RUNNING HEAD: BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Prevalence of Bullying in the Public Schools

Navia Walden
NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY

RUNNING HEAD: BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Today I will be discussing the prevalence of bullying in todays schools system and ways
to help minimize this problem. To start, bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school
aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has
the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats,
spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a
group on purpose. With this in mind, bullying has been an ongoing issue in our school systems.
Many children are being picked on for unknown reasons and it is affecting their daily life. I
know you may be wondering, So what? or How is this relevant to my life? Well, if we
minimize bullying in the public schools it will help decrease suicides, mental health issues, and
substance abuse in our community. There will be less deaths and more resilient people; less
social oppression and more understanding of one; and finally, less drug recovery programs and
more active individuals in our community. We know how common these three issues are today.
As you see this one idea will impact our society as a whole.
Fields that have attempted this topic and been unsuccessful were education, social work,
and psychology. The zero tolerance models within the education discipline were unsuccessful
because it was shown to target certain ethnic groups. Also administration was misusing the
policies to address a wide range of student behaviors. Social work was another unsuccessful
approach due to bullying. No details were left but since we know social work is to improve the
quality of ones life and enhance ones well-being within families and individuals, it may have
failed because they didnt do their job of helping in everyday issues. Psychology was ineffective
because it asked for rules to be made to stop a social behavior rather than helping a person
understand the difficult situation.

RUNNING HEAD: BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The two disciplines I chose to help solve this prevalent issue is education and
psychology. Let me note that I am aware that both disciplines have made substantial ways to try
to solve this problem. Yet, being that this is still an ongoing issue, new integrated knowledge can
be applied to find new mechanisms. Moving along, by definition education is the process of
receiving or giving systematic instruction in a school setting. However, to me education is more
than instilling book knowledge into a person. Rather the act of meeting a person where they are
and taking them to where they need to be in all aspects. Allowing them to step out of their
comfort zone, introducing them to knew things, and so forth. On the other hand psychology is
the study of the mind and its behaviors. Since education is a powerful tool used to help mold the
mind and its behavior, it is only right to believe that education and psychology can work hand-inhand in implementing a positive environment where teachers are proactive in preventing
bullying.
With bullying being a prevalent issue in todays educational system, here are some
preventive measures that can be utilized within schools. To begin with, lessons on bullying
should be included within family life week. During this week lesson they will learn about
bullying and all the psychological effects of it. Videos of people with their testimony will be
incorporated as well as graphics. This will allow them to visually see that this is a real life issue.
Additionally, it will inform students of the prevalence of this issue in our society and how it is
affecting upcoming adults. Allowing students to act out different cases on being a leader,
building confidence and self-esteem in ones self will be beneficial in their everyday life. Also,
when a problem does arise among students give out an activity such as team building where they
have to be codependent on one another in order to complete the task. This will allow them to
appreciate one another on a different level and as a result they may find something in common.

RUNNING HEAD: BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Furthermore, in classrooms opt out on peer grading. Although this activity does show
cooperation and independency among students, it can be an issue with students seeing ones
grades which in turn can cause mocking. Furthermore, uniforms can be another help to
minimizing bullying. This will leave no room for a child to joke another childs clothing because
they all are wearing the same thing. Lastly, smaller classrooms would be vital because teachers
can be more interactive and mediate whenever a situation occurs.
To conclude, bullying is very prevalent in our educational system. Today I briefly
discussed this issue, stated which fields were unsuccessful and gave an integrated approach to
help minimize this issue using education and psychology. Although previous approaches have
been made in both disciplines, new attempts ranging from lessons to more interactive support
could help shape emotional behaviors and prevent bullying in our school systems.