Essay Sample on School Bullying
School bullying is a significant and widespread problem that causes harmful consequences for students all around the world. Mentors should have stricter policies and protocols in place to protect students, as well as make them feel safe when they’re at school. This article discusses three different types of bullying that occurs in elementary, middle, and high schools. The three types of bullying are overt, indirect, and relational bullying. Overt bullying includes both physical and verbal bullying. Indirect bullying ruins the student’s reputation by spreading rumors and gossip behind their back. Relational bullying is like indirect bullying except it tends to use emotional distress instead of physical bullying (Bauman, 2008).
Although there are protocols in place for overt and indirect bullying, relational bullying is ignored. According to Bauman, teachers had the least empathy for victims of relational bullying and were least likely to intervene in relational bullying incidents (Bauman, 2008). Why would you not intervene when a child or student is being bullied? What examples are you setting as a student mentor? As a student mentor, you are responsible for protecting the students regardless of what type of incident it may be? When a student is bullying another student, it needs to be addressed immediately to prevent it from happening again. By supporting this type of behavior, you are teaching students that it’s ok to bully others. It’s not ok to bully others because it can cause permanent damage such as self-esteem issues, suicide, and school shootings.
Therefore, students need to be held accountable for their actions. For instance, students should be required to do community service hours, pay a fine, or do 5 days of ISS (in-school suspension). The mentors need to inform the parents about the school bullying and request a meeting with the student, student’s parents, principle, teachers, counselors, the victim, and the victim’s parents. Everyone needs to be aware of the bullying incident, so they can come up with a solution to fix the problem. However, if the bullying continues then the student should be removed from the school and the victim should have the option of being able to transfer to another school as well.
In conclusion, school bullying is increasing and it’s affecting a very large number of students each year. School bullying tends to occur in areas that lack adult supervision such as hallways, playgrounds, restrooms, etc. However, schools could reduce the bullying incidents by placing adult supervision in the areas that lack it, as well as adhering to proper policies and procedures regarding school bullying. By utilizing these resources, it could prevent students from being bullied at school.
