HCA 430
Annie Askew
November 15, 2013
Professor Gordon
Introduction The question in many people’s mind today is, “What is bullying”? The definition of bullying the use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. (“Bullying,” 2013) This word can be defined in many different ways. Some states have no legal definition of bullying, while some U. S. States have laws against it. On stopbullying.gov website, bullying definition is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. These types of behaviors are repeated over time which includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. However, bullying happens at the workplace, on social media websites, church and many other places to numerous to mention. At a time it was only the kids, but grown-up are experiencing bullying of all types. The headline on CNN "Taunting post leads to arrests in Rebecca Sedwick bullying death" brings back into focus the issue of bullying and its devastating impact on young people. According to the Centers for Disease Control some 4,400 youngsters commit suicide each year and for every suicide that ends in death there are an estimated 100 attempts which do not. This means over 400,000 suicide attempts per year and as many as 60 percent of these may be the result of bullying. In fact ABC reports that 160,000 children stay home from school because of bullying. A religious school conducted a survey on bullying issues to students in both day school and the center’s religious school in grades 5-8. The result was more geared toward teasing which leads up to bullying, but it is constructive in the fact that these are issues our younger generation is experiencing every day. We wonder how our young people can focus on their studies with these types of concern. Bullying, takes on many different forms at different developmental levels. As parents, school staff, and community as a whole we must stamp out bullying to make it a thing of the past.
The chart below describes how things are in the kid’s school from the survey conducted.
It looks the confidence level is high, the place it is less-high is in dealing with students teasing behind the teacher’s back. When teachers are aware and confronted with bad behavior, they act and act appropriately. The issue is being sure that teachers are aware and create an environment where children are comfortable being sure that they are aware. Nobody likes to be bullied, however it happens all the time. Bullies are usually cowards taking their fear out on others, most of the time it’s happening at their homes and a personal issue. They almost always have a gang that backs them up. Otherwise, they would be too afraid to carry out their hateful acts. The below chart is the second half of the survey where teachers and staff in the school would help out if:
Types of Bullying We have different types of bullying, such as Physical bullying, verbal, indirect, social alienation, intimidation and cyberbullying. Physical bullying includes any physical contact that would hurt or inure a person like hitting, kicking, punching, etc. Taking something that belongs to someone else and destroying it would also be considered a type of physical bullying. For example, if someone was walking down the street and someone came up to shove them to the ground. In elementary and middle school 30.5% of all bullying is physical. Verbal bullying is name-calling, making offensive remarks, or joking about a person’s religion, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or the way they look. For example, if a group of kids who made fun of another kid because he could not run as fast as everyone else is verbal bullying. About 46.5% of all bullying in schools is the verbal type. Indirect bullying