The Need for Anti-Bullying Laws: Over the past
several years, there have been many school shootings in the United States. One
of the first cases was reported in Michigan back in the late 1970’s.
Unfortunately, this has not stopped but only gotten worse and it took the
massacre of Columbine in 1999 to wake America up to this problem and realize
that there was Something triggering this and it turned out that bullying of
peers was the root of it. Peer Abuse has been a problem for a very long time. I
ask adult’s everyday how they feel about this, were they bullied and did
it have any psychological impact on them. I hear that some were bullied once
and able to “recover” after some positive peer interaction and
really, it was just a bad experience. These are the lucky ones. I also hear
cases of adults who carry a lot of trauma from this. There are some who sit;
think and the memories flood back to them. Then, they can recall what happened
and the pain will come to surface. However, there are some who lived with this
on a daily basis for twelve years of school and suffer from clinical
depression, social anxiety and PTSD. There are some who refuse to talk about it
because there is so much pain and cannot face bringing the memories back into
awareness. This stems from mild to severe trauma and needs to be recognized as
such. In the past couple of years, many have jumped on the trying to get
“bullying” stopped in the schools by creating programs and enforcing
no tolerance rules for bullying. People are waking up to the fact that this is
a serious problem. Others have gone as far as to confront their Congressmen,
get petition drives started and getting an Anti-Bullying laws passed or in the
legislative pipeline. Currently, there are at least 13 States that have passed
laws with six getting the legislation into the pipeline. This law states that
there will be no bullying in physical, mental or sexual acts. Also, any
behavior that will keep a child from getting a formal education and touching or
mishandling of another students property will be forbidden. As some have
already passed these laws, some have trouble with these laws as they violate
the First Amendment of the Constitution here in the United States. The
Constitution that was written back over 200 years ago promised the freedom of
speech and yes, everyone has that freedom. However, what about life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness for all? The rights .......
Short Stories of
a Modern Day Villager:
1.)The 5 W’s of Peer Abuse.
2.)The Need
for Anti-Bullying Laws.
3.)Peer Abuse in Girls.
4.)Grandmother's Message.
|
|
|
Peer Abuse in Girls: The term sugar and spice and everything nice has always been used
to describe little girls. The stereotypical little girl wears ribbons, lace and
is always suppose to be submissive and pretty. However, these little rhymes
from childhood do not always qualify for what occurs in the real world. So,
does that mean that little girls can bully as well? Are girls just as capable
of this as boys are? The answer is yes to both. Girls are just as capable of
bullying their peers as boys are. The socialization in girls usually begins in
early childhood as they learn to communicate with one another when playing
together. At this stage, they have to learn what sharing means which is done
through play and parents who pick and choose their friends arrange playgroups.
However, the importance of friendship does not stem until they reach elementary
school. During middle childhood, they begin to pick and choose who their
friends are and the playgroup arranged by their parents fades away. They begin
to learn some social independence in this stage. For the most part, their
friends are in the same classroom at school, live in the same neighborhood,
attend the same church or are involved in other activities outside of school
such as Girl Scouts. Usually, they do not go beyond these areas when
socializing at this stage. However, once girls begin junior high, these same
sex friends become a vital part of their world. Their world expands as they
start attending school with other children who come from other elementary
schools. They begin to look outside of the neighborhood and the other confined
areas and will interact in groups or cliques. Plus, the social status becomes
important as they define what is popular and what is not. A lot of peer
pressure is on here and friendships begin to change rapidly. However, these
friendships take on an abstract meaning as they become closer and it goes
beyond just riding bikes or playing house. They share secrets, write notes and
spend all of their free time with their clique of friends. This continues on
through high school except they learn to bring the opposite sex into the groups
and from this, they learn what platonic relationships are. During all three
stages, the worst stage to be in is the junior high stage. This is a very
crucial stage and girls go through many changes physically and emotionally.
This is more so than the high school or middle childhood stages. Unfortunately,
with these changes comes a lot of frustration in growing up. As a result,
bullying becomes very common during this point. However, it is covert behavior
meaning that for the most part, adults in the schools or anywhere else do not
pick up on or know anything about it. The bullying in girls is very cunning and
probably causes more traumas than it would in boys. It starts within the clique
and expands to other cliques or groups. So, in order to know a girl bully, one
has to look for certain behaviors, which indicate that it is occurring. The
first thing to look for is a change within the clique. It is easy to learn
which girls are friends or are members of the same clique, as they will always
be seen together consistently. They are together in school, church or any other
function. However, if a girl has moved away from her normal clique and is not
spending time or being seen with them, chances are that some bullying has
occurred. Girls will fuss and push others out of the group. The victim is out
of the group and the group begins to make life for the victim hard. Spreading
rumors, leaving nasty notes in lockers or constant harassment of the victim is
not unusual ...................... |
