School bullying
[2][3] Students who are LGBTQIA+, have parents of lower educational levels, are thought to be provocative, are perceived to be vulnerable, or are atypical or considered outsiders are at higher risk of being victimized by bullies.
[20][21][22] More ordinary types of student-student conflicts, which are sometimes part of everyday school life, are not associated with an imbalance of power.
[48] Indirect bullying is more subtle and harder to detect, but involves one or more forms of relational aggression, including social isolation via intentional exclusion, spreading rumors to defame the target's character or reputation, making faces or obscene gestures behind the target's back, and manipulating friendships or other relationships.
Examples include:[51] foul language or (profanity) directed at the victim; using derogatory terms or deriding the person's name; commenting negatively on someone's looks, clothes, body, etc., (personal abuse); tormenting, harassing, mocking and belittling,[52] threatening to cause harm,[53] taunting,[53] teasing,[53] and making inappropriate sexual comments.
For example, three high school students from Melville, New York, organized a Bullying Awareness Walk, where several hundred people turned out to show their support.
"[61] A BBC Panorama questionnaire aimed at English teens aged 11 to 19 found that, of the 273 respondents, 28 had been forced to do something sexual, 31 had seen it happen to someone else, and 40 had experienced unwanted touching.
[66] The misconception that bullying does not occur in higher education began to receive attention after the suicide of college student Tyler Clementi.
The political leaders in Britain inevitably came from these schools before they went to Oxford or Cambridge and two Guardian writers attribute issues with British society to these early experiences.
She described a culture, most prevalent between ages 10 and 14, where friendship become weapons and girls turn on each other causing great harm to the target.
[88] Wiseman divides adolescent cliques into types including the Queen Bee (who wields power over the clique and school), the Sidekick (number two who backs up the Queen Bee), Floaters (don't belong to one group), Torn bystanders (often too scared to intervene) and Targets (victim of bullying).
She describes "dehumanizing rituals and practices, passed on from mother to daughter" and how the "othering" bullying by females can continue into adulthood.
She defines girl-to-girl bullying as psychological warfare that uses, among other things, exclusion and relational aggression in a form of abuse intended to cause harm.
[9] In an effort to deal with the stress brought on by bullying, victims could isolate themselves, withdraw socially, or have a hard time forming relationships.
A variety of emotional problems, including sadness, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder, can result from persistent teasing and bullying.
[9] The serious effects of bullying on a person's mental health are highlighted by the fact that some victims may turn to self-harm or even consider suicide as a means of escaping the suffering.
By recognizing and addressing these traits, educators, parents, and society as a whole can work together to create a safer and more supportive environment for all individuals, reducing the prevalence and impact of bullying.
Empowering victims, fostering empathy, and implementing anti-bullying programs are steps in the right direction to combat this pervasive issue.
[94] Victims of bullying tend to be physically smaller, more sensitive, unhappy, cautious, anxious, quiet, and withdrawn.
[105][106] As a result of bullying, victims may feel depressed, anxious, angry, stressed, helpless, out of control, and may experience a significant drop in school performance, or, in rare cases, commit suicide (bullycide).
[115] According to Mental Health America, more than 10% of young people exhibit symptoms of depression strong enough to severely undermine their ability to function at school, at home, or whilst managing relationships.
[120][118] Further, unsafe learning environments create a climate of fear and insecurity and a perception that teachers do not have control or do not care about the students, which reduces the quality of education for all.
[118] The 2006 UN World Report on Violence Against Children shows that victims of corporal punishment, both at school and at home, may develop into adults who are passive and over-cautious or aggressive.
These victims also scored lower in tests designed to measure cognitive IQ and were more likely to report that they had poor health.
[123][118] Studies show that school-related gender-based violence alone can be associated with the loss of one primary grade of schooling, which translates to an annual cost of around US$17 billion to low- and middle-income countries.
[151] The media have portrayed some individuals, such as Charles Andrew Williams, Eric Hainstock, Seung-Hui Cho, Luke Woodham, Michael Carneal, Wellington Menezes Oliveira, Karl Pierson, Jose Reyes, and Todd Camren Smith, as having experienced bullying and then becoming school shooters.
[159] Measures such as instituting zero tolerance for fighting or placing troubled students in the same group or classroom are actually ineffective in reducing bullying.
[160] Success is most associated with beginning interventions at an early age, constantly evaluating programs for effectiveness, and having some students take online classes to avoid bullies at school.
[162] Based on UNESCO case studies of six countries that have succeeded in reducing school violence and bullying (Eswatini, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Republic of Korea and Uruguay) as well as two countries that have maintained low levels over time (the Netherlands and Sweden), there are a number of factors that contribute to effective national responses.
[163] Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 provides for an anti-bullying policy for all state schools to be made available to parents.
In 2008, they launched the "prevent-bully video from public project"—which included encouraging informants and monitoring the school—in the hope that it could improve education quality.
