Cause and Effect of Bullying in Schools

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF BULLYING IN SCHOOLS

Freak, weirdo, faggot, dyke, queer, and loser: these are only a few of the slurs and derogatory remarks that are called out each day to our youth because they are different than the others in their schools. Bullies seek out those who are construed as different and harass and ostracize them because it makes them feel more powerful. Words alone can do a lot of damage, that old saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is untrue, words hurt; possibly more than any physical damage could. Words are not the only way bullies hurt they do use violence and intimidation these are common themes that we are seeing spread like wildfire through our school systems. Bullying is becoming a huge issue in our schools our children are afraid to be different, afraid to be themselves. The bullying that has been most in the news lately is that of young gay and lesbian students and too often the result is suicide. Following the infamous 1999 Columbine High School shootings, in which two students, both victims of bullying, went on killing spree through their school (Associated Press). Several schools have enacted zero tolerance policies towards planned, or even implied, violence within schools while this seems to be a good policy it also can effectively allow bullies to continue their harassment of weaker students. It does not allow the bullied student to ever fight back. Bullying can lead to emotional problems such as depression, low self-esteem and even suicide it can also lead to other harmful effects such as what happened at Columbine. Studies show that bullying has many harmful effects on our youth, something needs to be done.

One of the biggest problems that we are up against is that the face of bullies are not always readily recognizable. It is easy to tell the bully when there is physical harm done, but what about when the bullying isn't physical? Those bullies are possibly the most dangerous and the hardest to pick out. With all of the technology in the world now bullying can take on so many different forms the bullies no longer even have to be face-to-face. There is bullying through text messages, chat rooms, email and there have been instances of others using pictures and videos as weapons against people. One such incident took place September 19, 2010 when two students, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, live streamed a video of Ravi's roommate Tyler Clementi during a sexual encounter with another male. After the incident Tyler left a goodbye message on Facebook before jumping off the George Washington Bridge to his death(Emily Friedman).

Cyber-bullying has become the worst kind of torture because now for our teens it means the end of the school day is not the end of the bullying. Now it can follow them anywhere even into their own homes. Its maddening that some of our teens and young people