Bullying Prevention

I. Topic: Bullying Among Adolescents and Preteens II. Introduction A. On October 7, 2003, Ryan Halligan, a 13-year-old boy from Essex Junction, Vermont, committed suicide. B. Bullying, nowadays, is a serious problem at school. C. This paper will present recent information on bullying among teenagers and preteenagers, with reference to types, roles, impacts and actions. III. Types of Bullying D. Ways of Bullying 1. Verbal Bullying 2. Social Exclusion 3. Physical Bullying 4. Cyber Bullying E. Reasons for Bullying 5. Racial Bullying 6. Religious Bullying 7. Sexual Bullying 8. Disability Bullying IV. Roles in Bullying F. Bullies . Bullying Leader 10. Followers or Henchmen 11. Supporters or Passive Bullies 12. Passive Supporters or Possible Bullies G. Bystanders H. Defenders 13. Possible Defenders 14. Defenders V. Impact of Bullying I. Students Who are Bullied J. Students Who are Bully K. Observers of Bullying L. School with Bullying Issues VI. Solutions M. Students N. Parents O. School V II. Conclusion P. Bullying among teenagers and preteenagers is an unavoidable problem which may lead its victims to committed suicide. Q. The study of the types of bullying, roles of bullying and impacts of bullying help students, parents and school to stop bullying.R. I feel sorry about the students who are bullied; however, I think they can change this situation with the help of other students, their parents and school. Bingguang Feng 33B MW 4:40 04/11/2012 Bullying Among Adolescents and Preteens Bullying, nowadays, is a serious problem at schools. It affects deeply the mentalities and health of teenagers and preteenagers who get into trouble easily. Bullying is defined as â€Å"a person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself. According to the 2009 Your Risk Behavior Surveillance System(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), up to 20% of high school students were bullied in United States. The 2008-2009 School Crime Supplement shows that 28% of students in grade 6-12 were victims of bullying in the United States. This paper will present recent information on bullying among teenagers and perteenagers, with reference to types, roles, impacts and actions. Bullying Among Adolescents and Preteens On October 7, 2003, Ryan Halligan, a 13-year-old boy from Essex Junction, Vermont, committed suicide.As Ryan’s father said, he was a gentle, humorous and sensitive boy. He had great time at school until he started fifth grade. His classmates began laughing at him because of his studying problems and physical weakness. His parents tried their best to help him get over those problems. However, the bullying problems never left him alone. During the summer of 2003, Ryan was commented aggressively that he was gay, and he was cheated by his on-line girlfriend. Finally, he could not stand this situation and made the worst decision, suicide (â€Å"If We Only Knew† 1/3).Ryan is not the first victim of bullying and would not be the last one. Bullying, nowadays, is a serious problem at school. Bullying is defined as â€Å"a person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself. † Because of bullying, more and more students are afraid to go to school. According to the 2009 Your Risk Behavior Surveillance System(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), up to 20% of high school students were bullied in United States.The 2008-2009 School Crime Supplement shows that 28% of students in grade 6-12 were victims of bullying in the United States (â€Å"Bullying Definition† 1/2). This paper will present recent information on bullying among teenagers and preteenagers, with reference to types, roles, impacts and actions. First of all, bullying can be classif ied by the ways of bullying or the reasons for bullying. Bullying is further categorized as verbal bullying, social bullying, physical bullying and cyber bullying by the ways of bullying. Verbal bullying is an aggressive behavior through derogatory languages.It includes bad-name-calling, ridicule, slanderous comments and bruiting deceitful rumors. Social bullying is a provocative social action used by people who bully others. It includes social separation, ignoring someone and setting others up to look stupid. Physical bullying is an obvious aggressive action used to force someone to do something he or she unwilling to do. It includes kicking, hitting, spitting, shoving and stealing others’ money or damaging someone’s belongings. Cyber bullying is also known as electronic bullying. It can be verbal or visual.Provocative calls, annoying messages or emails, threatening internet site, or showing someone horrible pictures or videos is considered as cyber bullying (â€Å"W hat is Bullying? † 1/3). Tyler Clementi, an eighteen- year-old university student from Piscataway, New Jersey, jumped from the George Washington Bridge because his roommate who used webcam to view he was kissing another man and posted the video on the Internet without letting him know (Allen 2/4). It is estimated that more than 33% of young student have experienced cyber threats online (â€Å"Cyber Bullying Statistic†).Despite the ways of bullying, bullying is classified into racial bullying, religious bullying, sexual bullying and disability bullying by the reasons for bullying. Racial bullying is also called ethnic bullying. It is an aggressive behavior that some people treating someone badly because he or she does not have the same racial cultures or background as the people who bully do. Making fun with someone’s racial culture, calling their racist names, or commenting their racial backgrounds badly belongs to racial bullying. Religious bullying is very simi lar to racial bullying.Someone is bullied because his or her religious belief or background is different or special. Bullying through telling something unfavorable about a religious belief or background, abusing someone base on his or her religious belief or background, or laughing at someone because of his or her religious belief or background is religious bullying. Not only race and religion, but also sex is another reason for bullying. Sexual bullying is a bullying behavior that using people’s sexuality or gender as a weapon by males or females to hurt other males or females. It can be physical or non-physical.Sexual bullying includes treating someone badly because of his or her gender, playing jokes or making rough comment about someone’s sexual behavior, or saying someone a homosexuality. Johnny Cagno, a middle-school student in Rhode Island, had experienced sexual bullying for a long time. His classmates kept saying that he was gay because his hobby is different. As Johnny’s mother said â€Å"I felt like everyday I was sending him off to war† (â€Å"Bullying: Words Can Kill†). The last reason for bullying is disability. Disability bullying is that someone is treating badly because he or she is disabled.People usually bully cripples by making fun of their disability, laughing at them because they are disabled (â€Å"What is Bullying† 1/3). In addition to know about types of bullying, the roles of bullying are also necessary for students, parent and school to pay attention to. In bullying action, people can be classified into three groups by their actions. The first group is the bully. It includes bullying leader, followers or henchmen, supporters or passive bullies and passive supporters or possible bullies. The bullying leader is the one who starts bullying and leads other students to bully someone else.The followers or henchmen are the students who like to bully others and follow the bullying leader, but they ar e not the first one to bully. The supporters or passive bullies like bullying but do not take part in it. They usually enjoy watching and make people pay attention to the bullying. The passive supporters or possible bullies are students who like bullying, but they do not show their feeling of bullying to anyone. The second group is bystander. They are known as disengaged onlookers. They do not take any side of bullying. They do not like or hate it.They just watch and think the bullying is none of their business. The last group of bullying is the defender. The possible defenders are the students who hate bullying. They want to help the victims of bullying. However, they did not take any action. The defenders are the students who dislike bullying and try to do something which can help the students who are bullied (â€Å"What is Bullying† 2/3). Despite the roles of bullying, bullying has wide-ranging negative effects on the students who are bullied, students who bully, students who observe bullying, and schools.Because of bullying, the victims of bullying become depressed, lose self-esteem and have health problems. Their grades also start to fall down. The worst thing is some of them attempt suicide. Johnny tried to kill himself by over taking cool pills. Fortunately, his was rushed to the hospital in time (â€Å"Bullying: Words Can Kill†). Despite the damages of the bullying victims, the bullies usually have more troubles than other students. They fight frequently, steal other’s belongs, and drink alcohol and smoke. They usually have low grades at school. They can creative a negative climate at school.Some of them may bring weapons to school. According to a recent statistics from 2010, one out of every 20 students has seen someone bring a gun at school (â€Å"Bullying Statistics†). The witnesses of bullying will think school is a danger place. They have a feeling of fear when they see bullying. They are too frightened to help the vict ims of bullying and feel guilty for their actions. The bullies try to tempt them take part in bullying. By the effects of bullying, the climate of school becomes negative. If the school does not take any effective action, it will be not safe for the students anymore.Students may think that teachers and school administrations do not care about them and do not try to protect them from bullying. Then, students cannot study well in this environment. They are worried about their safety and feel unsafe at school (â€Å"What is Bullying† 3/3). Bullying seems difficult to be stopped. However, with the help of students, parents and school, it can decrease or be stopped. First of all, the students should report bullying to teachers or their parents as soon as possible. The students who are bullied can share their experience with other students.They can perform it as a play to let more students know about bullying. They can work as an anti-bullying group to talk about how to stop bullyi ng, and help school develop protect principle and rules. In addition to stop bullying, parents also play important roles in it. They can communicate with their children and use their knowledge and experience to help their children. They can meet school administrators and give suggestions to school. The best way is parents volunteer in the bullying prevention at school. By volunteering with their children, parent can give a lot of courage to their children to fight bullying.John, Ryan’s father, tried his best to lead the Vermont Bully Prevention bill became a law (ACT117) in a short time after Ryan’s death (â€Å"About Us†). Beside students and parents, school also has responsibility for stopping bullying. School staff can create policies about stopping bullying and set up a special department to deal with bullying problems. School also can post anti-bullying messages around school area. Holding meetings for students, parents and teachers talk about bullying, sch ool can inform the parent how the bullying prevention going (â€Å"Engage Parents & Youth†).As has been demonstrated above, bullying among teenagers and preteenagers is an unavoidable problem which may lead its victims to committed suicide. In addition, bullying does not only affect on its victims but also has deep impact of bullies, observers and school. Indeed bullying can be categorized by why students bully or how students bully, and students play different roles in it. Therefore, students, parents and school try to work together in order to prevent students from being hurt by bullying.As Ryan committed suicide after a long time had been bullied, his father said â€Å"if we only knew, if he only told us† (â€Å"If We Only Knew† 1/3). People feel sorry about the students who are bullied. Those students do not know how to deal with bullying. They are lack of self-protect consciousness and afraid to tell other people. The school and parents should give more inf ormation to them and teach them how to flight against bullying. The government should also have set up a law to protect students from being bullying and punish the bullies. Let’s make the school to be a happy place again.Works Cited â€Å"About Us. † Ryan’s Story. Ryan’s Story Presentation LTD, 2010. Web. 17 March 2012. Allen, Jane. â€Å"Rutgers Suicide: Internet Humiliation Trauma for Teen. † ABCNews. ABC News Internet Ventures. Yahoo! -ABC News Network, 30 September 2010. 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Ryan’s Story Presentation LTD, 2010. Web. 17 March 2012. â€Å"Rutgers Suicide: Internet Humiliation Trauma for Teen. † ABCNews. ABCNews. 30 September. 2010. ABCNews. go. com. Web. 10 March. 2012. â€Å"Sexual bullying in schools. † NSPCC Cruelty to children must stop. NSPCC, 2011. Web. 28 February 2012. â€Å"Vermont’s Bully Prevention Law-ACT 117. † Ryan’s Story. Ryan’s Story Presentation L TD, 2010. Web. 17 March 2012. â€Å"What is Bullying? † Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. Hazelden Foundation, 2011. Web. 28 February 2012.