Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my view on school bullying.
Bullying in schools is becoming more and more serious nowadays, and the problem is worth our concern. When we think of school bullying, images of playground confrontations spring to our mind. For example, kids being pushed around at recess, having their hair pulled in the hallway, or being teased on the school bus and so on. These scenes are often treated as just ‘kids playing with one another’, and without long-term consequences. However, this is not just a casual part of life. Research shows that the effects of bullying can persist even in adulthood, affecting both the victims and the bullies for the rest of their lives.
In both the short term and long term , bullying can cause bad effects or even threats to the victims’ health, psychology and emotion. In the short term, the victims may experience unhappiness, embarrassment, fear and shame. These negative feelings may put them in unstable emotions and cause them to be more withdrawn. Health problems will obviously appear in case of physical bullying. In the long term, psychologically and emotionally, the victims may suffer depression, anxiety, shame and low self-esteem. These victims will be more likely to engage in self-destruction behaviors, and problems with family life and relationships will probably arise.
There are also long-term effects for the bullies. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of USA has found that bullying is not an isolated event. Most often, youths who involve in bullying behaviour are also engaging in other unacceptable and dangerous behaviors in future such as getting into frequent fights, carrying a weapon, drinking alcohol, committing crimes, etc.
Bullying is terribly harmful to both the bullies and the victims. Therefore, all parents, schools and students are responsible to solve the problem.
Parents play an important role in preventing the trouble. Bullies are often found in unloving homes. In fact, most bullies are unhappy kids with low self-esteem. They bully others to feel strong and powerful. The lack of proper family love and care is the real source of bullying. Therefore, if parents can provide proper care and love to their children, bullying can mostly be prevented. For the victims’ parents, if they can care about, listen more to their children’s difficulties, and contact the school whenever necessary in time, most bullying cases can be stopped.
School principals and teachers are also vital in preventing bullying. They could pay more attention to the issue by teaching their students to respect others. This would certainly decrease the number of bullies.
Nevertheless, victims themselves are the key to solve the problem. They should stand up and fight back if they are offended. If a bully knows that his target has no fear and is not the kind to be messed with, he will leave. Therefore, to deal with bullies in school, the best way is to show our courage. Always try to stay with the crowd to protect ourselves, shout ‘help!’ in the loudest voice to attract attention and frighten the bullies away. We have to go to teachers, principals, parents or even the police immediately to seek protection in case of bullying. Remember, it is never a fault to become a victim of bullying as everyone may become the target. Of course, the most direct way to stop the problem is not becoming a bully!
I hope our city is a peaceful one, free from bullying.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong