Being Mean Is Foreseen
“864,950 people attempt suicide yearly, meaning at least 1 person pursuits suicide every 38 seconds” (“Suicide” 6). Suicide is a permanent ramification, a result of someone suffering from anxiety and/or depression. In fact, out of the aforementioned people, most are students, attending a middle school, high school, or college. Consequently, one can only assume that the atmospheres presented in schools are often deemed as being highly unstable for proper education.
Bullying, on the other hand, is any form of impertinent attention that is often portrayed aggressively. When is an action considered bullying? The answer is straightforward-when one claims/shows to either have been harassed, or intimidated. Another key point is that bullying is claimed by adults as an inherent component in a student’s life, something a child must deal with at a young age, preparing them for conquering the world in the future. While there may be mixed views on that statement, surely when a child commits suicide because of bullying, the harassment has exceeded a limit. The events that occur on a playground field will not last forever, but its effects might.
Whether a student continues to allow someone else to bully him or not, the impressions of the bullying will be influential in their future. Regardless, bullying is one of the first basic human rights violations that children face, and unfortunately is on the rise. The students who face intimidation sometimes deviate from being able to achieve their full potential and are oftentimes struggling with distinguishing themselves as individuals. Regardless of laws that ban bullying, a crucial quandary that prevents children from succeeding in academia, harassment generally continues to be taken as a frivolous topic among schools, teachers, and parents. Under those circumstances, the anti-bullying strategies utilized in schools are not beneficial, and more stringent rules should be implemented because of the stereotypical labels set by schools, inciting children to tease one another, as well as a lack of proper education for both students and staff.
Before one can begin to comprehend the ignorance of schools when a child gets bullied, one must understand that Montana-the last state to ban bullying-did not pass a law banning bullying until 2015. Unfortunately, much convincing and effort went into assuring the state into passing the rule. Clearly, statistics like, “one in 5 in high school and one-fourth of elementary students said they had been victims” (Blume 1) was not cogent enough. If an entire state took an exceedingly long time to initiate anti-bullying strategies in their classrooms, what about schools? When will schools commence the inception of systems that create an environment of friendliness? Some schools tend to enforce rigid restrictions and encourage students to partake in kindness groups; surprisingly though, many school administrators are claiming to be ignorant to their students being bullied in many occasions. An article that specifically focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children being harassed mentions that, “Professionals in almost all of the EU Member States surveyed said they had no training about LGBT issues as part of their standard specialized professional education” (Knight). Teachers-often a trustworthy figure in a child’s life-should be aware of when a student is in desperate need of guidance or even hope for a brighter future compared to their bleak past.
In spite of their possible experience in dealing with children for educational purposes, if a teacher cannot not balance a child’s emotional needs, can she even consider herself a teacher? Schools are obviously not doing enough to support their students’ well-being. Additionally, teachers in these schools generally hear foul language in their schools pertaining to LGBT, and often ignore these conversations among students, unaware of the fact that some children are do, in fact, deal with these topics (Knight). Oftentimes, a person who is adequately educated in a field should be able to acknowledge it when the subject comes up. Despite that training for whatever subject they are planning to teach is required, awareness on bullying and noticing signs of a struggle should be second-nature to teachers and administrators alike. Unfortunately, it is not. Conversely, some teachers claim that they were never informed their job necessaries even though they were hired for that particular reason: “As for efforts to curb bullying, at one campus, the person in charge of handling bullying complaints was [apparently] ‘not aware that she was appointed for this role’.
..” (Blume 1). How is one not aware of the job specifications before they apply? Obviously, schools are not doing enough to prevent bullying and their strategies already set in place are not beneficial either. As shown above, bullying is any form of impertinent attention that is often portrayed in a belligerent manner; regardless of laws that ban bullying a crucial quandary that prevents children from succeeding in academia, `anti-bullying systems used in schools are negligent to the harsh realities students face amongst themselves.
Teachers need to be better educated on these topics so that they can better be prepared for the future of their students. With the help and constant guidance of a teacher, many students will be affected and will become citizens fit to inhabit Earth. As Henry Adams once said in a succinct yet empowering few words, “A teacher affects eternity; he will never know where his influence stops.”
