Bay Area Students Talk About Bullying In Schools

Bullying is when a person physically or emotionally hurts another person by fights, threats or comments that may be offensive to them. It causes and effects lots of children and teens while in school. A newer form of bullying is called cyber bullying where others are harassed through public and private messages and posts for their classmates to see on social media. Bullies would tease many students on their race, appearance, gender, and their personality. Bullies may also post fake and/or private messages or reveal secrets that would be embarrassing for them to see.

Bullying should be a huge concern to schools, parents, and the community because children and teens who are harassed are more likely to feel afraid of talking to their friends and classmates. There are more children that own mobile devices, and this makes it more likely to post rude and mean comments to others on social media. According to HealthAim.com, a 16-year-old Polish girl named Dagmara had committed suicide, while attending a school in the United Kingdom, because she had seen racist comments from her peers/classmates, and everyone was talking about her. This situation is important because many students have passions and goals for their future. Bullying would distract them from having their school work completed and would more have anxiety or possibly lead to suicide and depression towards other people. Bullies post offensive messages and images to students on social media that causes them to be worried about what others view them.

Questions:

1. Have you ever experienced a time where you or someone bullied by someone else? If so, Did you do something about it? And what?
2. What should the victim do if he or she was bullied by a post on social media?
3. Why do you believe that bullies want to be hateful to others?
4.  What actions should schools do in order to stop bullying for students?
5. If you were a bystander, what would you do to prevent a student from being hurt by a bully?
6. Since bullying continues for many schools and cyber bullying also contributes to this issue, do you believe that we can stop bullying for all students?