School bullying: Where the root lies

Students across America, due to social harassment and bullying, are experiencing rising numbers of dangerous situations and violence in school. Though some may argue that this is a result of poor parenting and an unstable home life. School bullying and being socially outcast are more directly involved in causing school violence. It is in fact, the harassment students experience in school that causes most of the violent outbursts.


According to infoplease.com, around fifty major school shootings have occurred in the United States alone in the past sixteen years. As the numbers rise each year, one begins to wonder why. Teenviolencestatistics.com say about one-third of students age twelve and up are the victims of school bullying, which is significant to say the least. With millions of students already facing bullying at school, it is no mystery that the numbers continue to slowly increase. Not to mention, dosomething.org states that seventy-seven percent of students are bullied mentally, verbally, or physically. With such a high percentage of bullying in school, it is unfair to claim poor parenting as the main cause of violence in students.

Bullying is nearly impossible to stop, and only action can provide justice. Standing by and letting bullying or harassment take place, is nearly as bad as being the bully or trouble starter. At kidpower.org it states that eighty-three percent of bullying incidents receive no intervention and continue to happen. It has been inferred that only about half of the educators around the nation have received training on how to handle bullying situations. If a real solution is to be found, requiring bullying contraception course for teaching degrees could be a good start. According to bullying.org founder, Bill Belsey, not teaching educators how to handle bullying is like not training physicians to deal with the flu. A study published by the National School Board Administration reports that only thirty-three percent of the middle and high school students surveyed agree or strongly agree that teachers can stop bullying. This means two-thirds of students are not confident that they can get the help they need from teachers, which could change if teachers were more skilled in this area. Until said courses are developed and required, teachers simply being noticeably more involved and proactive against bullying could instill more trust within students. Not only are teachers responsible to help the bullied, but also fellow students. Students that stand against bullying and harassment in school can develop clubs to raise awareness against bullying and help prevent it within their schools.

Bullying in a school setting should never be acceptable. Most violence is a direct result of school bullying, so why not try and decline these numbers? Why let the trend continue to grow? It is up to students, teachers, as well as other educators across the nation, to stand against bullying. Simply requiring contraceptive bullying classes to obtain teaching degrees, and fellow students establishing anti-bullying clubs could produce major strides toward the decline of school violence numbers in America. It is no longer a question of whether or not poor parenting is the main cause of school violence, but simply a question of; will one decide to be a part of the problem, or part of the solution?

                                                                                                            - Austin