Bullying must be stopped! Bullying among school children may not be a new phenomenon, but it must be stopped! A growing number of cases of bullying among school students that resulted in severe injuries and fatality have been reported in the media. Some videos of school children bullying their peers have been posted and went viral on the internet.
There is a growing public concern over bullying and violence in schools. It is imperative that the schools’ management should do a lot more to address this festering problem that seriously affect the attendance and academic performances of the students, especially in their exams.
“The school phoned me”, said Banta,“and when I was informed that my teenage son had not attended classes for some time, I was so mad at him. It was later that he told me that he was a victim of a gang of school bullies, who intimidated him and had threatened to hurt him if he reports them to the school management.”
As in Banta’s son’s case, this is one reason why school children occasionally stayed away from school, that is to avoid mistreatment at the hands of their bullying peers. Fear and anxiety are among the long term effect of bullying that many children endure throughout their school years and even beyond. Bullying also poses a threat to natural and healthy teenage development.
Why do people bully? It is simply to earn the validation and respect (or rather, to be feared) of/by their peers, and be popular. A bully is a blustering and badgering person (whether boy or girl) who is cruel to others, particularly those who are weak.
Bullying is a repeated aggression involving peers, and bullies are associated with psychosocial problems such as low self-esteem, acceptance of anti-social behavior and delinquency. The bullies are usually more depressed and unhappy than those who are not involved in bullying.
Bullies have a positive attitude towards violence as a means of getting what they want and to gain or maintain dominance, and they lack empathy for their victims. Some physical bullies do not regard their actions as bullying, but rather “to test the victim’s endurance.”
In Malaysia, especially in boarding schools, junior students are frequently victims of “ragging” by seniors – forced to do chores, perform humiliating acts, endures insults as well as beatings for no reason or cause. Sometimes, these assaults resulted in severe injuries and even deaths. Lack of school supervision facilitates bullying behavior in boarding school environment.
Most children don’t report bullying for fear of retaliation and isolation or boycott by peers who would humiliate them, making their situation worse.
Bullies are the product of broken homes and weaknesses in the family structure. Children who are neglected at home without parental supervision or lack moral guidance are more likely to become bullies in schools. Those from poor backgrounds, with financial difficulties and growing up where there are frequent quarrels, drug and alcohol abuse, often form gangs in schools, to steal and extort from students who are better off. Verbal put-downs, name-calling and physical aggression between parents and children are copied by children in managing social relationships.
Parents should take greater responsibility by teaching their children moral values at home and set examples for them to follow. In this aspect, schools should invite counselors and experts and hold seminars on parenting for parents.
Teachers often point out that parental support is sorely lacking when it comes to teachers disciplining their children for errant behaviours. Some teachers have even been threatened by parents with reprisal for taking disciplinary action against their children! It is natural that victims and teachers fear reprisals when dealing with a bullying situation.
Parents and the schools must work together to put a stop to bullying as it can have far-reaching consequences.
Thus, it is imperative for teachers and counselors to identify students prone to violence, and hold anti-bullying campaign in schools. They should carry out a series of counseling programmes with the students to create awareness on the effect of bullying on victims as well as the bullies themselves and to help such individuals before they destroy their own lives and that of others.
