Bullying - Let"s Try Putting Out the Spark Before it Becomes a Flame
I cannot express how angry I feel at the amount of bullying that is going on within our schools today.
School officials claim that they are right on top of each incident whenever something happens.
I have to wonder how many people honestly feel that our schools are truly on top of this problem and that immediate, proper action is always followed through after each and every incident is brought to their attention.
And by proper action, I am not merely referring to some standard punishment that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, given after a kid has been accused of bullying.
Dealing with the bullying after the fact is, of course, necessary.
But proper action also needs to include making use of existing programs designed to take aim at the heart of the subject of bullying.
These programs were put together to help kids in schools understand the consequences of bullying on both sides of the equation.
Not only does the kid who is being bullied often suffer extreme personal humiliation, but the bully himself is very often dealing with his own issues, whether it be anger, abuse at home, or the sad fact that he or she simply finds enjoyment when able to make other people feel bad.
It should be apparent by now how absolutely imperative intervention on behalf of all the kids being bullied has become.
The number of kids who are being bullied is increasing, as is the number of kids who have finally reached their personal limit after having been bullied for years.
Many kids, having been beaten down emotionally and at times physically are reaching the point when they say enough is enough.
But, not being equipped with the proper knowledge of how to make the abuse stop, more and more kids are making the agonizing decision to end their own life rather than have to suffer any more.
For many other kids, the result is permanent emotional damage and an almost non-existent self-esteem that places these kids at risk for drug abuse and for becoming violent as a way of expressing their anger and resentment over the way they were treated for so many years.
There are also a significant number of high school age kids who are making the decision to drop out of school rather than submit themselves any longer to the abusive actions of their classmates.
Is anyone taking this seriously? How many more news stories will we have to listen to about kids who have taken their own lives, sheerly out of the desperate need to make the daily pain and humiliation go away, before someone will seriously find a way to help our kids? I recently read an article in the Pekin Daily times about an organization called The Center for The Prevention Of Abuse.
This organization will travel to schools throughout the Pekin, Peoria, and Woodford Counties of Illinois, teaching students and school staff what bullying is and what to do about it.
This particular program is divided into two parts.
The second part, called "Second Step" is geared towards making older students aware of "not only classic bullying techniques but also cyberspace bullying - threatening e-mails, text messages, and MySpace and Facebook postings.
" That sounds like an excellent program.
Why aren't our schools making use of this and other programs like it? The problem of bullying and its inevitable consequences is much too important to be shrugged off lightly anymore.
I am sure that Illinois is not the only state that has a program like the one mentioned above.
Every school in our United States needs to check into this and other similar programs that are available in their area.
As I have already stated, addressing bullying after it has already occurred is absolutely necessary, but putting strong programs in place that will educate an entire school population about bullying and proper ways to handle situations as they come up in order to possibly put out the spark before it becomes a flame could be just what is needed to help slow down this rising trend of abuse in our schools.
School officials claim that they are right on top of each incident whenever something happens.
I have to wonder how many people honestly feel that our schools are truly on top of this problem and that immediate, proper action is always followed through after each and every incident is brought to their attention.
And by proper action, I am not merely referring to some standard punishment that amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, given after a kid has been accused of bullying.
Dealing with the bullying after the fact is, of course, necessary.
But proper action also needs to include making use of existing programs designed to take aim at the heart of the subject of bullying.
These programs were put together to help kids in schools understand the consequences of bullying on both sides of the equation.
Not only does the kid who is being bullied often suffer extreme personal humiliation, but the bully himself is very often dealing with his own issues, whether it be anger, abuse at home, or the sad fact that he or she simply finds enjoyment when able to make other people feel bad.
It should be apparent by now how absolutely imperative intervention on behalf of all the kids being bullied has become.
The number of kids who are being bullied is increasing, as is the number of kids who have finally reached their personal limit after having been bullied for years.
Many kids, having been beaten down emotionally and at times physically are reaching the point when they say enough is enough.
But, not being equipped with the proper knowledge of how to make the abuse stop, more and more kids are making the agonizing decision to end their own life rather than have to suffer any more.
For many other kids, the result is permanent emotional damage and an almost non-existent self-esteem that places these kids at risk for drug abuse and for becoming violent as a way of expressing their anger and resentment over the way they were treated for so many years.
There are also a significant number of high school age kids who are making the decision to drop out of school rather than submit themselves any longer to the abusive actions of their classmates.
Is anyone taking this seriously? How many more news stories will we have to listen to about kids who have taken their own lives, sheerly out of the desperate need to make the daily pain and humiliation go away, before someone will seriously find a way to help our kids? I recently read an article in the Pekin Daily times about an organization called The Center for The Prevention Of Abuse.
This organization will travel to schools throughout the Pekin, Peoria, and Woodford Counties of Illinois, teaching students and school staff what bullying is and what to do about it.
This particular program is divided into two parts.
The second part, called "Second Step" is geared towards making older students aware of "not only classic bullying techniques but also cyberspace bullying - threatening e-mails, text messages, and MySpace and Facebook postings.
" That sounds like an excellent program.
Why aren't our schools making use of this and other programs like it? The problem of bullying and its inevitable consequences is much too important to be shrugged off lightly anymore.
I am sure that Illinois is not the only state that has a program like the one mentioned above.
Every school in our United States needs to check into this and other similar programs that are available in their area.
As I have already stated, addressing bullying after it has already occurred is absolutely necessary, but putting strong programs in place that will educate an entire school population about bullying and proper ways to handle situations as they come up in order to possibly put out the spark before it becomes a flame could be just what is needed to help slow down this rising trend of abuse in our schools.
