other people need to think about what they are doing before they do it. Just think about how this may affect you in the long run. Bullying has to end NOW!

Work Cited

1. Midgett, A. (2016). Bullying: How Counselors Can Intervene. Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations.
2. Huesmann, L. Rowell. "The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research." J Adolesc Health, vol. 41, no. 6 Suppl 1, 2007, pp. S6-S13. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.09.005.
3. Shellard, Elizabeth. "Recognizing and Preventing Bullying." The Informed Educator Series, ERIC Number: ED478000, Record Type: RIE, 2002, pp. 12.
4. Paul, Pamela. "Maybe Bullies Just Want to Be Loved." The New York Times, 21 May 2010.
5. Lenhart, Amanda. "Cyberbullying." Pew Research Center, 27 June 2007.

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