Responses to Bullying Crisis

Responses to Bullying Crisis

Problem Statement

Bullying is considered to be the major issue which is being faced by the school systems these days. In the era of 1997 and 1998, United States has experienced various school shootings which resulted in almost 45 deaths. Therefore, the most frequent action which the government could take was the revenge of these bullying. Therefore, the government of United States has developed different policies for the purpose of providing the safety and security to the federal states and local states. Different bullying laws have been presented by more than 16 states for the purpose of anti-bullying (Anderson, 2009).

Bullying is the behavior which is unprovoked, aggressive and repeated. The act of bullying can be either psychological or physical and the different exclusions, verbal harassment and gestures can be included in bullying. There can be adverse long-term effects on both the bully and the victim. According to the studies, on a daily basis, almost 16,000 students get absent from their schools because of the fear of bullying. Also, 7% of the students of 8 grade stay home once in a week because they are afraid that they will be bullied by anyone. However, according to Railsback, these studies are not the appropriate estimates of bullying rather they are the underestimations of bullying which is actually occurring these days (Goldstein, 2008). According to the sources from the United States Departments of Education and Justice, bullying is considered to be the most out of control and unreported problem which is being faced by the schools of United States. Although a variety of different intervention strategies have been proposed to address bullying problems in schools, little research has been conducted to determine what strategies children would like educators to implement when bullying occurs (Veenstra, 2007). Student-to-student bullying is one form of school violence that has garnered considerable attention recently. Although bullying was once looked upon as "... just another childhood rite of passage", educators now recognize the detrimental effects bullying has on the bully, the victim, the bystanders, and the overall culture of a school system (Christopher, 2007).

Since 1997, the government of United States has passed different policies for the purpose of prohibiting the bullying practices, and has assured that the parents and the children have full information about these bullying policies. The bullying problem has also been addressed by the Federal government through the act of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Though this act, the funding has been provided by the U.S. Department of Education for the purpose of increase research about the school violence and all schools were required to present the report about the school safety issues. Different schools have also initiated the bullying prevention programs for the purpose of increasing the awareness among students about the negative effects of bullying. Up to date, different researchers have presented their contributions on the topic of bullying in schools (Ryan, 2009). This study provides an overview on the effects of bullying on the school students and the ...