What is bullying? Bullying is defined as situations where one individual or group abuses power over another. Bullying is about power and abuse. The individual who is inflicted feels endangered and agonized. Bullying is an issue that affects millions of students on a regular basis. 1 out of 4 students are bullied and up to 43% of have experienced bullying online. Bullying can eventually lead to suicide of the victims. The individuals that are bullied are more likely to experience changes in sleep, eating pattern change, loneliness, and loss of interest, sadness, depression, and anxiety. These individuals are more probable to miss, skip, and drop out of school. These patterns can persist up to their adulthood. Why do bullies bully? Often bullies have experienced being bullied themselves. Maybe when they were growing up they too were bullied. Maybe they have been, or are going through a tough time at home. They may not feel loved or needed. So they express their feelings by taking their hurt out on others. Others who are smaller and weaker than they are. They are actually hurting deep inside. How to identify bullying behavior? There are numerous forms of bullying such as physical, verbal, and cyber bullying. We as teachers and staff can look out for these types of bullying behavior. Verbal bullying is the use of taunting and name calling. Physical bullying is the intention to hurt a child such as fighting, hitting, or pushing, etc. Signs to look out for are: shoving, pushing, teasing in a mean and hurtful way, spreading rumors, keeping certain people out of a group for no reason, getting people to gang up on others. Cyber bullying happens when people bully through email, text, or the internet. They can send mean and hurtful text messages, or emails. Exposing mean messages or pictures about an individual on a website or a blog, or spreading gossip and rumors on the internet. With sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, this type of bullying has increased (Edison Middle school, 2011). Bullying influences a person’s self-confidence. An individual’s childhood is very important because it effects the way they feel about themselves as adolescents and the way they will see life. A child who is is continually bullied can have low self-confidence. Self-confidence is how a person perceives themselves. He or she can start to hate themselves and dislike their flaws. For example, if a child is being teased for being overweight, then he or she may start hating himself for being that way. Bullying can have a very big impact on the way a child feels. Children who develop low self-confidence on the account of bullying also start to isolate themselves. The may not want to be involved with social activities for the fear of being bullied. These children tend to want to stay home more than going out. Children handle bullying in different ways; some may experience overeating and weight gain as a result. Food can become their friend, their security. This can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle.
