Prevention of School Bullying in New Zealand - Research Paper Example

?School Bullying “Education Minister Christ Carter announced that New Zealand schools will be required to have concrete measures to put a stop to bullying, or at least to deal with it” (New Zealand Government Focuses On School Bullying). (New Zealand Government Focuses On School Bullying) “Bullying can be defined as the use of one's strength or status to intimidate, injure, or humiliate another person of lesser strength or status” (Safe Schools Project). It is an activity used in schools for getting some psychological pleasure at the expense of others. According to a recent statistics, “1 in 2 students experience occasional bullying during any school term. Moreover, 1 in 4 students in primary school are bullied more than once or twice at least in any term”(Statistics on Bullying). Bullying cases are increasing day by day in schools everywhere in the world. Bullying takes place in many forms such as Physical, verbal, social, cyber etc. Physical bullying causes physical injuries to the victim whereas social, cyber and verbal bullying cause psychological problems. Physical bullying refers to direct attack on the victim whereas other forms bullying refers to name calling, making offensive remarks, with respect to religion, appearance, gender, culture, social and economic status etc. “A study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development estimated that 1.7 million U.S. children in grades 6 through 10 can be identified as bullies” (Safe Schools Project) (See appendix for more details). The above statistics clearly reveals the seriousness of school bullying cases. Moreover such cases are increasing day by day even though society is advancing rapidly. School bullying is a universal phenomenon which is mostly occurs from 6 th standard to 9 th standard. Moreover, it occurs in all schools irrespective of the location of schools. In other words, school bullying occurs in all urban, suburban, and rural areas. Some people argue that school bullying should not be treated as a serious offense. In their opinion, school bullying helps the victims to develop resistance and meet the realities of life or difficult life situations in future. On the other hand critics of school bullying argue that bullying should be considered as a serious offense in schools because of the huge physical and psychological problems it can develop upon the victims. This paper argues against school bullying after analyzing various types of school bullying and its consequences upon the victims. Bullying occurs in schools out of jealousy. For example, there are many bullying victims who happen to be bright students. Dull students may develop jealousy towards bright students and they will look for opportunities to attack the bright students in all possible manners. In some cases, beautiful students suffer more because of bullying. Here also, students who have inferiority complexes with respect to their appearances may to attack the beautiful one either physically or verbally. In short, in many cases, the motivation for bullying is arising from jealousy. The aggressive behavior is getting more and more strengthened in the minds of upcoming generation as time goes on because of their increased exposure to media like television, films and internet. It should be noted that aggression is a major theme in most of the television programs and films. In many of the films heroes often exhibit aggressive behaviors. In short, celebrities play an important role in cultivating the image that aggression is a status symbol. In other words, many of the teenagers believe that aggression is an activity which may bring recognition among peers. Thus many teenagers started to exhibit heroism and aggression through bullying. Teenagers do not have the ability to segregate between the good and evil. They don’t have the maturity to think about the consequences of their actions. In some cases teenagers engaged in bullying in order to catch the attraction of opposite sex. Many teenagers have the illusion that harassing others may develop a hero image for them. It should be noted that dominating mentality is inherited among human beings. Those who are physically and emotionally strong may try to stamp their supremacy upon others. Such desires often end up in bullying cases. There are different types of bullying such as physical, verbal, emotional, social, cyber etc. Physical bullying is nothing but direct attack upon the victim by an individual or group of individuals. In the case of verbal bullying, bullies often concentrate of harassing the victim verbally. In certain cases, verbal bullying may lead towards physical attack on the victim. “Social alienation occurs when a bully excludes someone from a group on purpose. It also includes spreading rumors and making fun of someone by pointing out their differences” (Types of bullying). Social bullying is an act of isolation of the victim from any groups. In such cases, the offenders form a group and block the opportunities for the victim to interact with others. In social bullying cases, the offenders may fabricate stories about the victim and spread it the school. Cyber bullying is developed only in recent times because of the huge popularity of internet and mobile phones among teenagers. It is an act of spreading fabricated stories and rumors about the victim through internet and mobile phones. For example, it is quite possible that offenders to spread the naked picture of the victim through internet with the help of morphing technology. It should be noted that such incidents may create huge psychological problems in the minds of the victims. “92 students aged 11-16 from 14 London schools completed a survey on bullying. 22% had experienced cyber bullying at least once. 6.6% had experienced being bullied in this way in the previous two months” (International Network). Many people have the false belief that bullying usually occurs among teenage boys in schools and teenage girls are comparatively reluctant in performing such activities inside the school campuses. In reality, bullying is common among teenage girls also even though the nature of bullying among girls is slightly different from that among the boys. Verbal bullying is usually more popular among teenage girls. It should be noted that boys are physically stronger than girls and they may utilize their muscle power more for harassing others. On the other hand, girls like socializing very much and they may spread rumors and fabricated stories about others. According to Dune et al. (2010), “Bullying, in schools can blight student experiences of formal education and their abilities to make the best of the opportunities they have” (Dune et al, 2010, p.1). Bullying can convert even bright students into dull ones. It should be noted that bullying causes physical as well as mental injuries to the victim. In certain cases, mental injuries may become severe than the physical injuries. Victims who suffer severe mental injuries may develop psychological problems such as depression, suicide tendency, Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) and Schizoid Personality Disorder (SPD), bipolar diseases etc. In most of the cases of school bullying, the victims may develop depression. Depression developed as a result of school bullying may last for few weeks to years. If left untreated, depression developed as a result of bullying may lead towards other severe psychological problems including suicide tendency. It should be noted that bipolar diseases may develop to a victim as a result of consistent bullying in schools. In short, school bullying has the ability destroy the life of the victims completely. Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is another psychological problem which can be developed because of consistent bullying. “Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person has a long-term distrust and suspicion of others” (Paranoid Personality Disorder). It should be noted that psychological injuries caused by bullying may force the victim to look suspiciously at even family members or beloved ones. Such people may lost their trust and belief in others and they may develop doubts or suspicion even for simple things. Schizoid personality disorder is the third psychological problem which can be developed as a result of school bullying. “Schizoid personality disorder is a psychiatric condition in which a person has a lifelong pattern of indifference to others and social isolation” (Schizoid Personality Disorder). In this case, the disordered person may not interact properly. This is because of the fear generated by the bullying experience. Such people will treat all others as their enemies and they will deliberately keep a distance with others. They will also try to lead a life in the virtual world rather than in real world. The rights of this world may not be the rights of their world and the rights in their world may not be the rights in the real world. Suicide tendency is the most worst psychological problem which can be developed as a result of school bullying. In this case, the victim may lose his interest in sustaining his/her life and wait for suitable opportunities to commit suicide and to escape from a world which is hated by them. Logical thinking or critical thinking abilities might be lost in the case of such people. They may think that there is no space for them in this world or it is impossible for them to continue living in this world. In short, a Bullying activity performed for a joke may end up in a suicide. Life is so precious for everyone. Everybody has the natural right to lead a free life in this world. Under such circumstances, bullying is intrusion into the natural rights of a person and it should not be encouraged under any circumstances. “A broad analysis of childhood bullying and the link with suicide has found that it’s not just the victims of bullying who are at risk. Bullies themselves also are more likely to have suicidal thoughts” (Pope). Many people have the false belief that bullying may affect only the victim. In certain cases, the offenders develop repentance later for their cruel activities upon the victim. For example, a bullying victim commits suicide. In this case, the possibility of developing repentance in the minds of the offenders is more. Guilty consciousness may haunt such people throughout their life and final outcome could be another suicide. To conclude, bullying should be prohibited in school campuses at any cost. “Research shows that bullying can have lasting adverse effects on children, but that carefully implemented school programs can substantially reduce bullying” (Safe Schools Project). Bullying in all forms should be prohibited in schools considering the negative impacts it may cause to the victim. Stern actions should be taken against the offenders by the school authorities so that such cases may not be repeated in future. Small and moderate levels of bullying may not cause many damages to the victim. However, persistent bullying may cause huge psychological problems to the victim. Most of the offenders do not know up to what extent they can harass others. Absence of any response will encourage the offender to repeat his activity again and again. In other words, it is impossible to set any limit in school campuses to prevent bullying. Complete prohibition of bullying is the only way to save upcoming generation from developing bullying related physical and mental problems. Teachers and school authorities can do a lot in preventing bullying cases inside the school campuses. Teachers should make sure that bullying in any forms are performed inside the classrooms or inside the school campuses. They should monitor the activities of each student closely so that the culprits can be caught and punished. They should create awareness in the minds of the students with respect to the consequences of bullying. Since the nature of bullying cases among boys and girls are slightly different, separate intervention plans should be implemented by the authorities to counter bullying problems. Plenty of the victims of bullying cases are afraid of reporting the bullying cases. This is because of their fear of the offenders. Offenders often threaten the victim and prevent them from complaining. It is necessary for the authorities to gain the confidence of the victims to get proper awareness on the bullying cases inside the school campuses. Works Cited Dunne, Mairead., Bosumtwi, Sam Cynthia., Sabates, Ricardo and Owusu, Andrew. “Bullying and School Attendance: A Case Study of Senior High School Students in Ghana”. 2010. Web. 19 April 2012. Print “International Network”. 2010. Web. 19 April 2012. “New Zealand Government Focuses On School Bullying”. 2007. Web. 19 April 2012 “Paranoid Personality Disorder”. 2010. Web. 19 April 2012. Pope, Tara Parker. “With Bullying, Suicide Risk for Victims and Tormentors”. The New York Times. July 18, 2008. Web. 19 April 2012. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/with-bullying-suicide-risk-for-victims-and-tormenters/ “Schizoid Personality Disorder”. 2010. Web. 19 April 2012. Safe Schools Project”. Web. 19 April 2012. “Statistics on Bullying”. Web. 19 April 2012. “Types of bullying”. Web. 19 April 2012. Appendix Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics. (Safe Schools Project) Read More