Bullying

English 102
July 24, 2013
Bullying
The main factor for teen suicide

Have you ever been personally injured by another person? Or maybe not having your head forced into a toilet, but verbally offended? The matter of bullying can be quite serious when it comes to this day in time. The effects bullying can have on its victims is something that may last throughout their lives, or something that may end their life. In this research paper I am going to explore the main factor that contributes to teen suicide and figure out ways to prevent it.
Primarily I’m going to explain what exactly is bullying and what ways of bullying a person there are. Bullying is an undesirable, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived supremacy inequality. The behavior is frequent meaning repeated over time. Bullying consist of actions like making threats, scattering rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and rejecting someone from a group on purpose.
There are 3 main types of bullying that are physical, verbal and emotional bullying. Physical bullying involves the use of physical force and is most predominant in academic institutions. This type of bullying involves the spiting, pushing, kicking or even beating. In most instances, the aggressor is physically larger than the victim or may be inside a group. The idea behind physical bullying is for the bully to establish dominance and constant control over a victim.
Verbal bullying includes the use of words to carry out an action of bullying. In this type of bullying, the bully tries to verbally upset the victim through provoking and teasing. The verbal assault might center on a person’s appearance, intellect, skin color and even background. Most verbal bullies have a low self-esteem and have a habit of bullying others so as to increase their social reputation and feel better about themselves.
Emotional bullying is the act of an aggressor attacking a person on an emotional approach. Emotional bullying is most common in relationships where, one partner might make statements or act in such a way to bring out suffering to the other partner. This type of bullying may involve the spreading of rumors, rejecting a person from certain activities, denying talking to someone and even making claims with an intention of hurting a person’s feelings.
Furthermore, there are other types of bullying that focus on specific topics like Cyber bullying (fresh and most common these days), Parental bullying where parent may become the aggressors, Gay bullying and school bullying. Cyber bullying like I mention is a new type of bullying and has become the most popular in the modern world. This type of bullying incorporates the use of technology and is widespread on social networks; it becomes real difficult to know the identity of the bully.
In recent years, a sequence of bullying-related suicides in the US and across the world has drawn attention to the link between bullying and suicide. Suicide is the third leading reason of death between young people, consequential in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC For every suicide among young people; there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it. (Center for disease control and prevention).
Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, rendering to studies by Yale University. A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying and that 12 to 17 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide. According to statistics reported by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying.

In some cases, it may not be obvious that a teen is thinking about suicide, such as when the suicide seems to be caused on the whole bad episode of bullying. In some cases where bullying victims killed themselves, aggressors had told the teen that he or she should kill him or she or that the world would be better without them. Others who hear these types of announcements should be hurried to stop them and explain to the victim that the bully is incorrect.
Showing signs of depression, like constant sadness, withdrawal from others, losing interest in most wanted activities, or trouble sleeping or eating. Talking about or showing an importance in death or dying, appealing in dangerous or harmful activities, including irresponsible behavior, substance abuse, or self-injury and giving away favorite belongings and saying goodbye to people, all these can be signals to help us identify a person about to commit suicide.

Early this year on January there was a case of an 11 year old girl Haley Petee in London (Ohio) that committed suicide because of kids bullying her. “She would cry every day coming home from the bus stop, every day she was crying, she didn’t want to get on the bus,” Melinda her mother said. “I saw her light on, so I thought she was awake, and I opened the door, and she was just hanging on the bed, and there was nothing I could do,”
It’s so sad to see how young children can have the willpower to do such things to them, but then again it must be horrible to be in their situation. All these things can be avoided if identified with certain time, but what exactly is there to do? Demi Lovato a famous US pop singer and a role model to many young girls has opened up to public and shared her personal experience of being a victim of bullying.
Furthermore she has contributed with different campaigns to stop bullying worldwide. I know first-hand what it’s like to be called names and to be affected by things. They would call me fat; they would call me promiscuous in different words. At the time, when I was 12-years-old, that was like the end of the world. To me, bullying is one of my biggest platforms. Let’s change the world. (Demi Lovato).
Bullying has demonstrated to be a prevalent issue that affects schools across the country. While the challenges of stopping bullying have been around for centuries, advances in mobile technology and social media have taken bullying to new territories. In addition to modern methods used to avoid bullying, these modern problems demand a modern solution.

However, many parents, teachers and school administrators aren’t t taking the required steps to prevent bullying. In fact, some adults contemplate bullying as a part of growing up and something that will pass over time. But in reality, bullying can cause enduring mental and emotional harm, as well as depression and anxiety.
This is not an issue that only affects the victims. A study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shows that the bullies themselves are at greater risk of depression and anxiety, and are more probable to drop out of school or perform worse in classes than their classmates. Furthermore, schools that do not effectively prevent bullying may suffer reputational damage and risk losing the trust of their students and parents.
Being bullied is not a pleasurable experience for anyone. By learning about some of the realities surrounding bullying, hopefully you will be better prepared to handle a situation that you might be faced with. Just because you are not the victim of a bully doesn't mean that you are not involved. If you see someone else bullying or someone being bullied you now have the control to help make some positive changes.