BULLYING - sticks and stones, and words, all hurt!

SCIENCE CORNER: by Doug Linman, PhD

Recently, “middle school” children, bullying, horribly mistreated Bus Monitor Karen Klein abusing her relentlessly, while she was simply caring enough to help the school system by riding along and monitoring their safety, back home to their parents!

If this video is enough for concern within adult/elderly harassment by children, even among the children they too abuse and harass each other to a point of the forcing weaker children to live in fear and even worse, death.

• It is estimated that 200,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. Source: National Education Association.

• American schools harbor approximately 2.1 million bullies and 2.7 million of their victims and this is growing. Source: National School Safety Center.

- 1 in 7 Students in Grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying.

- 58% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school.

- 17% of all school absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied at school.

- 72% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.

- 1 out of 15 students has seen a student with a gun or knife at school.

- 285,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month. 

Those in the lower grades reported being in twice as many fights as those in the higher grades. However, there is a lower rate of serious violent crimes in the elementary level than in the middle or high schools. 

- 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying

- Among students, homicide perpetrators were more than twice as likely as homicide victims to have been bullied by peers.

- Bullying statistics say revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings.

- 87% of students said shootings are motivated by a desire to “get back at those who have hurt them.”

- 86% of students said, “other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them” causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools.

- 61% of students said students shoot others because they have been victims of physical abuse at home.

- 54% of students said witnessing physical abuse at home can lead to violence in school.

- According to bullying statistics, 1 out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying.

- Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school-shooting incidents.

This is an obvious cautionary expose` on what “exist” as reported, sorted and evidentiary present in the every day lives of our students and the adults teachers and monitors who educate and take care of them. Bullying as we know, can take many forms but it usually includes the following types of behavior that parents needs to grasp, monitor and address:

• Physical – hitting, kicking, pinching, punching, scratching, spitting or any other form of physical attack. Damage to or taking someone else’s belongings repeatedly may also constitute as physical bullying.

• Verbal – name calling, insulting, making racist, sexist or homophobic jokes, remarks or teasing, using sexually suggestive or abusive language, offensive remarks

• Indirect – spreading nasty stories about someone, exclusion from social groups, being made the subject of malicious rumors, sending abusive mail, and email and text messages (cyber bullying).

• Cyber Bullying itself is exponentially becoming larger and pervasive – this includes any type of bullying that is carried out by electronic medium. There are several types including:

• Text message bullying
• Picture/video clip bullying via mobile phone cameras
• Phone call bullying via mobile phones
• E-mail bullying
• Chat-room bullying
• Bullying through instant messaging (IM)
• Bullying via websites

The listing of things within this article was purposeful to make it a quick reference guide.  I am a parent as well, so I know these matters go on everyday and can see the effects on society if not managed.  America has lost a great deal in family values, “honor your father and mother” type values, respect for each other and elders, not stealing or lying to purposefully harm others, and consistent accountability training within our homes is generally, but most assuredly, missing.  It is as though our training manual has gone missing and a new fear of responsibility has taken its place!

We read and see things like the complete mistreatment of Karen Klein as displayed in the video, adults in general, and the children themselves against themselves! When it was 1% decades ago, some said it was an anomaly. Now that it’s in the high 70% percentile and growing, real solutions and positive change need to be put in place in homes and in the schools.

Let me know what you think we should do to achieve, recapture and regain the honor and respect that we should all have for each other. It should be obvious that the stated and “growing” statistics, left on an unchanged or uncorrected path, will lead to more obvious and terrible conclusions. I will also invite other trained professionals I know to discuss with me in this forum your ideas and solutions, so you get a full response from all angles.

Doug Linman, PhD is a local scientist and engineer volunteering as our Science Corner blog writer. So please send him your comments, possible new discussion areas, or debate questions through the Patch comments section.

Note: references for pictures and research data areas were provided from the mentioned organizations within the article.