Bullying
Bullying has become a major issue in the past 5 years. This is something we hear of way too often whether it is at school, work, or even on the news. Bullying is not your typical kid who steals a student’s lunch money either; there are several cases worldwide that have ended in suicide for some. When it comes down to the severity of suicide or even physical harm that is when it’s no longer just a simple slap on the wrist, but rather a closer, deeper look into what we can start doing to change this and fast.
In There’s Only One Way to Stop a Bully, an essay written by Susan Engel and Marlene Sandstrom they speak about this issue in depth. Sandstrom and Engel speak of specific ways we as a community and faculty at schools should incorporate lessons on how to deal, recognize, and solve bullying in everyday life. The authors also speak of a new law that has been passed in order to address and stop bullying. They support this claim by providing us with examples. One example is telling us of ideas that teachers have put to the test to defeat this issue, such as a teacher enforcing a rule that students could not exclude anyone from their play and the positive impact this brought. Sandstrom and Engel also support this by telling us of a school in Norway that has put much emphasis on this issue and by doing so, have succeeded in lowering the bullying rate.
Although the authors brought valid points, there are a few key factors missing from this essay. One being that when Sandstrom and Engel introduced this new law that was passed to target bullying, they did not go into enough detail as far as the specifics of this law. What are the consequences of this law? It states that the most serious cases of bullying should be reported to law officials but at what degree do they consider bullying serious? I found myself