Chloe Hoyt

CAS100B
Social Issue Speech

Bullying and Mental Illness

Jacki James reported on Readers Digest in 2020 a tragic story of a young boy’s death

due to bullying. Peyton James was a 13-year-old boy from Austin, Texas who was born in the

NICU and due to the oxygen and liquid nutrition he received, Peyton’s permanent teeth were

stained molten yellow. As Peyton got older, he suffered severe bullying for the color of this

teeth. In 2013 Peyton made his first cry for help, he would tell his parents things like, “they

would be better off without me” and “I don’t want to be here anymore.” Immediately after this

Peyton’s mother sought out help for him and placed him in therapy. Peyton’s therapy helped

him for a bit, but Peyton had to transfer schools when his mother got a new job. This transfer

gave him hope, hope that the bullying was finally over. Unfortunately, Peyton was bullied even

worse at his new school. Once the bullying began Peyton went to his principal to report his

bullies, this was not helpful. The principal told him to stay away from the boys. That night when

Peyton returned home, he told his mother about this incident and disappeared to his room.

Less than twenty minutes later Peyton’s mother went to check on him, she had found Peyton

hanging from his ceiling fan. Immediately calling for help Peyton was rushed to the hospital.

After many hours’ doctors declared Peyton dead on October 13th, 2014.

Both Peyton and his mother did everything they were supposed to when it came to

preventing and seeking help for bullying. Everyone is taught in some way the steps you’d take if

yourself, your friend, or your child is being bullied. First you report the bullying incidents or the

bullies, second you don’t bully back, and third you avoid being alone. All of these steps Peyton

executed at both schools he attended. But the odds were against him, no matter the number of
cries for help he still suffered. Peyton James story shows many of the thing wrong in the world

when it comes to bullying.

As ill explain shortly, one of the many root causes to mental illness is the way bullying,

the lack of anti-bullying programs, and cyberbullying has affected people daily. First, I will

discuss how different types of bullying places victims at a higher risk of mental illness and self-

harm. Next, I will explain how faculty members are at a disadvantage due to the lack of training

they receive on bullying and the lack of anti-bullying programs there are within the school

system. Lastly, I will talk about how cyberbullying affects people daily.

Bullying is a serious and difficult issue that fills the world for everyone. When someone

is bullied it diminishes their self-esteem and leads to multiple mental illnesses, eating disorders

and self-harm. Robert Alexander reported a study that happened in 2019 about the rate of

bullied children and bullies who were also bullied having mental health problems. Roughly 20%

of those bullied needed medical treatment by the time they were teens or young adults. Those

who were both bullied and were bullies themselves are at “the highest rate of depression,

anxiety, schizophrenia and substance abuse of all the groups in the study.” The Best Day

Psychiatry and Counseling agreed with this study in 2020 and says that bully-victims are at a

greater risk for not only mental health but behavior problems as well. Because of how high

these rates are it brings up the concern of self-harm and suicide. A study that was taken at the

University of Bristol claims that kids who are bullied at young ages are five times more likely to

self-harm by the time they are teenagers. The study used nearly 5,000 children and the results

showed that 16.5% of the kids said they would engage in self-harm when older if bullied. Both
studies came to the same conclusion that no form of bullying is harmless. Bullying has caused

many people to suffer with numerous conditions due to the way they were treated.

The fact that there are minimal outlets for people to seek help within school systems

make these other conditions even worse to deal with. For example, Peyton went to his school

for help, yet they didn’t handle it well. This happens within many schools not just Peyton’s

which is why it is a rising issue. Faculty members have minimal training on identifying and

preventing bullying, plus many schools don’t have the ability to supply anti-bullying programs.

Teachers wish they had more training to help kids when they are in need but unfortunately

since teachers struggle with bullying, many bullying incidents go unnoticed. Gorsek &

Cunningham discussed in their article the findings that Bauman & Del Rio found in there 2005

article about how teachers are unaware of bullying problems within their schools. Not only

were they unaware but they didn’t know how to distinguish bullying and peer conflict. Now if

students can’t go to their teachers for help where can they go? Most would say anti-bullying

programs but not all anti-bullying programs are in schools. In 2013 a study that Bradshaw,

Waasdrop and O’Brennan had taken discussed that 80% of teachers believe that the programs

were effective. Yet the majority of the students reported they were ineffective. Between

teachers not knowing how to handle bullying and the lack of and ineffective anti-bullying

programs students don’t want to attend school and their fear of bullying increases.

Unfortunately, this issues only get worse when bullying gets transferred online.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic has started, cyberbullying has increased compared to

other types of bullying. In the past year and a half numerous amounts of research has been

done to determine how much bullying has increased. Zach Micklea report in 2020 that
cyberbullying has increased by 70% due to stress, isolation, boredom and kids using more social

media platforms. But cyberbullying wasn’t created when Covid-19 started, it has been going on

for much longer than this past year. Like any kind of bullying, it can affect a person’s

psychological state but with cyberbullying it is particularly damaging. Sherri Gordon wrote an

article called “The Real-Life Effects of Cyberbullying on Children”, within this article Gordon

spoke about how cyberbullying is different from the other kinds of bullying. With cyberbullying

it can occur at anytime and anywhere. Because of this cyberbullying happens more the regular

bullying and can happen consistently. But similarly, it goes unnoticed and unreported. With

every form of bullying, it affects people and with cyberbullying it makes it so victims can’t even

escape from it.

Each of the topics spoken about today wrapped back to the beginning when I spoke

about one of the root causes to mental illness. Bullying causes more problems for people and

not just in person but online as well. The fact most people don’t have the ability to seek help

causes them to suffer, which leads to psychological problems and self-harm. As you have most

likely figured out by now bullying is not a light subject nor is it harmless. Bullying inflicts a slew

of problems upon people both as victims, bullies, bystanders, faculty and family, none of which

wanted to be placed in these positions. Peyton James did everything he could before resorting

to what he felt was his last hope to escape this pain. Peyton James could’ve lived full life’s if

bullying didn’t exist. We owe it to Peyton and other kids like him to change the way this world

runs when it comes to bullying.

 Work Cited

Alexander, Robert. “Anxiety, Depression, and Suicide: The Lasting Effect of

Bullying.” Healthline, 20 Dec. 2019, www.healthline.com/health-news/bullying-affects-
victims-and-bullies-into-adulthood-022013#Lifelong-effects. 

Bauman, S., & Del Rio, A. (2005). Knowledge and belief about bullying in schools: Comparing
pre-service teachers in the United States and the United Kingdom. School Psychology
International, 26 (4), 428-442.

Bradshaw, C. P., Waasdorp, T. E., & O’Brennan, L. M. (2013). Teachers’ and education support
professionals’ perspectives on bullying and prevention: Findings from a national
association study. School Psychology Review, 42 (3), 280-297.

Dallas, Mary Elizabeth. “Bullied Kids More Likely to Self-Harm as Teens.” WebMD, WebMD,
www.webmd.com/children/news/20130531/bullied-kids-more-likely-to-self-harm-as-teens. 

Gordon, Sherri. “Learn to Recognize the Real-Life Effects of Cyberbullying on

Children.” Verywell Family, www.verywellfamily.com/what-are-the-effects-of-
cyberbullying-460558. 

Gorsek, Abby, and Melissa Cunningham. “A Review of Teachers Perception and Training
Regarding School Bullying.” Pure Insights, 2014,
digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=pure. 

James, Jacki. “This Heartbreaking Story Will Remind You Just How Much Kindness Really
Matters.” Reader's Digest, Reader's Digest, 12 Jan. 2020, www.rd.com/article/bullying-in-
school/. 

Micklea, Zach. “Increase in Cyberbullying During COVID-19.” MIBluesPerspectives, 17 Mar.

2021, www.mibluesperspectives.com/2020/10/12/increase-in-cyberbullying-during-covid-
19/. 

“The Effects of Bullying on Mental Health.” Best Day Psychiatry & Counseling, 1 Dec. 2020,
bestdaypsych.com/the-effects-of-bullying-on-mental-health/.