Have you ever walked into a room and seen a fellow student or friend look off? Or have you ever overheard a conversation on the phone between two students where you could make an assumption from facial expressions that it wasn’t going well?
It hurts a parent to their inner being to see their child hurting or knowing their child isn’t okay. They feel this sense of helplessness but they don’t know what to do because they can’t help their child who is getting bullied.
Bullying looks different in several ways. Adults who work around students should look for signs of bullying in ways such as, spreading rumors, name calling/insulting, shoving/tripping, excluding from group activities, threatening harmfully, and sharing private information.
Now these are all ways that students can get bullied both cyber and face-to-face, but which one is more common?
Cyber bullying is more common in today’s society, with there being a report concluding that 21.6 percent of the students between ages 12-18 that reported being bullied were bullied online.
Now, just because cyber bullying is more present that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening inside the school facility.
19 percent of the students that were included in the same survey as the ones who reported being cyber bullied reported being bullied inside school.
Believe it or not the most common places students reported they were being bullied – 39 percent – was in a classroom space.
A typical false correlation that people make between bullying and mental health is that bullying is a direct cause of suicide.
The impacts bullying can leave on someone’s life are very harsh, but there is no evidence that suicide is a natural response to bullying.
Research, however, does indicate that bullying can lead to feelings of isolation, rejection, exclusion, and despair.
There is also scientific knowledge that bullying does directly worsen depression or anxiety if present in students prior to the bullying. Students can also develop these two disorders as an effect of consistent bullying. https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/facts.
Bullying doesn’t just affect the victim, it can also affect both the bully and witnesses.
Both of these people can experience very similar effects to those of victims, such as increased mental health problems, academic problems, substance abuse disorders, etc…
Older adults who oversee children can tend to dismiss students’ reports or concerns of bullying. They may view them as not important or lying to seek attention.
Every student has good and bad days, and we are all imperfect so there may be days where we may be a little unkind to others. This doesn’t label someone as a “bully.”
Teachers need to look for repetitive behavior, not their “labels” or pre-existing rumors that have been said about them, when they are determining if the bullying occurred or not.
Here’s the reality of any bullying situation … No matter how big or small the occurrence is, any type of bullying can result in increased negative emotional, physical, and mental defects. https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/facts/.
Treat every day like it may be the last time you see a certain person, and use that to encourage you to be kind to everyone. There’s not one person in this world that doesn’t have a flaw, which means no one is better or higher up than anyone else.
Everyone is equal and deserves to be treated and respected like that. Take this information to heart, and remember how major of an impact your words and actions can be to those around you.
Featured image (at top): Senior Raigan Frediericks is The Arrowhead’s Print Editor-in-Chief. Her monthly column, Real Talk with Raigan, includes topics that pertain to youth mental health and well-being.
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