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Ashlynn Zamarron

Angela Pedrotti

English 1101

19 November 2018

Bullying is Never Okay…

“As children mature, the types of bullying in which they engage tends to change.

Younger school bullies use name-calling and forms of physical aggression more often than older

school bullies, who are more likely to sexually harass their victims, or inflect their bullying with

sexual overtones” (Cohen) Bullying has many different interpretations, it isn’t an interpretation

though. Bullying is an issue that has one single definition, taunting, name calling, belittling,

and/or physical aggression from one person to another to cause pain, either emotionally or

physically. The scary truth of how words and actions can truly affect someone, how to notice

bullying when it occurs, and what to do to stop bullying from continuing on. Bullying is a

serious topic that isn’t addressed enough, putting up sad signs around schools that say “stop

bullying” isn’t enough to make someone feel comfortable enough to confess their hurt. This

subject needs to be more talked about in an effective way to schools.

Cohen defines bullying as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children

that involves a real or perceived power imbalance”. Bullying is also defined as “an imbalance of

strength, which must be a repeated action and occur regularly over time” (Stemple). Bullying

shouldn’t have two definitions, that leaves it out for interpretation just like literacy. There are

more definitions out there, which is mind boggling to see that people can make bullying seem as

less than what it really is by defining it differently. Bullying also leads to suicide, children

believing that they don’t belong on earth because people are so mean to them. The one who
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believe that feel like they have no one to speak to about their hurt. The heart breaking numbers

behind that statement are as follows, 14.3% of students have seriously considered suicide, 11.1%

made a plan on committing suicide, 6.2% attempted suicide, 1.4% needed medical attention after

attempting to end their own lives. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). That means

in a room filled with 100 people almost 15 of them want to commit suicide. Whether it be

because of home problems, neglect, or school bulllying; almost every reason why one committed

suicide was as a cause of one these problems which can all be considered bullying. Someone

doesn’t have the urge to kill themselves for no reason on their own, there is always someone who

has caused pain to them that pushes them over the edge.

Most would think teachers are the one stop the bully from bullying on in their classroom.

While in some cases that is true, that will most likely happen for younger elementary aged kids

after the kid being bullied has started crying or told their parent. Younger kids are trained to

show the emotions they feel and tell on someone when they are being mean or doing something

wrong. Not only teachers, but students should be trained to continue those actions in some sense

the older they get. Teachers, for middle/high school age, won’t say anything unless it’s obvious

the student is being hurt by the actions that someone is doing. Students should also tell a teacher

when they see someone being bullied or if they are being bullied themselves. An investigation of

Middle School Teachers’ perceptions on Bullying shows results of how important bullying is to

teachers. “…bullying was rated as the lowest two concerns by a majority of participants, with

62% of teachers identifying it as a 4 or 5 on the rating scale (out of 5) they were asked to rate

“classroom resources/materials, student assessment, bullying, curriculum/lesson plans, and

teacher observations/evaluations” in order of importance on a scale from 1-5. 43% of the

teachers put student assessment as their #1 priority (Journal of Social Studies Education
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Research). Shockingly enough, bullying was not number 1 for any of the teachers, it should be

though. If the teachers want their students to perform better, making sure that they aren’t bullied

and insecure can make them more engaged and eager to learn with confidence. Everyday

teachers see bullying happening but they don’t care, they are more worried about how well their

students test so they can get their bonus check. Maybe if teachers worried about the students’

happiness more, they would more encouragement to learn and perform well in class.

In the end teachers are one of the most influential people on middle/high school aged

children. Because of this, teachers need to better be educated on how to deal with bullying. They

also need to make it their priority to stop it from happening not just their own classrooms, but in

all classrooms? As a society, investing time in teaching children to be nice to one another and

accept everyone. Teachers, other students, faculty, and parents can all help raise urgency to stop

bullying. Every minute you spend teaching to be nice and spreading happiness is a life that may

be saved. Name calling, physical aggression, and sexual overtones are never okay, and all of this

needs to stop immediately. Young people shouldn’t have to fake sick to not be in school with

their bullies sitting right next to them as the teachers watch. All schooling up to high school is

the most important times of everyone’s lives are shaping themselves and finding their interests,

that never should be taken away from someone. Bullying takes opportunities like these away

from young people. Not one person in the world can say that they have never contributed to

bullying, sad to see out of 7.53 billion people almost 45,000 of them will commit suicide this

year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

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Works cited

Cohen, Ashley L. “Bullying.” Research Starters: Education, 2013. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&

db=ers&AN=89164092&site=eds-live.

Journal of Social Studies Education Research, An Investigation of Middle School Teachers’

Perceptions on Bullying.” Journal of Social Studies Education Research, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan.

2017, pp. 1–34. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&

db=eft&AN=123580596&site=eds-live.

Stemple, Jessica M. “Anti-Bullying Laws and Teacher Liability in Kentucky: Giving Teachers

Greater Discretion to Prevent Unwarranted Punishment.” Journal of Law & Education,

vol. 47, no. 3, Summer 2018, pp. 411–417. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&

db=ehh&AN=131721749&site=eds-live.

U.S Department of Health and Human Services. “Effects of Bullying.” stopbullying.gov 12 Sept,

2018, www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/effects/index.html.