The United States education system is facing criticism for the issue of bullying in schools. The school system is working hard to improve the level of education our students are receiving, but is not making strides to improve the school’s environment outside of the classroom. In recent years legislation has been passed and measures have been taken to stop bullying within schools. However, even with laws in place this is a reality that many kids in our school systems still face. The other problem is that many people today still disregard the fact that bullying is a serious issue. This is a significant problem, and therefore we need to take further measures to prevent it.
The sad fact is that most authority figures such as teachers, parents or any type of adult will disregard the issue completely. They will tell you that bullying is part of growing up or not a big problem. Too often, people just don’t take the issue seriously, until people share their heartbreaking and frightening stories. It ends up happening more often than most people are led to believe. However, as reports of bullying have increased, the issue has come to the foremost attention of the American public. In fact within the last 10 years reports of bullying within schools have increased. It is shown that since 2001 15-25% of students report being frequently bullied, while 15-20% of students also report frequently bullying other. (1)
The concern as I see it is that legislation has been passed to try and halt the issue of bullying within schools. However, bullying is still happening. In the last couple years, measures have been taken within the Colorado government to support anti-bullying. In fact, in February of this year a new anti-bullying law has been introduced in legislation that proposes solutions such as creating a legislative study committee on the issue and requiring schools to conduct annual surveys about student perceptions of the problem.(5) Also, the government is taking measures such as Safe2Tell that allows students to safely and anonymously keep lines of communication open between themselves, educators and law enforcement. Since 2003, Safe2Tell has helped prevent school attacks and suicides and has helped law enforcement and schools intervene before problems got out of control. (3) It has helped prevent 858 cases of bullying, 561 instances of drug or alcohol abuse, 387 threats of violence and many more issues. (4) So why then is bullying still a problem after measures have been enforced to prevent it?
The issue of bullying in school keeps surfacing because there are flaws in the education system. The current education system focuses on the learning aspect of the student’s education in. Therefore, it becomes about the quality and quantity of material taught in the classroom that matters most the teachers and administrators. Instead, they should be also focusing on the students environment outside of the classroom and what you can do to improve it. As sophomore at East high school put it in the Denver post article Bullies still lurking in school halls “It’s mostly in the hallways,” Kyambalesa said. “Teachers probably don’t see it.”(2) This is caused by the fact that many adults perceive bullying as a non-issue and therefore do nothing to stop it. Another flaw in the education system is schools don’t have any disciplinary actions in place for bullying. This is the case because many teachers and administrators discredit bullying as a real problem. However, as Del Elliot who is the director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado summarized the situation perfectly in the Denver post article Bullies still lurking in school halls when he said “Bullying is still a significant problem in Colorado schools and schools nationally,”(2) The last flaw in the education system is that there are no program or plans in place to stop the issue before it happens. To prevent the issue from continuing, programs or plans need to be implemented that educates the teachers or administrators, students and parents on the issue of bullying.
The school board needs then to take the first step toward preventing bullying by creating programs for everyone to be involved with. The first program that they can create to stop bullying within schools is after school programs. The school could create programs such as a study hall, which can provide kids a safe place to come to before school and after school so they can get off the streets and out of trouble and stay invested in their education instead. The school can also encourage the kids who bully to join sports such as, soccer or lacrosse, which can help them focus their pent up energy and turn it into something positive. In turn schools could create different clubs for the students to join as a way to get to know and interact with their fellow peers. Lastly schools could incorporate bullying talks into health or other required classes.
After setting up the after school programs for the kids, the school board need to continue with their mission of preventing bullying within schools by designing an education program for parents. They could develop activities that would help involve parents more in the fight to prevent bullying. Some activities that the school could develop are workshop for parents at beginning of the school year. In this workshop the parents can learn the signs of bullying and how to deal with it if their child is a victim. Also they can conduct one on one meeting during back to school night to talk about issue and concerns with the parents. Lastly they can create weekly meetings that get together to share stories and concerns with the school.
The last group the school board needs to target to continue their mission is the teachers and administrators. They need to show the teachers how stop an instance of bullying. They can also conduct seminars in prevention and action. The administrators are the authority at the school and therefore can help control the actions of everyone around them. For the administrators they need to be shown that they can stop bullying by controlling school policies. If we show the teachers, administrators, parents and students what can be done to stop bullying, then maybe one day it won’t be an issue of concern.
In the end the United States Education system is still facing criticism for the issue of bullying. Bullying is still an issue and therefore we need to take further measure to prevent it. The school board has flaws in the education system that need to be fixed. To fix those flaws the school board needs to create plans of actions such as after school programs, education for parents and seminars for teachers or administrators. If these plans are implemented then they are making a step in the right direction toward preventing bullying.
Sources
1) "Effects of Bullying." stopbullyingnow.hrsa,gov. Stop Bullying Now, n.d. Web. Feb 28 2011. http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/effects-of-bullying.aspx
2) O'Connor, Colleen. "Bullies still lurking in school halls." www.denverpost.com. The Denver Post, 04/19/2009. Web. 21 Feb 2011. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12174189
3) "Attorney General thanks governor for issuing a in honor of safe to tell." colorado attorney genral.gov. Colorado Department of Law, 02/18/2011. Web. 2 18 2011. http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/press/news/2011/02/18/attorney_general_thanks_governor_issuing_proclamation_honor_safe2tell
4) Glazier, Kyle. "2,800 kids felt "Safe2Tell" over six year period." Denver Post (2010): n. pag. Web. 1 March 2011. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_16369716?obref=obinsite
5) Engdhal, Todd. "Bullying bill packed with mandates." Education News Colorado (2010): n. pag. Web. 23 Feb 2011. http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2011/02/10/13532-bullying-bill-packed-with-mandate
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