Should There Be a Law Against Bullying?
Studies show that every seven minutes some one is bullied( NICHD,2001). Bullying has been around for along time but in the last decade it has been the worst it has ever been. Bullying has gotten so bad that states are considering laws against it. Many people think that it should not be a law because they think the child’s parents should deal with it but teens do not listen to parents and do not take it as a big deal. Bullying can lead to suicide, revenge, and can effect teens education. Teen suicide in teens is on the rise Four thousand -two hundred twelve people ages fifteen to twenty four committed suicide in 2005(CDC, 2006).
One of the reasons for teen suicide is bullying Nineteen days four teens committed suicide from being bullied(Cloud, 2010). Suicide caused by bullying usually happens when the victim is tired of being bullied or because they feel they don’t need to live anymore. Instead of teens committing suicide or let the bullying continue some go to revenge. When someone is bullied to the point that they can not take it anymore they can act with revenge. Bullying, cyberbullying, and qualitative results about self-reported reasons for cyberbullying, the role of revenge(Konig, Gollwitzer, Steffgen, 2010). When revenge is consider they usually plan to do to the bully the same or worse then what happened to them.
“Other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them” causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools”(NICHD,2001). Revenge is not the best way to handle the issue especially when it gets out of hand. Teenagers say “revenge is the strongest motivation for school shootings” (NICHD,2001). Bullying is widespread in American schools (NICHD,2001) and is effecting education for many students. 8% of students miss 1 day of class per month for fear of bullies (NICHD,2001) and students are also skipping school to escape being bullied.
When bullying effects a students education in a negative way something needs to be done. Should there be a law against bullying? It can cause someone to commit suicide, get revenge, and can effect a student’s education are all solid reasons for bullying to be against the law. In present time we have a lot more technology which means we have more ways to bully, like on the computer and on cell phones. So parents even if you think your child isn’t bullying you should monitor their cell phones and computers history. If you find anything you may think is bullying you should talk with your teen and stop them from doing it. If we make bullying against the law and encourage teens to tell an adult about being bullied we may be able to help solve some of bullying being done.
