Hannah Hoagland

10 May 2017

EDEC 435

Missy Danneberg

Advocacy Plan

Every day millions of children get bullied in some way while there are few resources for students (both
bullies and victims) and parents to go to for help or simply aren’t aware of the situation.
Stopbullying.gov defines bullying in schools as “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged
children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the
potential to be repeated, over time” (2017). According to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center,
roughly around one in every four students report being bullied (NCES, 2016). This issue is important
because I think children need to feel as though someone is on their side because that can be hard for a
young child to endure especially if no resources are offered. When no resources are offered both bullies
and victims suffer from health problems. The Center for Disease Control states that those who
experience bullying and engage in bullying are at increase risks of poor school adjustment, sleep
difficulties, anxiety and depression, academic problems, substance abuse, and violent behavior later in
life (CDC, 2015). It is also important for young children to also have quality resources available such as
information for children being bullied, for bullies, and counselors and mentors to be offered at zero cost
to the families. I think that too many times both bullies, victims, teachers and faculty, and even parents
don’t have the resources to aid in the end to bullying. The Pacer National Bullying Prevention Center
states that “students reported that the most harmful things teachers can do are: tell the student to
solve the problem themselves, tell the student that the bullying wouldn’t happen if they acted
differently, ignored what was going on, or tell the student to stop tattling” (Davis & Nixon, 2010).
Teachers are most likely to ignore the situation when there are little resources for them to reach out to
learn about the right thing to say or do about a bullying situation.

My objective is to push for a zero tolerance of bullying in every school. I want to advocate for
raining for the entire school to detect when someone is being bullied, when children show signs of
bullying and where to get help. The website for the American Psychological association says that
“bullying and school climate are linked to children’s academic achievement, learning and development”
(APA, 2017). I definitely think that this objective is to be universal in all schools because when bullying is
present as it is in all schools, the school climate itself changes in a negative way that affect the way each
and every student learns. A child has a right to attend classes that are safe, secure and peaceful on
campus. There needs to be more people that care about and take every instance of bullying seriously
and with no tolerance in mind even if it is a small instance of teasing. All children deserve emotional
support because all children aren’t emotionally all on the exact same level so everyone perceives
bullying in a different light and defines it differently. If all schools had a zero-tolerance policy in addition
to training about bullying at least a few times a year, then I think school climates nationwide would
improve, the overall health of our children would improve, and test scores would improve because
bullying would diminish.
One long term goal I have for my plan is to get a law passed that insures services such as trainings and
support for every school at least in California twice a year but eventually at a national level as well. This
semester I hope to accomplish three short term goals one being to write a letter to local schools who
don’t currently advocate for anti-bullying about this issue. The next short term goal I will accomplish is
to make a brochure to children being bullied about how to tell if they are being bullied and what you can
do for help. The last goal is to write a brochure for parents and teachers about how to tell who’s being
bullied, who is the bully and what to do to help as well.

Bullying has been around since the beginning of social hierarchy and capitalistic ideas. According to The
Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, “the word “bully” can be traced as far back
as the 1530’s” (R. Donegan, 2012), involving two people, the victim and the bully, where the bully harms
the victim in a physical, verbal or other way in order to gain some sort of superiority over the victim.
Bullying can happen in many different forms however; cyberbullying is the most common type of
bullying for this period in time. Cyberbullying can be online or through other means of electronic
communication and is verbal abuse through posts or even pictures that can lead to depression, anxiety,
and even suicide in many teens. Bullying and cyberbullying should not be taken lightly as children’s and
even adult’s lives are at stake. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, once bullied kids may
have a higher chance of suffering from poorer health, relationships and economic status later in life (J.
Beck, 2014). Bullying can affect anyone at any time especially now because we are more connected
through social media and the internet than ever before. It takes less time and is more public to verbally
abuse someone through these means of communication than ever before as well.

But what has there been done to fix this issue? As of now, bullying is legal as there is no federal law
against it, however according to the United States Department of Education as of 2011, 46 states have
anti-bullying laws in place and 41 states have created anti-bullying policies for their schools (Department
of Education, 2011). Bullying is only considered a federal crime if it is deemed as harassment. Since the
early 2000’s, anti-bullying programs, like Just Say Yes and Olweus Bullying Prevention Program out of
Clemson University have started popping up everywhere to help those victims in need. PACER’s National
Bullying Prevention Center offers answers and assistance and provides awareness through their National
Bullying Prevention Month in October. Although there are incredible programs out there, not every
school has access to this information and that’s what I think the huge issue is. Not only that, but I think
that there is not enough kid-friendly information for victims and bullies offered in schools let alone
information for parents to know if their child is being bullied or is the bully.

One challenge to solve this issue of bullying is the fact that some school districts are not taking
bullying as a serious matter. In a recent National Education Association study, they state that “40
percent of teachers believe that bullying is a moderate to major problem in their schools. Sixty-two
percent of those same teachers reported that they witnessed two or more bullying incidents in the last
month” (A. Strom, 2016). But where if any, did these teachers interfere? No part of teasing, making-fun
of, or harassing other students should ever be tolerated because kids take jokes too far and do not know
proper limits or social cues that are proper yet. The brain is in its most vulnerable state in a teen or
young adult, meaning that it is still in a prime stage of development when it comes to feelings and
impulse control and that’s where especially high schools should be paying more attention to bullying in
their schools. Again, children’s lives are at stake as severe accounts of bullying has ended in health
problems and even could lead to suicide and I don’t think that is a chance we should be taking.
 Another challenge that might be hard to get by would be the fact that because teachers aren’t
equipped with enough knowledge about how to handle bullying in their classrooms and schools, there
must be trainings for all school districts about this issue which costs money that I do not think the
government would be willing to pay. Money is a huge obstacle when talking about funding for anything
school related because while we know education is important, nobody wants to vote to put money into
our schools for any reason. The challenge to fund a huge anti-bullying campaign that teaches faculty
how to intervene when bullying presents itself in their schools. The challenge of finding the funding to
print out brochures for a visual aid in teaching how to handle bullying to faculty and families alone is
something that could be hindering the fight against bullying.

Although ending bullying for good by bringing in these resources for children, staff and families
to gain knowledge on how to fight against this issue, the reality that everybody who reads these
brochures or even the governor reading my letter, will take bullying as such a serious matter isn’t likely.
The reality that everybody will take to heart what others have to say about the matter is also unlikely. A
huge barrier is being able to persuade people into stopping the perpetuation of bullying. This is a
marathon, not a sprint , and it will take a long time to be able to persuade and spread awareness to
make a dent in this bullying war on school campuses.

One other challenge that this issue must face is the fact that this world is changing in a sense
where contemporary ideas are becoming a thing of the past and the embracement of diversity and
individualism is on the rise however, older people with those same contemporary ideas are harder to
persuade into embracing change. Change for the good of our future rather than for the good of right
now. Relatively, these people believe change will only bring chaos and therefore agree that old ideas
suffice. Older ideas such as the idea that teasing is a harmless children’s activity that should be looked
over. This idea is what solely perpetuates the act of bullying because no one is there to intervene when
“teasing” gets taken too far to the point of harassment.

Five stakeholders are the victims, the families, the bullies, school faculty, and state legislature.
The victims and their families are directly related to this issue because they are the ones who are being
hurt by the bullying. I am a victim of bullying myself as I’ve always been made fun of for being
overweight for as long as I can remember. Being bullied has created life-long psychological problems for
me that I’m not really sure if I’ll ever be able to get through. For me, there weren’t many resources for
kids to refer to other than anti-bullying weeks which included school spirit days and I’m still not entirely
sure what having school spirit has anything to do with anti-bullying. Which in turn goes to show that
those programs at school never made a huge impact on me a victim or the bullies who tormented me
throughout the years. I interviewed my mother about this problem and how she felt as a parent of a
child who was being bullied at a young age and she told me how she felt somewhat helpless. “I just
remember you coming home crying daily and I didn’t know the right things to say. Having something to
show me what I can say or do even better would have been a huge help at the time” (C. Hoagland,
2017). Her perspective was that although she’s a fantastic mother and did all she thought she could for
her child, there were two problems at the end of the day. One problem was that if she were to have had
a brochure to tell her the signs of bullying and the types, then she might have been able to take the
situations more seriously and help me on a greater scale. The second problem was that the type of
verbal bullying I was experiencing wasn’t taken as a serious problem in my school or community. These
two things in my belief, are things that keep bullying alive and well in our school systems.
The bullies and their families are directly related to this issue because they are the cause of the issue.
The bullies perspective might be an internal conflict or family conflict at home. The reason why children
bully can vary, but is more likely to happen in abused and/or poor children. Families can either help or
further hinder the process of fixing this issue by stepping up and getting involved or by doing the
opposite. Families are a child’s biggest support system and if they aren’t there for the child in their time
of need, the child can suffer long-term health problems as a result of this bullying. School faculty is
affected because generally, bullying happens on the school grounds and they should take more
responsibility in recognizing it and stopping it in its tracks. Their perspective might be that it is
impossible to make everyone accountable of their actions. State Legislature is directly affected through
votes of the people. The State Legislature’s perspective might be that they think money should go to
academics and teacher salaries rather than bullying programs that will in turn enhance each child’s
learning experience.

Works Cited

(n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from http://www.apa.org/about/gr/issues/cyf/bullying-school-

climate.aspx

Beck, J. (2014, April 23). Study: Bullied Kids at Risk for Mental Health Problems 40 Years Later. Retrieved
May 10, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/study-bullied-kids-at-risk-for-
mental-health-problems-40-years-later/361055/

Bullying Defined. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from

http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/tab/bullying-defined/

A. (2012, February 29). Bullying Definition. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from
https://www.stopbullying.gov/what-is-bullying/definition/index.html

S. (2013, September 13). Facts About Bullying. Retrieved May 10, 2017, from
https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html#laws

History of National Bullying Prevention Month. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/nbpm/history.asp

Taking Bullying Seriously: Creating Safe Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from
https://www.facinghistory.org/bullying-case-study-ostracism/taking-bullying-seriously-creating-safe-
schools

U.S. Education Department Releases Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies. (2011, December 06).
Retrieved May 10, 2017, from https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-education-department-
releases-analysis-state-bullying-laws-and-policies
Violence Prevention. (2016, July 19). Retrieved May 10, 2017, from
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/statistics/

To whom it may concern,

 Bullying in our school systems and in our school campuses have become a huge problem in
today’s society. One in four children are bullied every day in some way or another. But where does the
problem lie? The problem lies within our schools and how we as adults handle bullying. There aren’t
enough resources describing what bullying is available to kids both directed towards the bully and the
target. There also isn’t enough talk about how we can handle bullying in schools as parents and
teachers. A recent study states that “40 percent of teachers believe that bullying is a moderate to major
problem in their schools. Sixty-two percent of those same teachers reported that they witnessed two or
more bullying incidents in the last month” (A. Strom, 2016). Too many teachers are just letting bullying
happen right in front of them because they just simply don’t know what to say. I think we can gain huge
leads in the fight to stop bullying by providing answers to those who need it. I propose districts to make
room in their budgets to better train teachers and staff on the issue of bullying so they can better help
their students throughout the day. I also propose that more information about bullying and what
anyone can do to stop it be readily available to everyone at the school campus no matter who they are
and those resources should reflect the diversity of a school. Bullying is a huge problem and by
implementing these changes, I think we will be able to at least slow down the perpetuation of the
bullying cycle.

Best,

Hannah Hoagland