BULLYING IN SCHOOLS

Students in schools learn different things in

different ways, sometimes the easy way, and sometimes the
hard way. Of this, bullying is one such bad experience, many
students face during their school life which involves dominance
over a student by another student or group students by direct
methods like threatening, insulting, hitting, or indirect methods
like intentionally ignoring and isolating a student. Bullying can
cause physical or psychological damage and therefore, students
who involve in bullying must be suspended from school.
Students of different age groups in Canada
experience different degrees of bullying. A study carried out in
Canada says that 8% students are bullied on weekly basis. It also
reveals that boys are involved more in direct bullying like hitting
or threatening and girls are more involved in indirect bullying like
isolation, spreading rumors etc. Bullying is at the highest levels in
grades 6-8, and lowers gradually in the higher levels (Canadian Public
Health Association Safe School Study,2003a). Verbal bullying was almost same
in both guys and girls which ranged from 10-15% (Solberg and Olweus,
2003). As many as 41% students of grades 4 to 7 confirmed that
they were socially bullied and girls are more involved in it then
the boys (Totten, Quigley and Morgan, 2004).
Students involved in bullying tend to have an
aggressive nature and they want to feel powerful. (Bullying
prevention: nature and extend of bullying in Canada, 2011) It is
also evident from the studies that most of the bullying students
come from homes where they do not get enough parental love,
affection and warmth. Such students develop an I-dont-careattitude and become anti social as they grow up. They often have
high self esteem and bully around over students with low selfesteem. Persistent bullying can cause deep psychological effects

on their mind which can cause problems like anxiety, loss of

concentration and self confidence. Also, most of the times parents
are unaware about bullying at school as the children dont inform
them thinking that it might worsen their problems at school
(Banks, Ron 1997).
Bullying is a problem in which the victim
suffers silently most of the times without the help of family or
teachers. To avoid this, specific rules must be formed and
implemented. According to Dr.Rigby, most of the time bullying
takes place in presence of others who do not do anything to
discourage them. If these bystanders discourage the bullies half
of the bullying can reduced in schools. (Dr. Rigby, 2011) Different
policies should be formed like whole-school bullying policies,
implementing curricular measures and improving the environment
at school. The students must be informed what harms bullying
can cause and they should be encouraged to report about
bullying if they face any such situation so that it can be
immediately handled. Various approaches can also be chosen like
forming a questionnaire and distributing it among parents and
students, making class rules, and other anti bullying programs
can be initiated which will help in reducing the incidences of
bullying to a great extent.(Bullying prevention: nature and extend
of bullying in Canada, 2011) Informing students and parents
through awareness programs, which can help them in
understanding themconsequences of bullying in a better way.
Teachers should also be trained and they should keep reminding
the students the punishments for bullying (Banks, Ron 1997).
Bullying is a major problem which affects the
ability of students to progress. If neglected it can cause serious
damage to some students who are bullied. Thus, bullying should
be strictly prohibited in schools (Banks, Ron 1997).

REFERENCES
Public safety in Canada (2011). Bullying prevention: Nature and
extend of bullying
In Canada. Retrieved from
http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/res/cp/res/2008-bp
-01-eng.aspx
Dr Rigby K. (august, 2011). Bullying in schools and what to do
about it. Retrieved
From http://www.kenrigby.net/