Words are deadly weapons. The bullying needs to stop. Bullying can cause a kid to deal with depression, and anxiety, and or lead to suicide, Bullied students tend to grow up more socially anxious, with less self-esteem and require more mental health services throughout life. Bullying is a major issue within various places, such as schools and online, Kids pick on others for being different than they are. Cyberbullying is an issue as well. All over social media, you will see videos of kids getting picked on, bullying can permanently damage a person to the core. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me,” but words do hurt and scar, sometimes beyond repair. “I think school officials should take a stronger position on the punishment of people involved in bullying including and especially those involved in mob bullying. By this I mean that an audience of students cheering it on should be disciplined as well as those in the confrontation,” said Marcia Terry.
Even though schools have finally stepped forward and started doing something about bullying, there are still issues and flaws. Bullying still slips through the cracks, especially if someone isn‘t brave enough to step up and bring it to an administrator’s attention. Bullies are everywhere, and the torment is becoming a larger issue as the decades pass. “I think there should be harsher punishments to people who bully. If you are told that your kid is being a bully you should do something about it, don’tjust sit there and let them treat Others like that,” stated Amber Gentry. Some may say that there is no growing crisis that childhood adolescence has never been less brutal. It is said that kids are safer and better behaved than they were some 30 years ago. Some are worried that we are making children frail and weak because thin-skinned parents are treating them like delicate flowers. Kids will be kids, right?
If anything, bullying is getting worse, back when our parents were growing up they didn’t have social media or camera phones to upload cruel videos to Facebook of peers being bullied Instead ofjust one school knowing about the kid being tormented and joining in, now all of the worlds can see it and the victim can be ridiculed for life. People are quick to record someone being bullied, but are not quick to stop it We need to teach our children to stand up for themselves in a proper manner. By doing so they need to start by bringing the issue to an adult’s attention This is where it gets critical though, the adult needs to actually do something about it. There are too many cases of an administrator not doing anything to put a stop to it. “in high school there was a Facebook hate group started about me, I battled through the glares and mocks of all the kids who were in the group, and I had to cheer with the girl who started it,” shared Brittany Sitton.
The other opposing side also argues that the Victims should just eliminate the “cyber” part of the bullying. These social networks are something you do not have to engage in when victims are being cyber bullied. Their suggestions are just to delete the network, no network, no cyberbullying. Critics say that victims set themselves up for harassment by placing themselves up for bait. But is it fair to expect someone to just delete their social media account due to bullying? How is that fair to the victim to have to give up something because of another’s wrongdoing? This telling the bully that his actions are ok and that they aren’t in the wrong. How is this teaching anyone a lesson, yet instead making the victim feel even lesser of themselves? Now does this apply to the kids being bullied at school? Would it be right to apply it to that as well? No school, no bullying, but that doesn’t seem logical.
“Bullying essentially ruined my life and confidence up until I left school for good,” said Elaina Antenan. It is estimated that 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. According to bullying stats, 1 out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying. 13% of teens who use social media say they have had an experience on social media network that made them feel nervous about going to school the next day, “Oh c’mon bullying builds character! If the kids at Calvary didn’t bully me, I wouldn’t have had an eating disorder that caused me to lose weight. Now I’m thinner than I was and everyone loves me,” Brie Stokes had sarcastically stated. It is more likely for a person to have an eating disorder due to weight bashing. It is common for kids to be picked on about their weight, and this is why we have so many teens growing up with eating disorders.
“While schools are zero tolerance to bullying, they don’t let the kids joke around anymore, What can happen is that not letting the kids joke around and people saying every little thing is bullying is creating these kids to not understand how to accept a tease here and there. Adults tease each other all the time with sarcasm, and it’s always from a good place, It can teach kids into thinking that sarcasm is bullying and notjust joking in good fun.” iBrittany Sitton. And this is when we need to figure out where to draw the line, What is teasing and what is bullying? A hate group made about someone is clearly bullying, but teasing someone about accidentally spelling a word wrong is essentially harmless Picking on someone for the clothes they wear is bullying. Making fun of someone for how heavy they are is bullying.
We have to really understand what bullying and teasing are. We have to realize that sarcasm generally is harmless unless used hostilely, “Bullying is a big issue and something 1 teach my two year Olds on a regular. Not just about not bullying others but more importantly how it makes the other child feeli If they hit a friend they have to see and understand that’s why that friend is crying, and then I ask them if that’s how they would want to feel. When they apologize they also tell them why they’re sorry. Teaching a child to treat others the way they want to be treated is a better way of getting them to understand WHY they shouldn’t bully, because it hurts them. If parents would teach their children to look from a more inside perspective, children could change and look out for each other instead of just looking at each other,” Lizzie Haynes said.
This is exactly how I think we should start raising our future children. We need to get them in this routine and mindset that it isn‘t ok, because it’s not bullying is not ok It can essentially hurt everyone. If a victim were to commit suicide due to bullying their family is in turn effected for the rest of their life I was a bully once to an old friend I didn’t realize I was a bully at the time, but I know now, and two years later it still affects me to think about how I treated that person so badly, and I get down about it a lott To think I could be so mean to someone disgusts me, Bullying damages self-esteem. The famous phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” is taught at a young age as a way for kids to defend themselves. It is a way for parents to try and teach kids that words are just words, and they can’t hurt you, physically that is. But words do hurt, and sometimes beyond repair. Bruises fade, but emotional scars can remain forever.
