Mathews-1

Tyler Mathews

ENG 1101-515

Prof. Dunham

30 November 2018

Bullying: What Should the Punishment Be?

“8-Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide After Being Bullied”, that’s the title of a video

article published just last year by NBC News. That article is written about an 8 year old

boy from Cincinnati who hanged himself after being bullied for months and physically

assaulted by his bullies only two days prior (nbcnews.com). People may think that the

story is unique and uncommon, but unfortunately it is not. A quick search on the

internet will show us that in fact, there are thousands of stories just like the 8 year old

boy from Cincinnati that cover the suicides of 9 year olds, 10 year olds, 11 year olds,

and so on. This is not uncommon enough that it can be ignored or written off by

believing that it was just a fluke or a rarity. This is not something that only effects older

teens, this effects kids of all ages. “The 2015 School Crime Supplement (National

Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics) indicates that,

nationwide, about 21% of students ages 12-18 experienced bullying and the 2017 Youth

Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

indicates that, nationwide, 19% of students in grades 9–12 report being bullied on

school property in the 12 months preceding the survey” (stopbullying.gov). By now,

most States and individual school districts have implemented legal recourse and “zero-

tolerance policies” to punish the bullies, but these incidents continue to occur by the
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thousands. Although those laws and school policies are in place to protect victims of

bullying, the consequences that a bully faces aren't nearly effective and need to be

made harsher.

As a means to combat the rising incidents of bullying and increase in adolescent

suicide rates, the government stepped in by providing resources such as

stopbullying.gov, States drafted policies and laws regarding bullying, and schools began

implementing “zero-tolerance” policies. Those policies and laws regarding the

consequences for bullying vary from State to State and school district to school district.

All States except for Montana currently have anti-bullying laws on the books. “Of these,

eighteen states provide a means for the victim to seek legal ramifications and nine

states mandate that schools report bullying incidents to the police (Toppo, 2012).”

(Garby 448). With those protections put into place serving to punish bullies and help

the victims of bullying, the assumption would be that incidents of bullying would

drastically decrease out of fear of the consequences, but the data doesn’t support that

because the numbers have remained mostly unchanged and that is partly due to the

fact that these policies and laws lack standards and uniformity. Where one State, such

as New Jersey, requires an automatic suspension or expulsion or bullying, other states

might just give a verbal warning (Garby 448). The States and school districts would

benefit from uniform consequences that seek to punish the bullies more harshly to deter

or reduce further incidents.

Having tougher consequences for bullying may also lead to reduced incidents of

suicidal ideation and suicide. While the factors of suicide can vary, there is a link

between suicidal ideation and being a victim of bullying (Hinduja and Patchin 206).
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Unfortunately, we are unable to ask those who have committed suicide why they did it,

so it’s difficult to put a number on how many suicides are a direct result of bullying,

however the research shows us the strong correlation between being bullied and

committing suicide or having suicidal ideations. Research has indicated that being the

victim of any form of bullying puts adolescents at an elevated risk for suicidal ideation,

suicidal attempts, and suicide. In fact, research shows us that being harassed and

victimized by a bully leads to thoughts of hopelessness and a lower sense of self-worth

which ultimately leads to depression which are all precursors to suicidal thoughts and

behaviors (Hinduja and Patchin 207). Additionally, research indicates that perpetrators

of bullying often suffer from loneliness, low self-esteem, rejection from their peers, and

mental health related issues (Hinduja and Patchin 209). If consequences were to

become harsher for bullying, both the victim and the perpetrator may get the help and

interventions needed before they follow those paths.

Some people might argue that having harsher punishments for bullying is doing

an injustice because the bottom line is that most bullies are just mimicking the behavior

of their own parents or that they bully others because they themselves were victims of

bullying. While I don’t disagree that parents have a significant accountability for their

child’s bullying behaviors, lawmakers such as State Representative Frank Burns from

Pennsylvania have proposed ways to combat that such as stiff fines and parenting

classes for parents of kids who bully others (Phillips). Additionally, if bullies are properly

punished for their bullying behaviors to begin with, a victim may not find a reason to

bully others themselves because they’ll feel justice was served.

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Other critics like to point out that bullying happens to everyone, people need to

be able to just shrug it off, or “get over it”. In an article titled “Suck it up, walk it off, be a

man: a controversial look at bullying in today's schools” author Joseph Simplicio details

his opinion that kids these days, being raised in such an electronic, entitled world don’t

have the necessary tools within them to handle conflict or deal with issues alone. He

further explains that because of that, kids now heavily rely on their parents too handle

their problems for them when they should be able to handle it themselves. This is

dangerous rhetoric because it paints the picture that kids should tolerate all behaviors

and handle adult situations without proper assistance. Think of the 8 year old boy that

committed suicide last year, under this belief, he would be expected to handle and

comprehend how to “deal” with his situation. At 8 years old, 10 years old, even 15

years old many kids are not equipped with the know how to just “brush it off” or deal

with the consequential mental health related problems. People tend to say “kids will be

kids” and look passed the behavior because they are kids, but this applies both ways

because we’re also expecting kids to be able to handle the effects of being a bullying

victim.

School districts, lawmakers, and people in general mean well and don’t like

seeing bullying and the effects of bullying. No one likes opening their favorite social

media platform, opening their local paper, or hearing on the nightly news that another

young child was left permanently disabled after being assaulted in school or another

child has taken their own life because they couldn’t take the bullying any longer. That is

why I am asking you to help make a difference and you can begin with asking your local

lawmakers to push for legislation that not only makes the consequences for bullying
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harsher, but uniformed so that everyone knows what to expect, how things will go, and

that the victims’ voices will be heard.

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Works Cited

Garby, Lisa. "Direct bullying: criminal act or mimicking what has been learned?"

Education, vol. 133, no. 4, 2013, p. 448+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A336280965/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&

xid=0835c0cc. Accessed 16 November 2018.

Hinduja, Sameer, and Justin W. Patchin. “Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide.” Archives

of Suicide Research, vol. 14, no. 3, July 2010, pp. 206–221. EBSCOhost,

https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/eds /pdfviewer/pdfvie

wer?vid=2&sid=359454c3-9388-4042-9710-f3d2cbf19d15%40sessionmgr120.

Accessed 16 November 2018.

NBC News. “8-Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide After Being Bullied”. https://www.nbc

news.com/nightly-news/video/8-year-old-boy-commits-suicide-after-being-bullied-

942843971529?v=railb&. Accessed 16 November 2018.

Phillips, Kristine. “A state lawmaker says he has a way to stop bullies: fine their parents

up to $750.” The Washington Post, 13 March 2018, https://www.washintonpost.c

om/news/education/wp/2018/03/13/a-state-lawmaker-says-he-has-a-way-to-stop-

bullies-fine-their-parents-500/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.83a75e70d6db.

Accessed 16 November 2018.

Simplicio, Joseph. "Suck it up, walk it off, be a man: a controversial look at bullying in
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today's schools." Education, vol. 133, no. 3, 2013, p. 345+. Opposing Viewpoints

in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A357760566/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&

xid=a71927de. Accessed 16 November 2018.

Stopbullying.gov. “What is Bullying”. https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-

bullying/index.html. Accessed 30 November 2018.