How Does Bullying Impact School Success - Research Paper Example

? Impacts of bullying on schools success Impacts of bullying on schools success Introduction A number of challenges and defining moments characterizes school and college life, most of which affects negatively on the development of the student and the success of the school. Most of the acts are perpetuated by fellow students without the knowledge of the school administration resulting into extensive abuse and torture. One of the aggressive acts committed by students on fellow students is bullying, a pervasive act that has a number of both emotional, psychological impacts on the growth and learning of students. Bullying within the school or learning context is defined as peer-peer acts of aggression and intimidation on fellow students resulting into significant impacts on the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of the affected students (Ainer and Perry, 2003). In the United States, the negative impacts of bullying on students have raised significant attention especially among educational policy makers, who attempt to develop approaches of reducing its impacts. Apart from the direct effect that such cowardice acts have on the student’s growth and learning, bullying has a number of effects on the success of the schools. This makes it important for the schools to develop proper framework for the evaluation of the occurrence of bullying acts within to ascertain its impacts on its success (Ainer and Perry, 2003). In this paper, the divergent views on the impacts of bullying on a school’s success will be evaluated. The literature and scholarly article on this topic shall be reviewed to provide an empirical description of the scientific research conducted on this topic. Perspectives on the impacts of bullying on schools According to Lohaus et al (2002), the prevalence of bullying in different parts of the country demonstrates the extent of the problem and the need for an approach aimed at addressing this problem. The need for developing working solutions to the menace of bullying arises from the impacts that it has on both the students and the school. When acts of bullying are allowed to continue without the intervention of the school administration and the development of proper anti-bullying programs, the entire school’s atmosphere is affected (Ainer and Perry, 2003). The bullied students develop a great sense of fear that reduces their concentration and affects their psychological being. As results, such students may not be in a better position to concentrate in class and perform to their limit. Those in support of this perspective argue that the stability of the student and his/her ability to exist in a fear free environment affects the final performances of such students. Bullying impacts more mentally on a student’s stability and this creates excessive feeling of fear on the victims thus making them vulnerable in any situation (Ainer and Perry, 2003). The inability to counter the impacts of the bullies and punish such acts increases the prevalence of disrespect and disregard to the available laws that govern student’s behavior within the schools and colleges. The lack of intervention by the school administration results into loss of respect for fellow students and the teachers themselves. The bullies may develop a big man syndrome and the feeling that they are above the control of the school administration. As a result, they may continue in the perpetuation of their atrocities on fellow students without fear of being punished. This reduces the school’s performance and respect as the victims may become more and more unprotected and vulnerable (Lohaus et al, 2002). In this evaluation, there are those who support the notion that the impacts of bullying on a schools performance emanates from the students end while others believed that the ineffectiveness it creates on the school’s administration significantly affects it performance. Uncontrolled bullying in schools has been shown to go beyond the fields and the students extra time into studying hours. During such times, students are unable to effectively follow the lesson as they are intimidated by the presence of the bullies. This results into reduced student’s performance and the development of irregular patterns of class attendance by the victims (Lohaus et al, 2002). Bureaucratic structure of schools and impacts on bullying The safety of the students is the ultimate responsibility of the school’s administration and any act of violence or aggression on other students by colleagues as a result of poor regulatory environment demonstrates the administration’s failure. According to the national education association, the issues of school safety have become matters of national interest thanks to the students who perpetuate violence and intimidation on their colleagues and the teachers who fail to take necessary actions. Schools that allow students to intimidate colleagues and melt violent acts on them provide a breeding ground for more offensive and dangerous habits (Andreou, 2001). The victims at times develop fear and violence defense mechanisms against the aggressors which has most of the time resulted into devastating events. Victims thus spend a large proportion of their learning time developing defense mechanisms against their enemies thus losing important studying times. Victims of violence thus attain lower grades with a great sense of fear when compared to their colleagues who are non-victims. This creates a significant retarding impact on the overall development of the student that affects negatively on the school’s overall performance. Cognitive, social and emotional development among children can only be achieved within the school setup through interactions with colleagues, friends and the teachers. A school must thus provide an environment where positive interaction is encouraged at all times and students are allowed to develop and mature without intimidation. However, bullying and excessive intimidation on students affect their socio-behavioral development which affects the overall growth and maturation. An institution that produces half-developed students because of their inability to counter the vices of bullying and student’s aggression towards each other loses the overall goal of child development. Such a school thus becomes obsolete in the main goal of admitting young and developing children for it fails to provide a better ground for their personal cognitive and emotional development and maturation (Lohaus et al, 2002). The development of better student protection programs by schools creates a better environment for the overall growth and development of students. This can only occur if the school is in control of the situation and the students who are the potential victims feel safe of the current intervention of the school. Schools that are unable to control bullying activities creates an illusion that the administration has no powers over the bullies thus making the response and report processes difficult. Student’s performance is related to the general feeling of connection with the class through proper and respectful coexistence with both the teachers and the students. Safety within the schools builds a sense of self worth among the students that improves the overall morale and confidence of the students (Andreou, 2001). Bullying thus eliminates school connectedness that has a number of impacts on the general school life of students and this affects their behavioral development and maturation. Research has established that the overall performance of students is related to the connection they build with school and this depends on his relationship with both the students and the teachers. Bullying however eliminates the room for the generation of this connection through the elimination of respect and love among the students and the teachers. The affected students begin to feel that they are under the mercies of the bullies as the school is viewed as helpless before the students (Lohaus et al, 2002). This reduces the connection between the students and the school that results into s compromise in the health and behavioral growth of the student. The prevalence of acts of aggression, intimidation and physical abuse reduces significantly the connection between the students and the school and this reduces the overall performance of the students and thus the school. Students who develop proper connection with the school as a result of safe and controlled environment have lowered chances of abusing substances as they feel safe and the emotional situation is considerably stable. The connection with the school also reduces the development of violent activities among the students, which leads to the growth of bullying activities within the school. The elimination of bullying and aggressive action of students towards their colleagues thus improves the connection between students and their school. This reduces the development of hostile and violent behaviors among the students that perpetuate bullying. It also reduces the presence of other activities such as early sex, pregnancy, substance abuse and other illegal acts which affects the overall growth of students. Schools are endowed with the sole responsibility of overseeing the transition of students from elementary school life to middle schools. Lower class teachers have played this role for a long time, resulting into an integral influence on the final life of a student once he or she moves to the next level. The growth and perpetuation of bullying in schools however eliminate the power of overseeing the transition from the teachers to the bullies. The bullies become over engrossed with the desire to demonstrate to the students the other side of school life as opposed to the elementary class levels. As this is allowed to occur, the students psychological and cognitive development is influenced negatively resulting into lack of proper development and overall transition by the students (Fekkes, Pijpers and Verloove-Vanhorick, 2005). These acts result into loss of the bond between the student and his/her classroom teacher as they are placed under the mercies of the bullies, who oversee their general transition. With this connection lost, most students in this stage end up spending most of their classroom hours in corridors and other unsupervised areas where they are more prone to abuse and bullying. Bullying thus affects the position of the teachers in playing a significant role in the overall transition of students from elementary to middle level classes (Ball et al, 2008). Quality instruction from teachers is influenced by the overall classroom behavior, an aspect which is dependent on respect and discipline among the students for colleagues and the teachers. The prevalence of bullying in a class reduces the impacts of the instruction used by the teachers and thus results into overall poor performance. As the teachers are busy developing approaches to tackle different educational topics and give the students the very best that they intend to, the victims and the bullies may be suffering and rejoicing in the same classroom. This reduces overall student’s concentration and creates an environment where the approaches adopted by the teacher become ineffective (Ball et al, 2008). This affects the overall performance of the students and the moral of the teacher, which results into the spiraling lack of control within the class. The overall management of classroom influences the occurrence of bullying in a class, which thus creates the overall notion that the teacher has significant influence on the growth and continuation of the acts. The development of a learner centered classroom by the teacher results into improved environment where cases of bullying can be effectively reported and action taken. The continued and uncontrolled increase in school bullying thus affects significantly on the classroom control and management strategies (King & Davis, 2004). School diversity and impacts on bullying A teacher in a position to manage his classroom well is best placed to identify cases of bullying through acts of aggression from some students and mitigate ways of stopping them. However, once the classroom management and control leaves the hand of the teacher and moves to the rogue students, the instructional approach used by the teacher becomes ineffective and results into loss of proper learning in the school. No meaningful education can occur in such a setup and a number of psychological problems may arise associated with the loss of control by the school (Vreeman and Carroll, 2007). Extensive development of behaviors related to bullying in schools arising from ineffective control by the administration results into adult and teacher bullying. Bullying behaviors arise from an environment that allows such negative acts to grow and extend without considerable control. When teachers and school administration lose control over the student’s behavior, such behavior extends to higher levels. This results into increased incidences of teacher and adult bullying, acts that potential harm to the bully, the teacher and other students collectively. The abuse of the teachers, school drivers, other support staff and even security personnel demonstrates the highest level of this vice in the school and is attributed to the lack of control and effective measures by the administration (Smith & Olafsson, 2002). Bullying of adults may vary considerable and may lack evidence of physical torment but is characterized by intense and provocative sarcasm, to voluntary ignorance of laws, directives and instruction from those in authority. Teacher bullying is influenced by a number of factors, chief among them being the failure of the institution to demonstrate control of the students and reduce the prevalence of bullying. The bullying themselves may develop the feeling of being in control and begin extend their acts to teachers and other members of the administration. In doing this, the perpetrators use approaches like mocking, use of sarcasm and derogative statements and irritating imitations in class (Smith & Olafsson, 2002). Loss of effectiveness in the instructional methods in class affects the general performance of the students and results into loss of parents’ confidence in the school administration. Such a school faces the risk of closer as the parents whose students are subjected to torture and torment may withdraw their students. The teachers faced with this vice may also choose to seek transfers or resign all together thus affecting the overall success of the school (King & Davis, 2004). However, a number of researchers have attributed the high level of bullying acts within the schools to the direct actions of teachers, tutors and coaches. As a teacher or coach assigned the responsibility of caring and training a student, approaches adopted must seek to maintain the integrity and respect of the student. However, this rarely occurs as teachers humiliate the students in front of the others. This provides a breeding ground for the bullies to mock and laugh at their colleagues thus affecting negatively on their personal confidence and self belief. The impacts so far witnessed from this vice are thus related to poor instructional methods adopted by teachers in different areas of study and at varying levels of training (Smith & Olafsson, R2002). Ethical considerations on school bullying and is impacts Apart from the direct impacts of bullying on the school’s performance, bullying has other impacts on the management of a school and these impacts ranges from financial to operational. In the recent past, schools have been held accountable for their inaction and inability to control the action of their students. Bullying has varying impacts on students especially the victims and in extreme cases, parents have instituted legal actions against schools. School districts have overall supervisory role on the behaviors of all the students under their jurisdiction thus ensuring the protection of the students (Smokowski and Kopasz, 2005). One of the most recent cases of student bullying that ended in the courts involved the administration of the Duval county school and the parents of a student Beverly Cox. In this case, the student was bullied and physically harmed by a known bully in the school, an event that the school had prior information about it. The school was fined $100,000 for negligence and asked to account for all the medical bills of the girl that was harmed by the acts of aggression by the bully. Such legal actions against the school lower the general public perception of the school resulting into decreased overall intake and admission. In this case, the victim witnessed widespread aggression from a 12-year-old known bully resulting into injuries that were corrected through multiple surgeries. This affected the public confidence on the school and the general safety level within the school was questioned and attributed to the schools failure to address student’s behavior (Smith & Olafsson, 2002). As part of the state efforts to curb the growing cases of bullying and aggression towards students, the Florida state government formulated the Florida code of conducted that outlined a number of measures against bullying. Within this code, bullying and harassment of fellow students within an institutional set up was prohibited. The code outlines some of the responsibilities of the school districts in mitigating this vice and working towards ensuring the safety of students within the school compound (Kanetsuna and Smith, 2002). This code outlined some of the most important roles to be played by the teachers in ensuring that such vices are controlled within the schools and to play their roles diligently. As the custodian of the class environment, every teacher must ensure that he/she controls the class environment and eliminate any form of disruption and misbehavior. In the event of severe disruptions beyond the control of the class teacher, this code requires the intervention of the school administration in disciplining the student and eliminating any acts of aggression (Vreeman and Carroll, 2007). The United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world with a large number of different racial groupings and classes. Bullying has been associated with diversity especially from a racial and class perspective that makes the inferior class or race more susceptible to victimization. The prevalence of bullying in ethnically diverse schools has resulted into acts of aggression and retaliation by threatened races, which have caused significant harm to the aggressors and the victims. The schools are never spared from such racial wars as they fabric as a society that embraces diversity is tone apart. The failure of the institutions to address the growing ethnic and racial profiling and aggressive behaviors contribute to the emergence of racial blocks within schools as found within our prisons. Such groups develop aggressive tendencies towards each other and engage in violent activities to assert their authorities. As all these unfold, the authority of the school is question resulting into loss in public confidence and trust (Kanetsuna & Smith, 2002). Conclusion Bullying is considered as one of the worst barbaric and cowardice acts committed by students on their colleagues intentionally thus causing considerable harm. The effects of bullying are widespread affecting the aggressor, the victim, the witness and the school in equal measure. The school, as the custodian of the authority over the overall student’s behavior has a number of responsibilities in ensuring safety over the students. However, widespread bullying erodes their authority and impacts significantly on the success of a learning institution. References Lohaus, A., Elben, C., Ball, J. & McClellan, W. (2002). Increasing self esteem and school connectedness through multidimensional mentoring program. Journal of school health, 72, 294-299. King, K. & Davis, B. (2004). Social transition from elementary to secondary school: Changes in psychological adjustments. Educational psychology 24(2), 161-173. Smith, P. & Olafsson, R. (2002). Definition of bullying: A comparison of terms used, and age and gender differences, in a fourteen country international comparison. Child development 73(4), 1119-1133. Ainer, D. and Perry, L. (2003). Peer harassment, school connectedness and academic achievement. Journal of School Health 73(8), 311-316. Smokowski, R. and Kopasz, H. (2005). Bullying in School: An Overview of Types, Effects, Family Characteristics, and Intervention Strategies. Children & Schools 27(2), 101-110. Vreeman, C. and Carroll, E. (2007). A systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent bullying. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. 161 (1), 78-88. Andreou, E. (2001). Bully/victim problems and their association with coping behavior in conflictual peer interactions among school-age children. Educational Psychology, 21:59-66. Ball, A., Arseneault, L., Taylor, A., Maughan, B., Caspi, A., and Moffitt, E. (2008). Genetic and environmental influences on victims, bullies and bully-victims in childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49:104-112. Fekkes, M., Pijpers, M. and Verloove-Vanhorick, P. (2005). Bullying: Who does what, when and where? Involvement of children, teachers and parents in bullying behavior. Health Education Research: Theory and Practice, 20: 81-91. Kanetsuna, T. and Smith, K. (2002). 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