Bullying Should Be Abolished - Research Paper Example

Bullying Should be Abolished Bullying is an act that has for decades being a controversy among scholars, policy makers, and governments as well. However, there is no common agreement on the factors behind the vice. This has consequently led to lack of common penalty to individuals or groups found guilty of the offence. Bullying entails acts of harassment, teasing, violence, verbal abuse, text message abuse, and online fraud imposed on an individual because he is weaker or different. Bullying takes many forms in society today. One form of bullying is physical assault, which includes any act ranging from beating, slapping, or hitting with objects and causing physical injuries. A second form of bullying is the verbal assault, which includes calling names or insulting an individual or worse still spreading rumors about the person (Rigby 225). In other cases, some bullies use text messages to intimidate an individual. Other bullies use the internet and intimidate others by posting nasty comments to an individual’s profile on a social network. Other bullies post pictures that seek to intimidate or raise issues on one’s reputation. Bullying may also be sexual in cases where the bully sends sexual photos, calls you names that touch on sexuality or physically harasses one sexually without their consent. Bullying can take place in school, neighborhood, workplace, and among peers. Other bullies find their prey on the internet and in cyber. Often victims face bullying because of their race, body shape, family, sexuality, and integrity. Bullying is a detestable act in society, and the institutions should abolish it and the government should establish an anti-bully policy. Bullying has devastating effects on the wellbeing of individuals and denies the victims opportunities of living freely. Bullies cause immeasurable intimidation on their victim affecting their self-esteem. According to scholars, the practice is common in high schools. Further, researchers believe that from the understanding of human development, humans build self-esteem during their teen age. High school students are in this age bracket and therefore their self-esteem is greatly affected. These students feel inferior to their fellow students and show signs of loss of self worth (William 2). Individuals, who experience a low self-esteem in their teen age, usually have difficulties in self-actualization later in their lives. They lack faith in themselves and unless they can rise above these challenges, they do not achieve their goals in life. From Rigby’s publication, it is also clear that victims of bullying have a higher likelihood of developing psychiatric disorders (227). This happens later in their lives if they face bullying at the tender age of eight years. It is unfair to deny an individual an opportunity to develop a high self-esteem and affect the rest of their lives. Children who are bullies show signs of depression and this indicates that bullying affects both the victim and the bully. Victims of bullying undergo extreme trauma. They feel empty and nobody comes to their rescue; they lose the reason for living and take their lives. This is usually so tragic to the family of such teenagers. Moreover, these teenagers die at a tender age and never live to see their dreams come true and this is a great loss to society in terms of potential. Families of the victims have a hard time accepting the death of their beloved children according to Colson in his article titled `Mother claims bullying led to daughter’s suicide’. Friends of the victims experience great loss too and tend to live in fear of the same happening to them. The main cause of reported suicide is usually because of feeling worthless and this ascertains to the fact that bullying can lead to suicide. Bullies can also consider suicide on realization that a victim committed suicide. This is because of guilt and even those not taking this option experience depression because of guilt. Bullying affects children negatively and reports indicate that all children involved; both the target and the attackers develop a negative attitude about school. Some of them result to absenteeism skipping school for several days. Even when they still go to school, their concentration is greatly affected they have constantly falling grades. Children lose focus in education and this affects their future careers. They get demoralized and falling grades affect parents as well as it raises a cause of alarm about the welfare of their children. This can also be devastating for students who had records of good performance before exposure to bullying. Bullying causes some teenagers to live in fear. They are afraid that society will always view them as lesser beings. In other cases, students exposed to frequent bullying never experience a sense of security as their attackers might hit on them any time. This state may advance and some children may suffer the social anxiety disorder. Individuals with this syndrome have great phobia for society and tend to isolate themselves. Isolation denies one the opportunity to enjoy the satisfaction of the natural social need in humans. In other cases, bullying alters the normal character development and teens exposed to any form of harassment usually develop a change in the way they react to issues. As Phillip reports in her article entitled `Effects of bullying worse for teens’, such children tend to be more violent or aggressive when provoked while others choose to remain withdrawn but with increased sensitivity. There were differences in the reaction of boys and girls and some of those who shared their problem with a reliable person showed less effects. However, the practice denied the teenagers an opportunity of developing their preferred traits without negative reinforces from their surrounding. When a teenager gets exposure to sexual bullying, it greatly affects the opinion of teenagers concerning sexuality. Girls who have suffered sexual bullying tend to have more insecurity later in life when they get into relationships. Bullying in this manner makes them perceive that the male gender only intends to take advantage of them. In other cases, when bullying involves posting sexual photos on the websites of the victims, the victim’s reputation is at great risk. Every individual seeks to have a good reputation among peers and in society. Loss of a good reputation concerning matters of sexuality also affects the success of relationships of such teenagers. Sometimes girls usually feel inferior to their counterparts when boys tease them and some grow up with this negative attitude. In other cases of sexual bullying, as Morrow explains in his article on the Nemours foundation website on sexual harassment and bulling, minors get exposure to sexual material they should not view and this is violation of children rights. Grown ups sometimes violate children rights in this manner and should face charges as this harassment can eventually lead to rape. Instances of sexual bullying may also occur in work places whereby some individuals engage in touching and speech that causes discomfort in others. Bullied individuals may have serious injuries. Sometimes children undergo serious beating by a group of bullies and suffer injuries. Physical injuries assumed minor might have serious effects on the life of an individual. Physical bullying is no limited to children and teenagers but can also occur in workplaces and a victim may face assault resulting to death as Pollick reports in his article, ‘What is physical bullying?’ Bullying can have devastating effects in the workplace because some employees do not enjoy a safe working environment. They live with intense fear and are not able to put into practice all their skills for fear of being intimidated. Other individuals leave jobs because they cannot bear with sexual bullying especially when it comes from their seniors. Bullying of this nature involves abuse of power. Victims are unable to defend themselves and they choose to suffer silently. Some employees file false charges against others leading to their suspension from work. In other cases, the corporate may enlist inexhaustible responsibilities on individuals and pose threats when such tasks are not completed. Workplace bullying reduces productivity of an organization because employees cannot function efficiently under stress. The organization should ensure a safe, secure, and conducive environment for its employees. According to Williams in his article, ‘The Silent Epidemic: Workplace Bullying’, the practice is common in North Africa and this dismisses claims that the practice no longer exists. In his article, William makes it clear that a study shows that many employees faced verbal abuse, intimidation, and humiliation. Such behavior retards some employees and the organization faces decreased productivity. The employees work under unnecessary pressure and this has negative effects on their health as it increases their susceptibility to developing non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure and heart complications. Medical research shows that stress contributes to the development of these diseases. It is unfortunate that most of the bullies are children and teenagers who do not realize that they are violating the basic human rights of others and that they could face serious law charges. Ignorance however is not an excuse for crime and some of the bullies could face imprisonment at tender age if there is evidence of bullying. Such imprisonment would waste their lives. Bullies should therefore realize that they are putting their lives at stake (Rigby 270). Bullying disrupts the wellbeing of others leading to loss of life, physical injury, humiliation, intimidation; stress and depression, phobia and sexual bullying may lead to emergence of rape cases. It also affects performance of students in school. Workplace bullying humiliates employees and reduces the productivity of an organization (Phillips and Diego 3). No matter the form of bullying, it violates the basic human rights of an individual and that calls for action of the law. Each government should come up with laws governing bullying. The law should be elaborate and address all forms of bullying. Institutions setting up anti- bullying policies should use this law. Parents and teachers must interpret the law to pupils and students so that they are aware of the consequences of bullying. Even children must learn to respect the law at a tender age. Parents and teachers should also take the responsibility of encouraging the young people to report any cases of bullying and end the silence. Organizations that practice bullying of employees should face investigations and charges for violating basic human rights. Unless the legislation does something about bullying, it is going to cause more of all the above-elaborated effects in society and it therefore time for the legislation to act against bullying. Work cited Colson, Cassandra and Chronicle, County. Mother Claims Bullying Caused Daughter’s Suicide. Retrieved on November 24, 2011 from http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/mother-claims-bullying-led-to-daughter-s-suicide/article_bd02a292-1658-11e1-9560-001cc4c002e0.html Phillips, Hellen and Diego San. Effects of bullying worse for teens. Web 24 Nov. 2011. Pollick, Michael. What is Physical Bullying? Web 24 Nov. 2011. Rigby, Ken. New perspectives on bullying. New Jersey: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2002. Print. William, Ray. The Silent Epidemic: Workplace Bullying. Web 24 Nov. 2011. Read More